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Learn How To Build A Coaching Website

How to Build a Coaching Website

The internet is where business is moving and you’re either on that flight or you’re going to be left behind. So whether you sell building materials, cinema tickets or coaching services, it is crucial that you have a viable online presence.

With a coaching website you can:

  • Post your professional credentials and favourable reviews.
  • Add a blog and enhance your authority by writing about issues related to your speciality.
  • Create a video library behind a paywall to generate additional income.
  • Provide existing customers with free access to that video library.
  • Create a custom email such as: yourname@yourcoaching.co.uk
  • Add a contact form to syphon prospective clients into your conversion funnel.

How to Build a Coaching Website

How to Create a Coaching Website in 6 Easy Steps

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name

With 1.2 billion websites in the world today, there is a reasonable chance someone has already taken the domain name you want. In which case, you will need to have backup choices ready. For example: if you want “johndoecoaching.co.uk” but discover that name is already taken, you could try “johndoecoaching.com”, or “johndoe-coaching.co.uk”.

Once you come up with a domain name that works, you need to check it against a domain name registry to see if it’s available. Namecheap.com and Godaddy.com are two of the more popular options. If it is available, you will need to register that name. It’s easy to do as the registry service will automatically provide you with the chance to register the name as soon as you find one that is available. Registration is quick and easy and costs about the same as a premium cinema ticket.

Pro tip: Make your job a lot easier by registering your domain name with the same service you plan to use for hosting. Doing so will eliminate the time consuming and often confusing step of having to transfer the domain name to the server company at a later time.

Step 2: Secure a hosting plan

Before you can build your website you will need to obtain space on a server. This is called the “hosting plan”. If we can draw a parallel to building a house, the domain name is your address, the hosting plan is the land you will build on, and the website itself is the house.

One note of caution: Newcomers often get talked into signing on for a more expensive hosting plan than they actually need. So you may want to consult with a web designer first. Tell them what you have in mind and ask them what type of hosting plan they would recommend.

Step 3: Create an email account for your new coaching business

An email address linked to your website will reinforce your credibility with potential customers. Just think about it. Who would you take more seriously: someone whose professional email address was “yourname@gmail.com”, or “yourname@yourcoaching.co.uk”?

Setting up your custom email account is easy. Just follow the instructions from whichever hosting company you use. You may even find your email addresses are included with the domain you bought earlier.

Once your company email account is set up you can access it through a mail client like Outlook or you can take advantage of Gmail’s “mail fetcher” service that lets you access your company email right in the Gmail interface. Follow this link to find out how to do that.

Step 4: Install WordPress

Most web hosting companies offer white label content management systems (the CMS) along with website templates that work with it. The most popular CMS by far is WordPress, so we’d recommend selecting a website host that offers WordPress with a “1-click installation process”.

Here’s how you set up WordPress with your new domain.

  • Select WordPress as your CMS via your hosting dashboard.
  • Follow the short and simple installation process.
  • Log into your site and open up the ‘Dashboard’ panel.
  • Click on  “Appearances”, then “Themes” and click “Add new” at the top of the page.
  • You will be presented with several themes. Some are free, some are not.
  • Select a theme by hovering over it. This will bring up the “install” button. Click it.
  • WordPress installs the theme and then presents 2 more buttons: “Activate” and “Preview”
  • It’s a good idea to preview the theme before activating it as it may look different than you imagined.
  • If you are happy with your chosen theme, click “Activate”.
  • Depending on the theme you may be prompted to install certain plugins.
  • Once all of that is complete you can enter your domain name in a browser and you will see your homepage. It reflects the theme you chose and probably says “Just another WordPress website”.
  • The task now is to tweak the theme to your liking and upload your content, but first…

Step 5: Activate The Secure Server

It’s likely your hosting plan came with a secure server option (also known as a SSL certificate) and we would recommend you activate it. This will help protect your client data while adding another layer of security between your site and hackers. If you plan on conducting any kind of business transactions through your website, the Secure Server is non-negotiable.

Step 6: Create your pages

At a minimum, you’ll need a homepage, an “about” page, a “contact” page and a “services” page. You may also want to have separate pages for archived video lessons, merchandise and more, but that is up to you. Ideally, you would link your website to your social media accounts and get traffic moving back and forth.

When it comes to content, be aware that if you want Google to rank your site favourably in search results, the content will need to be well-written, images will need to be optimised to load fast, the site will need to be mobile-friendly and you will need to add fresh content on a fairly regular basis. (That’s where a blog can come in.) Why keep Google happy?  You’ll stand a much better chance of reaching your target audience.

That said, congratulations! You now know how to create an online coaching website. With all that done and dusted, you’ll be helping more people reach their goals in no time. And if you really want to knock their socks off, you could even start to introduce community aspects that tie everything together and keep members coming back for more.

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Josh in
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