4 things to know from this article
- The average coaching website scores 3.65 out of 10. 22.7% score under 3.
- 18.2% ask a stranger to take a next step without giving her any way to leave her email.
- Only 14.3% of coaching websites can be understood in five seconds by somebody who's never heard of the coach.
- Whatever you use instead gets read the same way. A bio, a booking link and a DM have to do the same three jobs.
A coach asked me last month whether she needed a website before she started selling. She'd been told yes by everybody who sells websites.
In this article I'm showing you what the average coaching website is actually worth, from 10,954 live ones we scored out of 10, and what you have to replace it with if you skip it. Whatever you use instead still has to do the three jobs a stranger puts you through, and a bio gets the same five seconds a homepage does.
The market average is 3.65 out of 10. 47.9% of coaching websites score below even that. 22.7% score under 3.
So the honest answer is that a lot of coaches already have a website and it's doing almost nothing for them. Not having one puts you level with them.
What does a website actually do that a profile can't?
Three things, and two of them can be done elsewhere.
It gets found by somebody typing a problem. It explains who you help in a way a stranger understands. It shows enough evidence to make a call feel safe.
Search is the one that's genuinely hard to replace, and it's also the slowest to arrive. If you need clients this quarter, search wasn't going to deliver them anyway.
The other two are a message and some proof, and neither one needs a domain name. A LinkedIn headline can do both. So can the first line of an Instagram bio, a Substack about page, or a single booking page with three testimonials on it.
So what's the website actually failing at?
The same things a bio fails at, and we can put numbers on all of them.
| What we checked on 10,954 sites | Result |
|---|---|
| Market average out of 10 | 3.65 |
| Understandable in five seconds (score 8 or more) | 14.3% |
| Show no proof at all | 66.5% |
| Show no price at all | 82.3% |
| Have a next step but no way to leave an email | 18.2% |
| Score below the market average | 47.9% |
That row about the email is the one I'd point at. 18.2% of coaching websites ask a stranger to do something, and if she isn't ready today there's no way for her to stay in touch. She's either booking a call with a person she found four minutes ago or she's gone.
A well-run Instagram account beats that. At least there she can follow you and decide in six weeks.
What you have to do instead
Whatever the front door is, it gets judged on the same three things a stranger judges a homepage on.
Can she tell what you do, for whom, in five seconds? Only 14.3% of coaching websites manage it, and the sites that do score 9.25 against 2.92 for the ones that don't. Your bio gets the same five seconds. Probably fewer. There's more on the five-second read here.
Is there anything to believe? 66.5% of coaching websites show no proof. A screenshot of a message from a client, posted where people can see it, is proof. It doesn't need a testimonials page.
Can she stay in touch without booking a call? This is the one people skip when they go website-free, because a DM feels like contact. It isn't a list. When you get busy for three months, the people who were nearly ready have nowhere to be.
Which one should you do first then?
Get the sentence right before you build anything.
Who you help and what you fix, in words a stranger uses about herself. That sentence goes on a homepage, a bio, a profile, a business card and the top of an email, so writing it isn't wasted whichever route you take. And it's the single biggest difference between coaching sites that work and ones that don't.
Then pick the front door you'll actually keep up. A neglected website and a neglected Instagram are worth about the same.
If you do build one, what to put on a coaching homepage and in what order is the short version. If the first client is the problem rather than the platform, start with the proof question instead. And the three jobs behind all of this sit in the pillar.
Where this stops being useful
Our data is about websites, so there's an obvious hole in it: we can't score an Instagram account, a referral network or a room you spoke in.
Does that mean a coach with no site is fine? No. It means the site isn't the thing that was going to save you, and the coaches doing well without one are doing the same three jobs somewhere else, usually harder.
Is 10,954 a fair sample? The list was 12,294 domains. 1,156 wouldn't load at all and another 184 loaded with nothing readable on them, so 1,340 are left out rather than scored zero.
If you've got a site already, have it read the way a stranger reads it before you decide it's the problem.
Questions coaches ask about this
Can you be a life coach without a website?
Yes. The average coaching website scores 3.65 out of 10 on what a stranger needs from it, and 22.7% score under 3, so plenty of coaches are already effectively running without one. What you can't skip is a clear message and some proof.
How do I get coaching clients on Instagram without a website?
The same three jobs apply: be findable on a problem people name, be understandable in five seconds, be believable before you ask. The one thing a profile doesn't give you is a list, so people who are nearly ready have nowhere to wait.
Do I need a website to sell coaching?
To take money, no. A booking link and a payment link will do it. To be found by a stranger who's searching her problem rather than your name, a site is still the only thing that works, and it takes months.
Is a Linktree enough for a coaching business?
For selling, often yes. For being found, no. It's a set of links with no sentence at the top explaining who you help, and that sentence is the biggest single difference between coaching sites that work and ones that don't.