How to Build a Health and Wellness Website
A website serves as a convenient resource for health and wellness practitioners to disseminate information and manage customers. It’s a powerful tool in the industry, supporting everyone from nutritionists, dietitians, physicians, and therapists to fitness instructors, health coaches, and personal trainers. To provide the most impactful digital customer experience, consider implementing the following tactics on your health and wellness clients’ websites.
What makes a great health and wellness website?
An impactful health and wellness website should immediately convey a sense of trust, clarity, and calm. The site’s design should speak to your client’s services and inspire action, while its content should reflect their tone and personality. Lean into typography, colors, and visual elements like images and video to create an environment where visitors feel supported and can easily book services. Often, visitors want to quickly know what certifications health and wellness practitioners have—so dedicate space, like a homepage section, to highlight your client’s qualifications, accolades, and any relevant awards.
Maintain a consistent theme throughout the website that aligns with your client’s brand identity and messaging. Many health and wellness providers may be so focused on in-person care that they haven’t thought about their brand identity or online experience. You can help establish your client's identity and vision. For example, a yoga instructor’s website may include calming colors and a focus on group class offerings, while a nutritionist’s website may feature a minimal aesthetic and welcoming voice. Learn more about developing a client’s brand identity.
Create a cohesive digital experience by connecting any relevant social media channels to the site. Squarespace’s social sharing tools expand your client’s reach and pull social content directly to their website. This helps keep the site feeling fresh and active while highlighting real-time engagement and a sense of community—both of which are especially important in the health and wellness space.
Thoughtfully designed websites with clear navigation create a strong user experience (UX). At the end of the day, the goal is to ensure visitors understand the website’s purpose and can find the information they need. Learn more about expert UX design principles.
Essential features for health and wellness websites
Design and content set the tone, but there are several key features that make health and wellness websites stand out from the rest—and support your client’s day-to-day operations. The following elements elevate your client’s website and can help scale their business:
Scheduling
A scheduling tool adds a level of professionalism and simplifies the manual process of managing a calendar. If your client is a fitness instructor, you’ll want to make it easy for customers to sign up for classes, workshops, and sessions with Acuity Scheduling. This online appointment-booking tool provides seamless scheduling, secure payments, and automated notifications. Acuity Scheduling makes it possible to offer group classes or one-on-one sessions. Learn more about helping your clients adopt Acuity Scheduling.
Gated content
If your client has a membership network, Member Sites are a can’t-miss add-on. With members-only pages on their site, your client can share a wealth of content with a specific audience, such as guides, class recordings, newsletters, and workshops. Gated portals are a practical way to give paying members access to these kinds of online resources, which is great for fitness instructors hosting classes, specialists leading workshops, and dietitians sharing meal plans. Learn more about setting up Digital Products on Squarespace.
Email marketing
Email marketing campaigns empower your client to communicate directly with their customers. With Email Campaigns, they can send on-brand email newsletters, sharing updates, upcoming offerings and classes, and other relevant content.
Include opt-ins in several places on the website to capture contacts, and consider using promotional pop-ups and newsletter blocks to encourage visitors to sign up. Learn more about creating an email campaign for your client.
Payment processing
Consider how your client’s site will support their business day to day. Adding payment processing means your client can offer services like consultations, classes, and digital products right on their site—making it easy for visitors to become paying customers. Squarespace Payments is integrated directly with their site, so there’s no need for extra plugins or tools. It’s intuitive to use, and your client can handle bookings, payments, and customer details all in one place—keeping things simple and efficient. Learn more about managing payments on Squarespace.
An invoicing system
Another way to keep your client’s behind-the-scenes tasks running smoothly is with an invoice management system. This is particularly applicable for services that are billed after the fact, like personalized coaching or wellness plans. With Squarespace’s built-in invoicing tool, your client can send professional, branded invoices without juggling multiple platforms. Learn more about creating invoices on Squarespace.
Building successful health and wellness websites
While your health and wellness client may have years of experience in their field, your role as a web designer is to ground their website in a clear, cohesive brand identity that speaks to their expertise and values. By focusing on conversion—ensuring visitors can easily book services and engage with content—you also want to create a space that feels safe, welcoming, and supportive. It's about more than just functionality; it's about crafting an environment where visitors can learn, connect, and trust your client enough to take the next step in their wellness journey. Through thoughtful design and strategic features, you’re helping your client build a website that’s not only a powerful business tool but also a reflection of the care and support they offer their community.
Related resources:
This article was originally published on May 19, 2022. It has since been updated.
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