Last Updated on November 27, 2023 by Paula

In my 6 years as a web designer, I’ve visited a lot of websites. And I’ve noticed some common mistakes that business and mindset coaches make that are really hurting their website’s conversions. Your website should be a lead-generating machine!

By fixing the mistakes we’re going to go over in this post, you will create a better user experience for your community. A good user experience will keep people on your website longer and will make them more likely to return to your website in the future. This will give your more opportunities to convert those visitors into leads and then into clients!

I do want to add before we dive in, that if you’re making one of these mistakes – don’t feel bad! See that word common, lots of people including myself have made these mistakes. But once you know about these mistakes, you can fix them and move on.

Not Prioritizing Accessibility

Accessibility is about ensuring that your visitors with disabilities like hearing or vision impairments or mobility impairments can navigate, understand, and engage with the content on your website.

You want each and every visitor to feel welcome and included when they land on your website. And to do that you can’t ignore accessibility. It needs to be a priority.

There is a lot that goes into accessibility so check out this terrific post from guest expert Emily Davison about accessibility for some great tips to get you started.

No Call to Action in the Hero Section on the Homepage

Before we dive into this, let’s quickly go over what a call to action is. A call to action is a prompt or instruction to encourage your visitor to take a specific action on your website. These are usually in the form of a button or statement that uses direct and action-oriented language.

The right call to action at the right time is a must to guide your visitors to take actions that will help you reach your business goals.

And you want to be sure that you’re taking advantage of that Hero section on your homepage and including a call to action here! This is the first place people will land when they visit your website so we want to be sure we tell them what you want them to do.

For most coaches, the main goal of your website will be to get more leads and book more discovery calls. So your main call to action will be for visitors to book a call with you. This is the call to action you want to include in your hero section.

Here are a few more mistakes I see around calls to action.

No Calls to Action at All

You need to tell people what to do. And you need to tell them repeatedly. Research says that a consumer has to see something 7 times before they will take action on it. So if you’re not telling your community what to do, then they will never take action.

So whatever you want people to do – sign up for your newsletter, book a call, join your free Facebook group tell them. And then tell them again in other places (with different copy) on your website.

Too Many Call to Actions

It’s definitely ok to have your main CTA in more than one place and to show it often, but what you don’t want to do is overwhelm your potential clients with too many CTAs for different things.

Where I see this mistake the most is in blog posts. And I’ve made this mistake myself too! I often will see calls to action to Tweet the post, Pin it, share it on Facebook and LinkedIn, sign up for the newsletter, etc. This can be overwhelming to a visitor and instead of taking action, they end up not doing anything.

So think about what action is most important to you and your goals and eliminate the rest. Or at most keep two Calls to Action. An example would be to have a CTA to pin your post at the top and at the bottom to book a call with you.

Including Too Much Information on the Homepage

Too many times, I see coaches try to include everything about their business on their homepage. They want to include their story, and every detail about every product and package they have and it’s just too overwhelming! And an overwhelmed visitor is a visitor likely to leave.

Think of it like this, your homepage is the first interaction with your visitor. When you first meet someone in person, you don’t tell them everything about yourself. Instead, you introduce yourself. This is what your homepage is for your online community – an introduction!

You want to introduce yourself and your services. These introductions should lead the visitor to your About and Services pages where you can go more in-depth. You also want to “introduce” that visitor to some of your other clients via testimonials. And if you have it include a freebie offer to get subscribers to your email list.

You want to include enough copy to make Google happy – which would be at least 300 words. Between your bio and introductions to your services, you should be able to hit and more that with no problem.

Inconsistency in How They Refer to Their Programs or Services

Be consistent with how you refer to your programs throughout your copy so that you don’t confuse your community. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Is it a coaching program? Or a mastermind? Or a virtual community gathering? Decide what your program/offering is and call it that throughout your copy. It’s confusing if you don’t. People won’t understand or know what you’re offering if it’s constantly referred to as different things simply because you’re worried about being repetitive in your copy.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Sometimes– you need to be repetitive! Remember what I said above in the CTA section – it takes people at least 7 times interacting with you and your content before they will take action. So make sure that what they’re seeing is consistent!

Social Media Links in the Header

Your header is the first thing someone sees when they land on your website. And you’re immediately sending them AWAY from your website. And worst of all you’re sending them to the most distracting place they can go – social media.

You’re risking them getting distracted and your website getting lost in the 50 other tabs they have open in their browser. (This is assuming you had the social links open in a new tab. If you didn’t well, they are probably gone for good.)

So, where can you put social media links? In the footer! This is the best place for them as you ensure that the visitor has seen all that you want them to see first!

I also recommend adding them to your contact page – especially if you prefer clients to contact you in the DMs.

Another great place is on your Thank Tou page after someone subscribes. Put just one link here for better conversions, so use it for the social platform you engage on the most.

No Contact Information on the Website

The biggest reason many coaches don’t put their email addresses on their websites is they are afraid of SPAM. And I get it. But here is the thing, if you have an online business then you’re going to get SPAM. It’s part of it. Do what you can to minimize it, but don’t let it affect your community’s experience.

And no contact information creates a bad user experience.

As a user, it’s very annoying to need to reach out to someone and you can’t find a way to do so on their website. You do not want to annoy your visitors. This will cause you to lose out on conversions.

So be sure to include a contact page that makes it clear how to contact you – whether this is by email, phone, a contact form, or in the DMs on Instagram. You can also include things like your hours and expected response time. This makes it easy for your clients, and they will love you for it!

No Search Function on the Blog

If you have just a few pages on your website, then a search function isn’t necessary but if you have a lot of pages or a blog then you need a search bar.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to someone’s site to find a post I read and loved, only to not be able to find it because there is no search function. It’s very frustrating. And it’s true the visitor could just Google it, but just like with social media links you’re letting the visitor off your website and on to a very distracting place. Which we don’t want.

So add that search function! Add a search icon in the header or a search bar in the footer. I also recommend having a search bar in your blog’s sidebar and on your website’s archive pages.

Not Showcasing Their Expertise

A sad thing about the coaching industry is that so many people have been burned by it. Too many coaches make grand promises but can’t deliver on them.
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And because of this people are looking for reassurance that you’re qualified to be doing what you do.

Sharing your expertise and what makes you qualified can help alleviate doubts so that potential clients feel comfortable taking that next step of working with you!

Check out this post for tips on how to share your expertise on your website.

No Social Proof

85% of people trust online reviews and testimonials as much as personal recommendations! I use this stat a lot and I do that because it is staggering!

People want to know that you’re legitimate. They want to know what it’s like to work with you. They want a peek at your process. They want to know what kind of results and transformation others have achieved by working with you. By using Social Proof, you can show them all of these things. And this can really tip the scales in your favor when it comes to a client choosing to work with you.

A few different types of social proof you can use are:

• Written Testimonials
• Video Testimonials
• Audio Testimonials
• Case Studies
• Screenshots from social media (with permission of course.)
• Logos from places you’ve been featured

No SSL Certificate

Every time I think that this is too basic and I shouldn’t bring it up, I run across a coach’s website with no SSL certificate. Make sure that you’re keeping your visitors secure.

If you’re not sure if you have an SSL Certificiate, check to see if you have a padlock next to your URL when you visit your website in a Chrome browser. You should also have an “s” after http in your URL if your website is secure.

Read more about SSL Certificates as well as other tips for SEO here.

No Headshots or Very Old Headshots

When it comes to headshots, I know that a lot of people don’t want to include them, but it really helps increase your trust factor. Headshots show that you’re a real person and give a face to your business. People want to see who they’ll be working with. That connection is vital for coaches!

If the idea of being in every image on your website makes you uncomfortable, that’s ok. You don’t have to be unless you want to be.

Instead, aim to use one to two headshots in these places on your website:

• About page
• Services page
• Bio section on your homepage
• Sidebar of your blog
• Media or press page

And when it comes to your headshots, make sure that they are up to date. If it’s been 10 to 15 years since your headshot was taken, then that is too long. You have changed a lot in that time and when you get on a Zoom call with your clients they will be expecting you to look differently than you do. Speaking from experience here, it will come as a shock and you don’t want that.

Note: I do know that for some including headshots would go against their religion. If this is you, try to find other ways that you can include your personality and add some individuality to your website photos so that you will stand out from the crowd.

Forgetting to Turn Off Pop-ups on Landing and Sales Pages

It’s important to remember to turn off your pop-up for your landing and sales pages. We don’t want your visitors to get distracted from the main action you want them to take – signing up for your freebie or buying your product! ⠀

A good pop-up plugin will have a way to control what pages your pop-up appears, if yours doesn’t have this option, you should consider upgrading.

Overwhelming Navigation

Too many choices will overwhelm your visitors. That’s why you want to make sure your navigation is as simple as possible. Keep it to no more than 5 to 7 links. These links should be the most important pages to the visitor’s journey on your website. So this will likely look like your About, Services/Work With Me, Contact, Free Offer links. You might also consider your Blog and Shop to be main pages.

Any other links can be categorized underneath these main pages in a dropdown menu. For example, under About you can have a link to Press + Media page, and under Work with Me a link to your Client Case Studies page.

You can also include links to all your pages in the footer of your website.

Not Knowing How Their Website Fits Into the Big Picture of Their Business

Even though I saved this one for last, it’s the number one mistake I see coaches make with their websites.

Why do you need a website? How will it help your business? Don’t build a website just because everyone else has one. You need to understand how your website fits into the big picture of your business and how it can help you meet your business goals.

I can give you all kinds of reasons why your business needs a website…

• To increase brand awareness
• To build your authority
• To generate more leads
• To educate potential clients on your offerings and processes
• To streamline and create efficiency in your intake processes
• To sell you digital products and courses
• To book more speaking gigs or podcast interviews

But why does YOUR business need a website? How does it fit in with YOUR business goals and plans? It’s important to know the answer to this.

Once I realized that my main business goal was to book more clients that made it very clear to me that the purpose of my website was to help me book those clients. Once you are clear are your main goal, then it will be easy to figure out how your website fits into the big picture for your business.

Fixing these common mistakes will really go a long way toward creating a better experience for your community when they land on your website. And creating a better user experience will help you generate more leads and conversions because you’re making it clear to your visitors what they should do and you’re also making it easy for them to do it.

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