What the World's Leading Coaches and Experts are Doing Right on Their Website, and What They're Doing VERY Wrong
As a coach or consultant, your website is your most valuable sales and communication tool – one that’s too often overlooked.
Most new coaches worry about the investment so much that they keep putting it off until they’ve left thousands of dollars on the table.
But as a coach or consultant, your job is to change lives and businesses. How do you ever expect to do that without your most important sales and communication tool working overtime?
The world’s leading coaches & experts are making millions by changing millions of lives and businesses every year, and they’re doing a lot of things right on their website.
They’re also doing a lot of things wrong.
Here are five things the world’s leading coaches & experts are doing right and six things they’re doing VERY wrong.
What They’re Doing Right
Highlight the Kind of Content your Audience Wants to See.
Content isn’t one-size-fits-all. Your audience looks to you for a specific information that you’ve consistently provided over time.
Coaches often try to be everything to every type of client. But ultimately, all that does is confuse prospective clients because no one knows what they can rely on you specifically for. If a viewer comes to your website and is confused about what you offer, they’ll immediately click away.
Take a look at Rachel Hollis’s website. She clearly highlights the kind of content her viewers want to see from her. She doesn’t try to be all things to all people. She knows what works for her and she sticks to it.
Takeaway:
Create content on your site that discussing something specific. It narrows in on what you provide for your clients and how you change their lives. Clearly highlight that content on your website so viewers can spend time learning about you and what you have to offer.
Credit: https://msrachelhollis.com/
Credit: https://msrachelhollis.com/
2. Showcase Professional Photos of Yourself
This might seem obvious, but it’s important to point out. Coaches and consultants offer value that can’t be found anywhere else. Your expertise and experiences in life and business mix together to create the perfect cocktail of effectiveness. Don’t shy away from showing your face.
Showing your face on your website allows a viewer to connect with you from behind their screen. It’s an important gut check for someone who is going to need to open up to you in ways they don’t typically with other people, sometimes even their therapist.
Takeaway:
Patrice Washington uses professional photos of herself to bring the viewer into her world, and to direct their eyes to the content she wants them to look at. Her smile is comforting but professional and demonstrates to her audience that she’s happy doing what she loves and wants to help her clients and audience achieve similar goals.
Credit: PatriceWashington.com
3. Demonstrate Your Authority with Testimonials and Social Proof
Coaches have a tough job and need to demonstrate a lot to prove they’re good at it. A website viewer is asking themselves, can you and have you changed lives and businesses?
Demonstrate you can do this with testimonials from clients.
Don’t hide testimonials on rarely viewed pages or buried under other content that takes too long to scroll to or see.
Show them right on your homepage in a bold way.
Takeaway:
Grace Lever shows video testimonials on her homepage in a big way. They’re clear, bold, and take up a lot of space. When you go to her website, you can clearly see she knows what she’s doing and has helped a lot of people change their lives.
Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. How can you help people if you don’t tell them you can?
Credit: https://www.thedoersway.net/
Credit: https://www.thedoersway.net/
4. Demonstrate Your Authority with Client Logos or Press Features
As you grow your business and earn press features or clients that are household names, demonstrate your authority with logos and features.
Seeing logos of major clients or media outlets shows your audience that you’re not just any other coach. Using these images triggers a larger sense of trust in your viewers and they’ll be more likely to want to work with you knowing you’ve been trusted by other major companies.
Marie Forleo was featured on Oprah several years ago and she doesn’t shy away from showing that on her website (nor should she).
Takeaway:
Similar to testimonials, showing the faces or the logos of major clients you’ve worked with or media outlets you’ve been featured in triggers to your audience that you’re to be trusted. But it’s okay if you haven’t been featured on Oprah, or have a picture with Tony Robbins.
You don’t need to wait until you have features like these to show them on your website. Anytime you guest speak on a podcast, have a small segment on local TV, or your work gets featured in a niche magazine, you should show those logos on your website in an “As Seen In” section.
Credit: MarieForleo.com
5. Use Call-to-Actions Effectively
Your website should provide your viewers with easy-to-access information and a path to learn more about you, purchase your products or services, and get in touch with you.
Your call-to-actions should indicate to the viewer exactly what they should do on your website and when.
Buttons that clearly state the action are most effective, with buttons that say things like, “Like What You See?” or other vague language are highly ineffective.
Gabby Bernstein uses CTAs on her site very well, with the first one being, “Become the happiest person you know. – Start HERE”. The “Start Here” button demonstrates to the viewer that they want to to learn more about Gabby and how she can help you become the “Happiest Person you Know” is clear and effective.
Takeaway:
Never use vague language in your CTAs, plus don’t use too many different ones. If the most important thing a viewer can do on your website is get in touch with you, use that as your main CTA throughout your website. Always use direct language. If you want someone to get in touch with you, your button should say, “Get in Touch”, or, “Contact Me”.
Credit: https://gabbybernstein.com/
What They’re Doing VERY Wrong
Never Use Slideshows in Your “Hero”
A “Hero” section in a website is what’s “above-the-fold”. On your homepage, it’s the very first thing a new viewer will see. It’s prime real estate.
You have milliseconds to tell a viewer who you are and what you do before they’ve clicked away.
A website that uses slideshows in their hero are effectively deciding they’re not sure what’s the most important thing a new viewer should see.
If they don’t know how should the viewer?
Takeaway:
A slideshow in your hero signals the death of a new client. Stick to one image in that section, you can use slideshows somewhere else.
Below is Brené Brown’s website. Each slide in the slideshow is complex and requires a few seconds to understand what it’s showing. But the slideshow moves too fast to be able to see any of them clearly. In the last image, you can see the slideshow was moving too fast for me to even get a screenshot.
Credit: https://brenebrown.com/
Credit https://brenebrown.com/
Credit: https://brenebrown.com/
2. Underestimating the Prime Real Estate of the Footer
Just like your main navigation, your footer exists on every page. That means no matter where on your website the viewer is, your footer is always there. Your footer is an important place to add your most important call-to-action.
Takeway:
Mel Robbins offers a CTA in her Footer, but it’s unclear she’s asking anything. Use your Footer to draw attention to the information and action most important for viewers on your website.
Credit: https://melrobbins.com/
3. Unclear Storytelling and Navigation
Famous coaches might be able to get away with a little bit more vague language on their website. But for coaches who don’t already have a massive following, clear storytelling and path throughout your website is imperative.
From the time a new viewer see your website, they should be lead down a path that gets them to whatever your finish line, whether it’s a consultation appointment, click to purchase, or downloading your freebie. Every page and every button serves a purpose and tells a story.
Rachel Hollis’s website gets distracting and the story is unclear. If she weren’t well known, I wouldn’t know what she did or how I could get in touch with her from her website. I wouldn’t know that she’d written books, or what her core message is.
Every great story should have a beginning, middle, and end. This website doesn’t know where it’s starting or ending and the middle tries to be too much.
Takeaway:
Keep it simple. Your “hero” or “above-the-fold” section should directly state who you are, what you do, and who you do it for. After that, walk the viewer through the story of your business. They need to know how to work with you, your business journey, what you’re qualified, and what services and products you offer.
Showcase your content, testimonials, and company logos (like stated above), but don’t get overwhelmed with trying to show too much. If you feel like your story has been communicated effectively, stop and leave it there.
Credit: msrachelhollis.com
Credit: msrachelhollis.com
4. Asking the Viewer to Do Too Much
Your website has to do a lot for you. It has a lot of information to provide the viewer. Balancing the line between overwhelming the viewer and providing all the right information in the right way can be tough.
If you think you’re starting to ask too much of the viewer, as yourself how you would feel coming to your website for the first time. Is it easy to navigate? Can I find all the answers to my questions in one click or less? Does this website answer the questions I have about working with this coach or consultant?
A website that asks us to do too much leaves us frustrated and confused. We leave without the answers to our questions, which means we’ll likely never come back.
Mel Robbins website asks the viewer to listen to her audiobooks, watch her YouTube channel, subscribe to her newsletter, view her courses, programs, and more, all before explaining who she is, what she does, and who she does it for.
Famous coaches can get away with little more vagueness than regular coaches but regardless, she’s asking me to do too much in too little time.
Takeaway:
Choose the actions you ask your viewers to take carefully. If you need to ask them to do two different things within two sections, separate them clearly with design.
Credit: https://melrobbins.com/
Credit: https://melrobbins.com/
5. Using Unclear or Confusing Color Palettes
Color plays a very important role in the design of your website. It can speak to mood, expertise, experience, and many other factors that subconsciously tell the viewer you know what you’re talking about.
It’s often overlooked as an important part of your messaging, but can be fatal to the usability of your site.
Generally, using three colors: one light, one dark, and one accent color is a good rule of thumb. There are exceptions, but they have to be considered very carefully and with the help of a professional.
Using more than one accent color confusing the viewer about where to look and what’s important. When you communicate to the viewer that lots of things are important, they’ll assume that nothing it.
Takeaway:
Sticking to a carefully chosen color palette can help your website drive conversions. Using too many colors confuses the viewer and will make them click away from your site.
Grace Lever uses two distinct accent colors. The viewer is confused as to what’s important and what isn’t. The viewer will think the pink buttons are for something specific, and the blue for something else even if they’re both just Call-to-Action buttons.
Credit: https://www.thedoersway.net/
6. Using Adwords on Their Site
To put it plainly, never use Google Adwords on your business website, even if you could make a little extra money. While famous people might be able to get away with this, they shouldn’t bother. It compromises the integrity of the site and the credibility of the business as a whole.
Takeaway:
Don’t try to make extra money by adding Adwords to your site. Most people find them annoying, which means people will click away from your site the moment they see an ad.
Credit: Oprah.com