A gym website has one job, and it is not to show off the equipment. It is to get somebody who has never been inside your door to book a first visit, and to make that feel safe for a person who is a little nervous about walking in.
Studio sites usually fail that job in the same three places: the schedule is unreadable on a phone, the price is hidden, and there is no page that tells a beginner what the first visit will be like. Here is what to fix, in the order it matters.
Who is actually on the page?
Not your current members. They have your app, your Instagram, and the front desk. They do not read your website.
The person on the page is somebody who has decided to start, or restart, and is checking whether your place is the one. They are asking themselves the questions people do not say out loud: will I be the least fit person in the room, do I need to already know what the class names mean, how much is this going to cost, and what happens if I hate it after one visit.
September brings those people back, because routines come back with the school year. If your site is still showing the summer schedule, that is the first thing they will notice.
What does the first screen have to say?
Three things, on a phone, without scrolling.
What kind of training this is, in plain words. "Strength and conditioning" is a category. "Small-group strength classes for adults who are starting from zero" is an answer. If you run several programs, name the one you want more of at the top, not all of them at once.
Where you are. The neighbourhood or the city, and the nearest intersection if parking is a question. People filter on geography before anything else, and a studio with no address on the first screen reads as one that might be across town.
The one thing to do next. Usually a first class, a trial week or an intro session, as one button that goes straight to booking it. Not "Join now", which asks for a commitment before the visit. Not "Learn more". The offer you post on Instagram belongs here too, because a visitor who found you through search never saw the post.
Why is the schedule page usually the broken one?
Because it was built for the owner, not for a stranger.
The schedule is the page a new visitor opens second, and it fails in predictable ways. It is an image or a PDF exported from a spreadsheet, so on a phone it is a grid of tiny type that has to be pinched to read. Or it is the widget from your booking software, embedded in the page, and it asks the visitor to create an account before it will show a single class time. Or it is a text schedule that was accurate in June.
A schedule that works is text, one day at a time, readable on a phone, with the class name, the time, the coach and one line on who the class is for. It shows what is on tomorrow without a login. It has a way to book from the row itself. And it is edited by whoever changes the timetable, the day the timetable changes, which means your staff have to be able to edit it without a designer. Can you update your website yourself covers what that requires.
The booking software you already use, whether that is Mindbody, Glofox, Wodify or something else, can usually feed the schedule to the page so you are not maintaining it twice. Whether to embed the whole widget or just the schedule with a booking link is the same decision as any other booking flow, and the trade-offs are in online booking on your website.
Should you show membership prices?
Yes.
Owners hide prices because they want the conversation first. The visitor knows that, and a site with no prices reads as one where the price will be high, or negotiated, or attached to a contract they have not seen. They go to the tab that shows a number.
Put the membership options on one page, with the monthly price, what is included, whether there is a contract, and how to cancel. If personal training is priced per person, say how, and what a typical package looks like. If there is a student rate or a family rate, list it. Should you show prices on your website walks through why this wins even when it feels like it will not.
What does a "first visit" page need?
This is the page that is usually missing, and it is the one that converts the nervous visitor.
One page, written for a person who has never been inside. What to wear. What to bring. Where to park and which door to use. Who will meet them and what happens in the first ten minutes. Whether they will be in a class with regulars or in an intro session with other beginners. Whether they can watch a class before joining one. What it costs, if anything, and what happens after, in plain terms: no pressure, no contract, here is how to book a second visit if you liked it.
Write it the way the front desk explains it on the phone, because that is the conversation the page replaces. Link to it from the first screen and from the schedule.
What about photos?
Real people, mid-class, in your actual space.
A gym site with photos of empty racks and a polished but vacant studio is answering a question nobody asked. The visitor wants to know what the room looks like with people in it, and whether those people look like someone they could stand next to. A phone photo of a real Tuesday class beats a stock image of an athlete who has never been to your city, and the rest of what to shoot is in the photos your website needs.
One thing that is yours to decide, not a designer's: get consent from members before their faces go on the site, and keep a record of who said yes. The site should be built so a photo can be swapped out the day somebody withdraws.
What quietly loses the sign-up?
Small things, and all of them fixable this week.
- Class names written for insiders. "WOD", "AMRAP", "Vinyasa Level 2" mean nothing to a beginner. Keep the name if your members use it, and put a plain-language line under it.
- Booking that requires an account first. Every step before the visitor sees a time is a place to lose them. Show the schedule openly and ask for details at the moment of booking.
- Hours that do not match Google. If the Business Profile says you open at six and the site says seven, both are now suspect. Showing up in local search covers the profile side.
- A contact form nobody answers. Test it monthly from an outside address. The form is where the "do you have classes for someone with a bad knee" questions go, and an unanswered one is a lost member.
Does a gym need an app instead?
For members, maybe. For strangers, no.
The app your booking software gives you is for people who have already joined. It does not help someone who has not decided yet, because they will not install an app to look at a schedule. The website is for the person outside the door and the app is for the person inside it, and the split is explained in do you need an app or a website.
What does a gym website cost?
Our website scopes run from $1,200 to $8,000 depending on what is in them. A single-program studio with a schedule, a pricing page, a first-visit page and a booking link sits low in that range. A multi-location gym with several programs, coach pages, a bilingual version and a booking integration that feeds the schedule sits high. What sits inside each scope is on web design, and the ranges are on pricing.
Two things move the number more than design does. How many programs get their own page, because each one is a real piece of writing. And how the schedule is kept current, because a schedule that has to go through a designer to change is a schedule that will stop being changed.
The test to run today
Open a private browser window on your phone. Search the kind of training you want more of, plus your city. Do not search your gym's name.
Find yourself in the results, if you are there. Click through as a stranger would. Then time how long it takes to answer three questions: what is on tomorrow morning, what does a month cost, and how do I book a first visit. If any of the three takes more than about thirty seconds, or asks you to create an account first, that is the work, and it is usually the schedule and the copy rather than a redesign.
If you would rather have someone else run that test, send us your URL for a free teardown. We will tell you what a nervous beginner can and cannot find on your site in thirty seconds, and what we would change first, whether or not you work with us.