7 Website Mistakes Health Coaches Make Online…and How to Avoid Them

As a health coach, you realize the importance of having a website to grow your business. But to attract more clients, youʼll need more than just an online brochure.

Your site needs to do more than just tell people about you and your health coaching practice. It needs to grab the attention of your ideal client and get them interested in working with you.

You may be looking at other health coaching websites for ideas on how to create your own site. If so, be aware that most websites do not use great online marketing strategies or techniques. And therefore, you want to be careful which ones you model.

In this article, learn the 7 common website mistakes health coaches make that either chase people away or invite them to leave.

Iʼll also share the 7 things to do instead to make your site irresistible to your ideal client – so you can get more clients and more sales more often.

Mistake #1 – Website is not interactive

As I mentioned, most sites are just an online brochure. They give information about a company and service. Thatʼs boring. Instead, make your site interactive. Here are a few ways to do that.

Give visitors an irresistible free offer, such as a valuable audio on lifestyle and healthy eating, a health checklist, or sugar-busting recipes. Get their name and email address so you can follow up with them in the future. You can also offer free articles, cooking or coaching videos, or recipes.

In other words, give people a great reason to stay on your site so they can get to know you better.

Mistake #2 – Advertisement that takes people away from your site

Imagine someone comes to visit your business and as soon as they walk in the door, you say something like: “Hello and welcome! We do financial planning here. But the office across the street is offering recession proof investments. Would you like to see what they have to offer?”

If you are running Google Adsense ads on your site, then that is the message you are telling your site visitors.

Instead, you want to highlight your services and expertise, not the competitionʼs.  Promote featured articles and videos on your site that offer solutions to their biggest challenges. Show them how they can have the transformation or breakthrough they are looking for by working with you.

Mistake #3 – Not opening a new browser window when you send people to another site

When people are visiting the different pages on your website, they normally view them in the same browser window (or tab) because it allows the pages to load faster.

But when you have a link to a page away from your website – like to your 1 Shopping Cart account or a product sales letter at another domain – you want that new page to open in a new browser window.

That way when they close that window (or tab) on the new page, your website is still open and viewable to them, reminding them to stay and visit a little longer. This is just one more way to keep people on your site longer.

Mistake #4 – Websites with distracting graphics or colors

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone when a train is passing right outside the window? Itʼs a little distracting, isnʼt it? But at least with a train, you can wait for it to pass.

If you have distracting graphics or colors on your website, the only way for people to avoid it is to leave your site. I canʼt tell you how many times I left a site because their bright background was blinding me.

Keep in mind that when someone visits your website, their eye will be drawn to:

• First, anything that moves
• Second, a face
• Third, the colors red & yellow

If you have any of these elements on a page, put them in the area where you want someone to look. And remember that colors will have different intensity on different monitors, so choose colors with care.

I recommend getting opinions about your health coaching website from several ideal clients to be sure your colors and graphics are inviting visitors to stay. Choose colors that are complimentary to what you do. Blues, yellows, and greens all work really well in the topic of health care.

Also, if you are going to use moving objects, such as a video that auto-plays, donʼt put any other moving objects around it, like rotating testimonials or tweets in the sidebar.  Let it be the only moving object viewable in that area of the page.

Mistake #5 – The site doesnʼt display properly in multiple browsers

In case you didnʼt know, not all browsers display websites the same way. And even different versions can display websites slightly different.

Iʼve been to sites that state, “This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer.” That site owner just invited 80% of his site visitors to leave. (Only about 20% of the population use IE for browsing.)

You probably wonʼt want to test your site in dozens of different browser versions. But you can at least test to see how it looks in the latest version of the most popular browsers.

I like to test sites in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, including Safari on my iPhone. I test browsers in both Windows and Mac OS. Do that and youʼll cover about 90%+ of your site visitors.

Youʼll also want to test your site in major browser updates as they get released. Iʼve had sites look great in IE7 and IE8, but lost content when viewed in IE9.

Mistake #6 – Websites with bad web copy

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – and so is bad web copy.

Here is a short list of what I define as bad web copy:

Boring content –Your site needs to be informative AND interesting, or youʼre inviting visitors to leave. Keep your copy concise and valuable, and avoid fluff. Infuse your writing with your personality, opinions, and humor. It will help to attract more clients to you.

Pressure selling – As a health coach, you are in a soft sell industry. Hard pressure selling will drive clients away. So use discretion: motivational words, not hype. You donʼt have to promise the moon or yell to get their attention. Just let them know the truly transformational life they can have when working with you.

Focusing on features instead of benefits – Your ideal client doesnʼt really care that you will help them get a lab test. Thatʼs a feature. They DO care that you will help them have more energy, get in shape, and feel great about themselves. Those are benefits.  Remember to focus on the benefits of working with you.

Mistake #7 – Not conveying who you serve and what you can do

You have about 15-30 seconds to get someoneʼs attention when they visit your health coaching website. Thatʼs all. Donʼt waste your webpage headline on something mediocre like “Welcome to our Site!” or “Hereʼs our mission statement.” or “Would You Like a Healthier Lifestyle.”

Youʼll want your landing page to immediately identify who your ideal client is and the specific ways you can help them. Then once you have their attention, tell them why you are THE expert they want to work with. One of the easiest ways to do this is with a free irresistible offer that gives them exactly what theyʼve been looking for.

If you do this correctly, you wonʼt need a web page titled “Who Do We Work With”.

Summary

These are a few of the most common mistakes I see health coaches make with their website. The good news is that most of these are really easy to fix.

If I could give you just one more strategy that would really help to make your health coaching website irresistible, it would be this…

Ask 10 ideal clients to give you honest feedback on your site. Do they like the colors? Can they tell within 30 seconds what you can help them with? Did they get excited about what they read or saw on the page? You can avoid most website mistakes just with that one tip alone.