Whether you’re a fresh yoga teacher looking to set up your first website, or already an established yogipreneur, you probably already know that designing a website isn’t easy. However, if you are laboring under an incorrect set of assumptions, it’s even harder.

I want to debunk some of the most common myths about websites that you should stop believing right now.

Myth #1: I Don’t Need a Website When I’m Already Active on Social Media

Many yoga teachers think that because they already have a Facebook page or Instagram profile, they don’t need a website.

You can post your schedule, updates and events there, right?

The problem is that just a few of your followers will actually SEE your posts. That’s because of the algorithm, Facebook and Instagram basically want you to pay for ads.

Also, the attention spans on social media is really low. Most people scroll through their feeds rather mindlessly and don’t stop to read.

And finally, it’s super hard to get someone to actually click on a link and leave the social media platform they are on. Social media platforms are designed to be addictive, to keep their users scrolling as long as possible, because then they can sell more ads and make more money.

Building your brand on social media is like building your house on someone else’s land.

I recommend that you be active on social media, definitely use it to build a deeper, more personal connection with your followers, but make your website and your email list your hub.

It’s just smarter to invest your time and money into marketing channels that you truly own.

Myth #2: I Can Outsource My Website Development and Forget About It

Don’t we all wish sometimes that there would be a marketing fairy, we hand over a little bit of money, as little as possible, and she would take care of all our marketing activities. No more posting, or selling, or updating a website.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t exist!

Yes, you can hire someone to build your website for you (for example me). But don’t think for a minute that this means you have nothing to do with it anymore…

You’ll still have to make all the decisions: on colors and fonts, your logo, what content you want to show, your copy… There is no magic website fairy that will take all that away from you and I recommend that you embrace this process and find joy in it.

If you hire someone to design your website, you need to brief her or him. You will be the one telling them what you need on your website, what purpose your website will have, what’s your branding like and so much more.

If you have a good designer, she or he will question your input and make suggestions. They will understand your business and your goals and what you want. This is what I do.

But very often a designer will simply do what you tell them to do. And when you don’t really know how to set up your website strategically, or never thought about what purpose your page has, you might end up with a website that might look pretty, but that’s doing nothing to help you sell your offerings.

Myth #3: Once I Have a Website, I’m Set

How I wish this would be true. But building a website is more like buying a car, only instead of changing oil and buying gas you must maintain it, update content, stay up to date with legal requirements and more.

For your visitors, it’s the first impression they have of you and your business. And if there are broken links or forms that are not working it doesn’t give a good first impression and they might be hesitant to work with you.

Of course, mistakes happen, but you should try to minimize them.

To keep your website afloat, I recommend that you block a few hours each month to go over your content, make changes, and update the tech things if needed. Once a year I recommend a more thorough spring check for your website where you look at the content, check all your forms and test your links. And every few years look at it with a critical eye and decide if it may be time for a relaunch. It’s like housekeeping.

Myth #4: It Doesn’t Matter What My Website Looks Like – I’ll Just Go with The Cheapest Option

While I don’t think your website needs to be designed by an expensive designer, first impressions count, especially today.

The truth is, if your website is outdated and full of errors, it will reflect poorly on the quality of your teaching. If teaching yoga is just a hobby for you, okay, but if it’ your job you’re a professional and you need a professional website.

This means your website should be easy to navigate, have a design that represents your brand, is responsive (this means it looks good on a smartphone, too) and has no obvious grammar and spelling mistakes.

It’s your expertise as a teacher and the quality of your teachings that will have people come back. But to get them in the room first, you need to make a good impression with your website.

Your website is an important marketing tool, and if you don’t treat it as one, you’re actually doing your potential students a disservice, because if they don’t trust you enough to sign up for a class or workshop because of your website, you won’t be able to help them.

Myth 5: I’ll Be on The First Page of Google with My Website Right Away

Having a website doesn’t mean that new customers will automatically find you on the first page of Google when they search for yoga. Or yoga in your city. Or yoga retreats.

Even doing all the things you’re told to do, like including key words everywhere, is not going to magically put you in the coveted top-10 search results on Google for any given keyword.

Just think about it – if it would be that easy, everybody would be on the first page of the search results, which logistically isn’t possible. There’re only so many spots on that coveted page!

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t optimize your website for search engine optimization, or SEO. Your website designer can help you with that or you can learn how to do it, for example I include a lesson on SEO in my course Blissful Websites.

But it’s a long-term strategy. It can take a few weeks or even months for Google to show your page in the search results.

Your best bet to get more visitors is to consistently publish content, for example with a blog. If you publish 1 blog post each week, after a year you have 52 additional pages that Google can index and use to direct traffic to your website, compared to your basic 5-10 pages.

That’s what I do, and I get most of my website traffic from Google, hundreds of visitors each day.

That didn’t happen overnight, but now I can reap the benefits every single day, because blog

Building a great yoga website doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming.

Thanks to the advances in technology it’s never been easier to build your own website, even if you’re feeling totally tech-shabby, and with a little bit of support the website of your dreams is only a few clicks away.

If you want to learn more how you can design your own website in WordPress, I would like to invite you into my program Blissful Websites.

Blissful Websites is my complete step-by-step program to help you design, build, and launch your WordPress website.

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch, with no idea where to start, or if you already have a website but it doesn’t look like anything you envision for your brand.

I’ll show you step-by-step what you need to do, you’re basically looking over my shoulder and watching every click how I design the website. It’s like paining with numbers and you’ll have your beautiful website up in no time.

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