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Top 5 CrossFit & Fitness Websites

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Determining a “best” or “top” CrossFit of Fitness website is nearly an impossible task. There will never be a consensus as to what factors should or should not contribute to a ranking. That said, I went looking for CrossFit and Fitness websites that had successful businesses behind them and did a lot of the right things online. Those “right” things could be design, content, or engagement related. An example of some of the items I looked for:

  • A solid, appealing design that was easy to navigate
  • Regular, valuable content posted to the blog
  • Calls-to-action placed on the website and on the posts
  • Easy social sharing
  • SEO titles and content

Before we dive into the top 5 CrossFit and fitness websites, I wanted to mention that during my research I couldn’t find a single website that did everything perfectly. All had a few things they could improve upon. That should be good news for many of the smaller gyms out there that are seeking to gain a better foothold in the market. If you do the right things, there is no reason why you can’t gain market share.

The Top 5 CrossFit & Fitness Websites

Barbell Shrugged

Why: They are seen as leaders in the fitness arena and, while not strictly CrossFit, provide a ton of information relevant to fitness enthusiasts. Barbell Shrugged also gets engagement on their posts which is excellent. Their podcast is excellent, particularly for gym owners, and they have courses for people at all levels. They have CTA’s on their blog posts which is a great way of converting website visitors. The posts also share well.

What could they improve? Their website design, the blog specifically, could use a bit of a design upgrade. The images fall outside the post content and that can be a bit distracting from the good content. Additionally, the CTA’s could use an upgrade to be more clickable and stand out from the post itself.

barbell-shrugged

Catalyst Athletics

Why: While maybe not the most well designed of websites, this website packs a serious content punch. They have a newsletter sign up (right as you enter the website) and they have resources on just about everything you could ask for about weightlifting and fitness, including video demonstrations. The posts share very easily and they have a CTA for a book in the sidebar on nearly every page.

What could they improve? They have Google Ads in their sidebar. This is bad for two reasons: 1) it discredits their other CTA’s and effectively hides them as the Google Ads compete with their own CTA’s. Additionally, their posts could use more images to break up the content and be more visually appealing. Images are recognized in about 50 milliseconds which is much faster than text recognition. They would likely see a much higher conversion rate on their CTA’s if they place it at the end of their articles.

catalyst-athletics

Breaking Muscle

Why: A more modern design for a fitness website, Breaking Muscle comes at you with a ton of knowledge in all sorts of areas of fitness. They have high-quality photos in their posts and they have a single CTA on most of their website. The social share buttons are easy to find on the post and the titles are SEO friendly.

What could they fix? They have a CTA but I’ve only seen it at the bottom of one post. It would likely be more effective if included at the bottom of each post and in the sidebar. Additionally, the action the CTA wants you to take – Register Now – feels like it can get hidden. I’d run an A/B test if they haven’t already and see if it would improve click rates. It seems the CTA disappears completely on mobile (which is more than 50% of traffic for most websites now).

breaking-muscle-cta

breaking-muscle-mobile

Invictus

Why: Invictus is an incredibly popular CrossFit box in San Diego and their website is just as popular among CrossFitters. Their blog is highly informative and they regularly post in all categories. Most of the titles on their blog posts are SEO relevant to help pull readers in.

What could they fix? The design is clean without many errors. So other than changing the design, they could improve the font size to make it more readable. Additionally, they have CTA’s in the sidebar but not the post. They would draw much more attention to those items if they did. Especially if the blog post fits a type of offer they already have. They also lack social sharing on their website. If I loved it, it becomes awfully hard to share it with other people I think would enjoy it. The posts share well if I copy the link but I’d like to see it be a little easier straight from the post so I don’t have to leave the website.

invictus

NorCal CrossFit

Why: They do a great job engaging their community and providing helpful tips and recipes. The homepage serves two groups well: possible new members and current members looking for the workout of the day. The menu is easy to navigate.

What could they fix? Their blog titles are not helping them in terms of SEO (beyond the term “NorCal CrossFit”). They would be better served targeting a wider subset of keywords and ending the meta title with “-NorCal CrossFit”. There isn’t any social sharing on the blog posts and that can make spreading the post difficult. Additionally, it feels like they are creating blog posts daily because they have to – not because they are sharing valuable content. Also, I see only bottom funnel CTA’s about signing up now. They would be better served placing top-funnel or middle-funnel CTA’s to attract a broader pool of possible members.

norcal-crossfit

Final Thoughts

The goal of a gym is not to have a fantastic website. It is to run a successful business. A website can help you do it but it isn’t the only method of growing your business. These top 5 CrossFit and fitness websites have successful businesses and do a lot of good things online. The main thing to take away from this post is that you don’t need a perfect website to run a successful gym business – but it can sure help.

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*Disclosure: for impartiality, no Uhuru Network clients were included on this list

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