Website Structure

Your website structure is dependent on a number of different factors that include your overall objectives, dedication to creating content, revenue streams, and skill level. I’m a big fan of systematically building information so that each piece references other pieces to make people stay on your website for as long as possible, but doing that requires hundreds of pages of content which you may not have yet. The following are some of the primary types of website structure that you may want to consider using.
With all of these structures, keep in mind that your goal is not to present your products and services, but to get people onto the website with free and interesting information and gently guide them to willfully purchasing your products and services.

BASIC STRUCTURE

No matter what, every personal trainer should have the following in their main navigation structure:
– Home Link
– About Us
– Services
– Schedule
– News
– Location
– Contact
There may be some variation if you have a facility or not, but if you are training people, you need to make this list extremely visible. A good example of a “Business Card” Website that has good navigation is NatalieUhlingFitness.com (not much content, but it looks cool).

Content Marketing Structure

Your basic content marketing structure will be dependent on what type of content you plan on creating combined with the services/products you offer, but you’ll find some similarities between some of the navigational components of the top content marketing websites. I created this basic list off of Q.Equinox.com (a website that I believe has the most elegant navigational structure and presentation) and MensFitness.com (the top fitness website in the world according to Alexa.com):
– Home Link
– Who is [your name]
– Fitness
– Nutrition
– Lifestyle
– Challenges
– Services/Products
– Location
– Contact
Again, there can be many variations of this, but this provides good, top-level structure that allows for a lot of growth. For example, your “Fitness” section could include articles, workouts, workout plans, exercise databases, and more.

Store/Content Marketing Structure

Since you’re reading this, I think it’s safe to assume that you want more than an ecommerce solution, so here is a good example of a combined ecommerce/content marketing structure:
– Home Link
– Products
– Services
– Knowledge
– About Us
– Location
– Contact
Remember that each top category will have many sub-categories; you’re simply trying to project which ones you’ll need over the long term.