Top 10 reasons your health coaching website isn't getting you clients
You got a website because you wanted to feel legitimate and credible. You were hoping that having a good-looking, professional website would be one of the key pieces to getting health coaching clients. Sure, maybe not the only reason you’d be getting clients, but you were hoping it would have at least some effect in getting you clients.
Then the months passed, and maybe there was a random person here or there who actually ended up booking a discovery call (or whatever you call your intro call), but mostly your website just sat there gathering dust.
There are many reasons your health coaching website might not be getting you clients or get people who visit your site to actually book an initial call with you. Some of the most common ones I’ve seen are based on branding, messaging, and design.
So let’s dive in and dig deeper into what might be stopping you from getting clients through your website.
1. Not targeting the right audience
When you first started your health coaching business you probably did some bigger picture thinking/dreaming and envisioned where you want to be in 5 years time, why you became a health coach in the first place, and the positive impact you want to have on people’s lives.
Now it’s time to carry that purpose over to your website and business. Ask yourself who you serve and how you serve them. In order to attract clients through your website, it's important to make sure that your messaging is targeted towards the specific needs and concerns of your ideal clients*.
(*I’ll use ‘ideal clients’, ‘dream clients’, and ‘target audience’ interchangeably here).
If your website is speaking to the wrong audience, it means that the people who are visiting your site may not be interested in your specific health coaching offer or focus.
The deeper problem here is that it can lead to high bounce rates (when visitors leave your site quickly because they are not interested in what you offer, which is bad for SEO (being found on Google)), low conversion rates (when visitors do not take the next step, e.g. booking an intro call with you or joining your email list), and low engagement (when visitors do not interact with your site in meaningful ways, e.g. commenting on a blog post).
So you can see how this problem trickles down and creates other problems that will eventually impact your ability to get clients through your coaching website.
What’s the solution?
Be clear and specific. One way to fix this problem is to identify your target audience and dream client more clearly and make sure that your website is designed to appeal to them. This might involve “market research” (don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it may sound, it can just be hopping on a few calls with people you already know and would love to work with) to understand their needs, preferences, and behaviours. You can then use this information to tailor the content, design, and functionality of your site to better meet their expectations.
If you’re further along in your business and are making money, then you can also use targeted marketing and advertising campaigns to attract the right visitors to your site.
The clearer and more narrow your website focus, the easier it will be for potential health coaching clients to feel connected to you and for them to understand that you offer exactly what they need.
If someone came to visit your website right now, what would they think you do and for whom?
2. Incohesive branding
Branding plays a very important role on a website because it helps to create a consistent and trustworthy identity and personality for your business.
The opposite is also true - if your branding is inconsistent, it can make your website look unprofessional and confusing to visitors, which can lead to a lack of trust and credibility.
If your health coach branding is incohesive, it may be difficult for visitors to understand what your coaching business is all about and what you actually offer and for whom (relates to point #1 above).
A lack of cohesive branding can also make it more difficult for visitors to remember your site and differentiate it from your competitors. This can make it harder to build a loyal client base and to attract new clients through your website.
See how the moodboard (one aspect of branding) on the left translates into a cohesive website on the right.
