How to start a fitness website: Step-by-step guide

The fitness industry is booming, with people around the world striving for healthier lifestyles.

Starting a fitness website could be an excellent way to tap into a market that isn’t going anywhere, while sharing your passion for wellness and health. You can provide valuable information and inspire others on their fitness journeys.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll find all the advice you need on how to start your fitness website.

Do I need a fitness website?

For individuals or small businesses operating in the fitness world, a website can be an excellent tool for a range of purposes.

First things first though, it doesn’t matter how good a personal trainer, yoga instructor or running coach you are if people have no way of finding you.

According to SEMRush keyword research, 27,000 people search ‘fitness classes near me’ in the US every month – with another 6,600 searching for the same thing in the UK. Another 22,000 people in the UK search for ‘yoga classes near me’ every month, with 74,000 doing the same across the pond.

If you run a fitness class, whether as a yoga instructor or something else, it’s fairly clear that you’re missing out on clients if you don’t have a site that matches people’s online searches.

What’s more, people have turned more and more to digital fitness in a post-pandemic world. Almost 7,000 people in the US search for an ‘online personal trainer’ every month.

Whether you own a gym or fitness studio, or offer classes in someone else’s location, getting your brand online can open up many opportunities for you.

Benefits of a fitness website

We’ve touched on some benefits of having a fitness website above. The list above provides a little more information.

Grow your brand – if you were looking for a new fitness class, where’s the first place you’d look? The answer is probably ‘online’. If you’re not giving potential customers a chance to find you online then you’re only restricting your own opportunities for growth.
Increase revenue – the online world offers a huge range of revenue-generating opportunities. You may want to offer online classes to people all over the world, or you may have fitness merchandise you want to see. However you want to monetise, a website can make it easier.
Matching customer expectations – while you might be in contact with your customers regularly, you probably aren’t available 24/7. A website can be. You can answer FAQs on your website so that people have a place to turn with any queries.

Step 1: Identify your fitness niche

Before you get started with building your website, it’s important to decide your niche.

The fitness world is a broad one, including a whole range of topics, hobbies and focuses. Narrowing down what you want to cover can help you to stand out in the overall market and can help you focus your efforts towards a specific audience.

Your fitness website may focus on one of the following areas:

Strength or cardio training
Yoga and mindfulness
Nutrition and diet
Weight loss and body transformations
Home workouts

Choosing a niche will enable you to create more targeted content. It was also allow you to double down on building your expertise.

Aside from the broader topics above, you might also want to focus on a specific sport. Perhaps you’d want to create a tennis or football-focused website, for example.

You can also check out our page on how to start a sports website, if you’re thinking of starting a platform that’s less specialised in the fitness space.

Step 2: Complete market research

Market research will help you to define your target audience and find out what sort of information they are interested in.

Conduct research to identify the demographics, fitness goals, challenges and interests of your potential website visitors. Take a look at competitors they might already be visiting and work out what sorts of content work or don’t work.

The knowledge you gather at this stage will inform your content creation and marketing strategies in the short- and long-term. For more advice, you might want to check out our how to create a business plan page.

Step 3: Choose a domain name for your fitness site

You should choose a domain name that reflects your fitness niche and that is easy to remember. As much as possible, the domain name you choose should also reflect your brand.

Consider including fitness-related keywords in your domain name, but only if they’re memorable and engaging. An overly complex domain could be more off-putting than anything.

You can check with registrars like GoDaddy to see if the domain name you want is available. If it is, you can purchase it.

For more tips, you can check out our how to choose a domain name page.

Step 4: Set up hosting and a CMS

To make sure your fitness website is accessible online, you’ll need to set up reliable website hosting along with a content management system (CMS). You can compare the best hosting providers with us.

Bear in mind that if you choose to use a website builder then your hosting and CMS will be handled in one place. The best website builders often include hosting and domain name registration as standard, with your content management handled from the same dashboard.

Best fitness website builders

When you start building your fitness website, think about what sort of functions or content you need. You might want to create a fitness blog, where you focus on sharing information. This information could come in the form of text, images or video.

On the other hand, you might be creating a fitness website so that you can find new customers for your personal training services, for examples. In this case, you’ll need to be able to take bookings on your site, or at least gather contact information.

The website builders below include a range of all-rounders that can provide the range of functionality that you may need.

Brand	Plan	Cost	More info
Wix	Lite	£9/month	Full Review
Squarespace	Personal	£12/month	Full Review
GoDaddy	Basic	£6.99/month	Full Review

Step 5: Design your fitness website

If you want to attract visitors and then retain them for the long term, you’ll need to focus on creating an attractive and user-friendly website.

Select a responsive template or theme that works well with your brand and niche. Prioritise provides high-quality imagery, easy-to-read fonts, and a layout that makes sense and is easy to navigate.

You should also make sure your site is responsive on every sort of device, from desktop to smartphone.

If you are using a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, you’ll be able to use one of the professionally designed templates that the brand provides. With both, you’ll also be able to use the built-in drag-and-drop functionality to customise the appearance of your site, without sacrificing functionality across devices.

Step 6: Create high-quality fitness content

Content is the heart of any website, and the same is true in the fitness industry.

You should develop a content strategy based on your market research and expertise. Think about what sort of content will appeal most to your audience – it might be text-based articles, or it could be image or video-led how-to guides or demonstrations.

Your strategy might include:

Workout routines and exercise demonstrations.
Nutrition and meal planning guides or tutorials.
Fitness challenges and transformation stories.
Health and wellness articles.
Motivational content.
Thought-leadership or academic content.

Whether you include all of these content types or a selection of them, the most important rule is that you think about what your audience will want to see, watch or hear.

What to include on your fitness website

The list below includes a rough guide to the selection of pages you might need to add to your website.

Bear in mind that not everything will be relevant to you – it’s important to pick and choose the suggestions that make sense for your plans.

Homepage – you can think of your homepage like the reception area of a gym, or the front door of your studio. You want it to be appealing, inviting and informative enough that people know where to go next. It should also set the tone for your brand so that people know what to expect on the next page they navigate to.
About us page – let people know your purpose as a fitness business. What are your values?
Products or services page – whether you’re promoting your in-person training services, selling fitness clothing or digital products, you want to create an engaging page to showcase it. Focus on high-quality imagery and videos to promote whatever it is that you have to offer.
Plans and pricing page – you might want to combine your plan or pricing page into the product page above. Either way, you want your prices to be easy to find and easy to understand. People are less likely to sign up for a product or service without having a little information first.
Online booking system – if you’re a trainer or instructor then you might want to include a booking system on your website. This will give your clients a portal to plan and pay for their sessions with you.
Contact us page – provide your clients, or potential clients, with the information they need to contact you. This can be in the form of an email address, phone number or mailing address, or in the form of an online contact form that they can fill out with their request or query.
Testimonials page – why should people use your services or buy your products? A testimonial page is the perfect place to provide social proof to would-be customers. Get reviews from existing clients so that they can convince your future clients that you’re worth the money!
Staff bio page – if you have other people on your team, make sure you shout about them! Include their experience and qualifications, as well as any fun facts to bring out their personality.
Blog page – if you’re interested in writing content to share your expertise, a dedicated blog page or space can help your online visitors find it. Think about creating posts that will matter to your audience or customers.

Step 7: Optimise your fitness site for search engines (SEO)

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial for increasing your fitness website’s visibility on search engines like Google.

You should conduct keyword research related to your specific niche to find out what terms or phrases people are searching for. You should then make sure to include those terms in your content, in headlines, image descriptions and in-page content too.

Take a look at the articles below for help with SEO tools.

What is Google Search Console? Definition, features & benefits

What is Google Analytics? Definition, features and benefits

What is keyword tracking? Definition & tips on how to do it

Step 8: Promote your fitness website

Building an initial and long-term readership requires effective promotion. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to market your website.

Social media marketing is one of the most important options for promoting your brand to modern audiences. Use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to share your fitness content, engage with your audience and connect with communities.

To retain and bring visitors back to your site, you might also want to invest in email marketing. By capturing the email addresses of the people who land on your site, you can continue reaching out to them in the future with insightful content that they might be interested in seeing.

Step 9: Monetise your website

How you monetise your site will depend on what sort of business you plan on running. Either way, monetisation becomes a lot easier once you’ve built up a stable and consistent traffic base.

If you work as a personal trainer, then you may want to make appointments and book sessions through your site. If so, you might need to opt for an ecommerce website builder to support the functionality you require. This sort of platform will also help if you want to sell products to your audience.

Alternatively, you might consider one of the other forms of monetisation:

Affiliate marketing: promote products on your site and earn commissions on sales.
Sponsored content: partners will pay you to create posts or articles on your website.
Online coaching: offer personalised coaching online.

Whatever form of monetisation you decide to pursue with your fitness website, remember to prioritise visitor satisfaction first and foremost. If you begin to over-monetise, and users notice a drop in site or content quality, then you might see traffic decline.

Step 10: Engage with your fitness community

Building trust and credibility is essential if you want to do well in the world of fitness. People don’t want to take advice from people who don’t know what they’re talking about, so you need to make it clear that you do.

Respond to comments on your posts, emails and social media messages promptly and professionally. Offer support, motivation and valuable insight to create a sense of community and trust.

Top fitness website examples

The carousel above shows a few example of top quality fitness websites:

Gymshark – athletic clothing brand
Hyrox – fitness racing competition
Peloton – online fitness equipment and class provider

The goal, or goals, of each site varies, showing just how diverse an industry fitness is.

How much does it cost to build a fitness website?

Cost is one of the most important factors to consider as you launch a fitness website. The main thing to bear in mind is that how much you pay will be impacted by how you want to build your site.

If you choose to your a website builder then you’ll pay a monthly price for a specific plan. If, however, you want to custom design a site, you’ll be paying for the individual components of your site.

You can find a few website builder plan prices in the list below:

Wix – £9/month
Squarespace – £12/month
GoDaddy – £6.99/month

And a few of the prices you can expect to pay if you take the custom development route:

Domain hosting – £7 to £40/year
Web hosting – £3/month
Web designer – £50/hour

The benefit of choosing a website builder is that everything you need can be included for one simple cost. Custom web development, on the other hand, offers a higher level of flexibility but requires more expertise or investment.

How to start a fitness website: Final thoughts

Starting a fitness website can be a fulfilling and exciting journey. If you’re a fitness enthusiast, it gives you a chance to use your passion and share it with the world.

By defining your niche, doing the right level of research and then following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a successful fitness website to empower and inspire people to live healthier lives.

Remember though, that building a site takes time and consistency. Keep pushing and don’t give up if things feel slow.

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.

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Table of Contents

Do I need a fitness website?

Benefits of a fitness website

Step 1: Identify your fitness niche

Step 2: Complete market research

Step 3: Choose a domain name for your fitness site

Step 4: Set up hosting and a CMS

Best fitness website builders

Step 5: Design your fitness website

Step 6: Create high-quality fitness content

What to include on your fitness website

Step 7: Optimise your fitness site for search engines (SEO)

Step 8: Promote your fitness website

Step 9: Monetise your website

Step 10: Engage with your fitness community

Top fitness website examples

How much does it cost to build a fitness website?

How to start a fitness website: Final thoughts

Bryn Glover