Martial Arts Website Design Basics
This is part 2 of a four part blog post. Use the following links to access each part if you want to start at part 1, already read this part, or just want to read other parts.
Part 1: Generating Leads with a Martial Arts Website | Part 2: Martial Arts Website Design Basics | Part 3: Martial Arts SEO | Part 4: Martial Arts Content Creation
We’ve covered the actual purpose of a martial arts website (to generate leads), but we also need to cover the basics of a martial arts website.
What does every martial arts website need? How should the website it look? What services does each website need?
There’s lots of little technical stuff that is needed for any website. All of that is covered elsewhere on the Internet at VPNarena. What will be covered here are the general needs for a successful website.
There are four key things that every martial arts website needs:
- User friendly and looks nice
- Mobile responsiveness
- Good marketing copy
- Contact Forms
We’ve already covered point 4 (forms for contacting the school and requesting more information) above, so we will leave that as is. But what about everything else?
User Friendly and Looks Nice
Back when Martial Arts Marketing Network started, most websites had become obsessed with Flash animations on websites. Flash could (and still can) do a lot. It was considered hip, cool, and high end. As time went on people in the industry realized that no one wanted to wait for these animations to load, especially when they were just looking for basic information (phone numbers, operating hours, etc.). Quickly the website industry as a whole stopped using flash animations on websites.
This story is relevant because it quintessentially shows the problem with having a website look nice and be user friendly. Flash animations looked cool, but websites stopped being user friendly because of them convert here.
The real point? User friendly trumps looking nice or cool (although both are still critical).
Being user friendly is surprisingly simple –
- Website loads quickly
- Content is easy to find
- Website works well on all devices (phones, tablets, etc.)
That means no flash, header menu titles are intuitive, and website pages are kept short (although, they should still be as long as they need to be to get the point across).
Every website needs content, forms, headers, and menus. How to balance all of those things and making it look nice is more a matter of opinion and there are lots of ways to evaluate whether a website looks nice. However, a good rule of thumb Martial Arts Marketing Network uses is the KISS method – “Keep It Simple Silly.”
Stick with the basics, keep it simple, and have good marketing copy.
Mobile Responsiveness
In 2015 more people accessed the Internet on their phone than they did through their computers. That was two years ago, and the number of people who access the Internet via phone is only increasing sd airport transport. There are lots of other statistics about smartphone usage that prove all websites need to be mobile responsive. I’ll leave some of them here in case anyone is curious.
Mobile is the preferred platform for many users who access the Internet and consume media. If a website is not optimized for mobile many users will leave without even a second thought. This is because it’s not user friendly.
Being Mobile Responsive also helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google has not only told the marketing community that mobile responsive websites rank better, but they put together a Mobile SEO guide.
Good Marketing Copy
Just like any written attempts at sales, the key to selling online is good marketing copy. Websites are no different than any other written sales copy.
Similar to “what makes a website look nice”, there are lots of opinions on what makes for good marketing and sales copy. There are tons of books on what makes good marketing and Martial Arts Marketing Network has its own perspective on what works, find plumbing services in corona. Because of this we won’t go into our beliefs. Instead MAMN encourages research into good marketing copy. An excellent starting point is The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy. For many this is considered the best resource to have for writing good marketing copy.
Read about what else can help you create the perfect Martial Arts Website.
Part 1: Generating Leads with a Martial Arts Website | Part 2: Martial Arts Website Design Basics | Part 3: Martial Arts SEO | Part 4: Martial Arts Content Creation
If you have any questions or comments you can contact me at shawnk@mamnetwork.com.
Martial Arts Marketing Network creates done for you martial arts websites. MAMN websites are designed to generate leads, be user friendly, and much more! To learn more about the Martial Arts Marketing Network’s Done-For-You Website click here.
