Wondering If You Need A Better Website?
The reality is, you might be better off not having one at all
If you’re like many of the health and wellness professionals I talk to, you spend at least some time agonizing over your website.
Maybe you’ve changed your homepage headline seventeen times…
Or you keep second-guessing your About page…
Maybe you’ve even dropped $3,000 (or more) on a photo shoot, web designer, and developing your “brand look”…
And you’re still not happy with it.
Meanwhile, your empty calendar stares back at you every morning … and that new program you’ve been wanting to launch stays tucked away in a Google folder.
If that sounds familiar, and you’re still worrying that you need a better website, you might be surprised to hear what I’m about to tell you.
Chances are, you might not even need a website. In fact, it might be the wrong tool for you entirely.
I’ve watched people spend six months obsessing over their website while their online program sits empty. Some may spend thousands on a custom site that’s pretty to look at. But what they end up with amounts to a beautiful monument that friends and family might “ooh” and “ah” at, but it doesn’t move the needle on their business.
Before you spend another moment agonizing over your site, the question you really need to ask yourself is, “Do I even need a website right now?”
What You Actually Need to Get Clients
When health and wellness professionals decide to launch their online coaching program, many are led to believe the path looks like this:
Build a website → Post on social or launch a funnel → Clients magically appear
When the path that actually works is this:
Create an offer → Test demand so you can launch with confidence → Get paying clients → THEN build a website
Notice the difference? One path has you building infrastructure for a business you hope to have. The other has you building infrastructure to support a business that already exists.
If your goal is to fill a group program, test a new offer, or run paid advertising to build your practice, you probably don’t need a website. You need a landing page — one page that’s focused on one thing that can be built in a day.
If you’re trying to create something you can send people to so they can “find out more about you,” then you might want to have a website. But even then, it better be one that helps you build your business and not just an “online brochure.”
The Critical Difference Many People Miss
Both a website and a landing page can be valuable marketing assets if they’re done in the right way. But they serve very different purposes.
Think of your website as your home base. It has multiple pages and various entry points. Someone might land on your blog, read your about page, then leave and come back three months later.
But a landing page is a focused conversion tool. It’s one page with one specific goal. There’s only one action you want visitors to take. If someone clicks your ad about thyroid health, lands on your thyroid program landing page, they’ll either take a specific next step with you or they won’t.
I often see people confuse the two. They create websites that try to do so many things that I feel overwhelmed just looking at them. They’re confusing. And a confused visitor clicks away.
That’s one problem with websites. The other problem is the exact opposite…
The $3,000 Website Nobody Reads
I’ve seen stunning websites with custom photography, a beautiful design, copy that tells the coach’s heartfelt mission of helping people transform from chronic illness to vibrant health, and lists out a full suite of services.
They look like a gorgeous brochure you’d see lying on the reception desk at a concierge practitioner’s office.
And that’s the problem.
That kind of online brochure website may be pretty, but it’s pretty useless at building a business.
And if your website isn’t helping you build your business, what’s the point of having it?
How to Know If You Need a Website or Landing Page
Here’s what I tell my clients:
If you want to get people to sign up for a specific program or offer, don’t waste your precious time creating a website. Create a landing page instead. Get it converting. Bring in revenue. Learn what messages resonate with your ideal clients.
Start with a landing page for your core offer.
Here are my top tips for make a landing page that converts:
Talk about one specific offer (not three different programs)
Start with a powerful headline that shows your ideal client why they should read on
Include messaging that speaks to the problem AND to the outcome the ideal client wants
Include “proof elements,” such as real testimonials from actual clients
Briefly mention why you’re qualified to help them
Make your writing so easy to read that a 12-year-old would get it (no jargon, long paragraphs, or complex explanations)
Edit it down to only the essential elements. If something doesn’t help move people toward action, cut it
Watch This Playing Out in Real Time
I pulled a video out of the Website Wednesday Live! vault to show you this with a real example. My guest had fallen into the website vs. landing page trap. And she ended up with a confusing mess after following advice from another marketing “expert.”
Watch what happened when I showed her the difference:
In this video, you’ll see:
The exact moment she realizes her homepage was sabotaging her conversions
How trying to do everything with one page was costing her clients
The specific fixes that would separate her landing page from her website
Why the advice she was given would cost her clients
My live reaction to some genuinely terrible marketing advice
Your Best Move Right Now
If you’re trying to get more people into a coaching program, put that website you’re agonizing over on hold.
Create one simple landing page for your offer. Drive some traffic to it and see what happens.
Because six months from now, you can either have a beautiful website with no clients, or a simple landing page that’s putting money in the bank.
I know which one I’d choose.