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A detailed look at three gymnastics center websites to uncover best practices for effective layout design and showcasing your services.
There’s a lot that goes into running a successful gymnastics center. An often overlooked component is the website and how well it acts as a marketing tool to bring in new customers. Your website should make it effortless for families to find information and take action. The best gymnastics websites maintain their content, organize information logically, and make it clear what visitors should do next.
After reviewing several gymnastics center websites, I've identified key principles that can help any business’ online presence. Specifically, I’ll be analyzing GMS Gymnastics, KiPS Family Gymnastics, and Capital Gymnastics National Training Center to see what we can learn from them.
GMS Gymnastics is a fairly straightforward and easy-to-navigate website.
You’re immediately greeted with a professional team photo with the title “Home of the 2024 State, Regional & National Champions.”
They provide links to all their offerings and programs making it easy for parents to explore what's available. Whether you’re looking for summer classes, hosted meets, or travel team information, you can easily find it near the top.
Their "Who We Are" section effectively introduces visitors to the gym. It mentions which counties they serve, explains that they offer both recreational and competitive teams, and emphasizes their focus on children. This kind of well-written introductory content helps visitors quickly determine if the studio is a good fit.
As you move down the homepage, you can see a section that showcases lots of examples of their alumni who have signed with various colleges.
There are an assortment of local and national universities that are featured. This is an excellent way to build social proof and demonstrate the long-term value of their program.
Lastly, It's easy to follow them on social media with very prominent links if you want to keep up with the latest news.
It’s also easy to get directions and reach out with any questions. Overall, GMS Gymnastics does a good job with keeping a clean homepage and having enough on it to draw the visitor in and also link off to additional pages.
For any website, you want to remove any elements or inconsistencies that raise questions in the user’s mind. First, they have two navigation menus at the top with some duplicate links.
"Contact Us" and "Closings" both appear twice, raising the question of why they’re repeated and whether or not they go to the same pages. Also, some links like "Make Up Policy" and "GMS Rules and Policies" should be moved to the footer where users typically expect to find them. Interestingly, the GMS Rules page actually already includes a section for make-up policy, making the separate link redundant. Cleaning up your main site navigation is the first and most crucial step to ensuring a seamless visitor experience.
There’s also a link in the menu to their blog page. Their blog contains just three posts, with the most recent from 2021. Outdated blogs indicate "abandoned website" to visitors. If you're not going to maintain a blog, I’d recommend removing it entirely.
The header elements are formatted as links but lead to 404 error pages, creating a frustrating user experience. Because they're links, they also create an odd hover effect that confuses visitors.
If you’re using a site builder, be sure to use the correct element for headers and links. Links are a way of directing traffic and routing visitors to key pages of impact. You never want to direct visitors to a page that doesn’t exist.
In their services section, the card layout lacks consistent spacing, and one card has its button positioned at the top instead of the bottom like the others. These details might seem minor, but they draw attention because they’re out of alignment.
But perhaps most problematically, each of these links open in new tabs. It's been an established web-usability guideline to refrain from opening new browser windows or tabs for several reasons. It clutters the user’s information space and requires more effort to manage. Moreover, it can cause disorientation, with users often not realizing that a new window or tab has opened.
KiPS Family Gymnastics has a compelling header section, though it could use some refinements.
Their tagline "Gymnastics. By Families. For Families." is excellent, but the text is hard to read due to insufficient contrast. The same readability issue appears in the navbar. A darker overlay behind the text would make the white text stand out much better.
I like that they don't overcomplicate the available options and include two solid calls to action. Their use and reinforcement of brand colors throughout the site also creates good visual consistency.
However, their "About" dropdown can be a little confusing. Most of the time, "About" is a single page about your business. In this case, it's a dropdown with seven links underneath.
Items like "Make up and Cancellations," "Waiver," and "Gift Cards" definitely don't belong under about. "Location," "The Kips Family," "FAQs," and "Partnerships" could be grouped together on one comprehensive about page. It's unwieldy to force visitors to navigate to all these separate pages just to learn about your business.
I’m not a proponent of using “More” in navigation menus because it’s a catch-all and doesn’t provide any insight to visitors. The submenu items - Birthday parties and Camps - could be grouped under Open Gym & Events in order to do away with this category.
When you look at the KiPS Family homepage, you have confidence that they maintain their website. All events are up to date, giving visitors confidence they're looking at current, relevant information.
The class details strike just the right balance. Parents can see dates, times, duration, costs, discounts, and registration links presented in easy-to-scan bullet points. This is excellent for user interaction when families visit your site wanting to enroll in classes.
Their approach to presenting information shows they understand their audience: busy parents trying to make informed decisions quickly. By putting essential details front and center, they eliminate the frustration of hunting through multiple pages for basic information.
Capital Gymnastics does an excellent job infusing their logo throughout the site.
You can see it used as a decorative accent in the header section and elsewhere in the homepage as image links. This creates visual consistency that feels intentional rather than repetitive.
The brand blue color is consistently used throughout on buttons, links, and headings. While the blue looks great against black backgrounds, it doesn't meet basic accessibility standards when contrasted with white. All buttons with white text fail to provide adequate contrast and are harder to read.
Their mottos are woven throughout the site: "Capital Strong" and "Strong Body, Strong Mind, Strong Self." The curly logo matches perfectly with their script typography, creating a cohesive brand experience.
Despite strong branding, Capital Gymnastics falls into a critical trap with outdated content. Their gym news section hasn't been updated since January 1, 2022.
This signals to visitors that the site isn't well maintained and calls into question what other information might be outdated. Are the forms current? What about prices, class times, and schedules?
They also still have a link in their main navigation menu to a Thanksgiving camp from last year. The fastest way to undermine credibility is with stale content. When visitors see outdated promotional content, they start questioning what pieces of information on your website are accurate.
When visitors can't trust your website's accuracy, they'll look elsewhere. My recommendation is to remove anything from your site that you aren't actively maintaining.
Capital Gymnastics adds a nice touch by including a photo gallery synced with Instagram.
Visitors can see that they're active on social media, with photos of gymnasts signing with colleges and winning awards. This builds credibility and showcases program success.
It’s understandable that business owners are inundated with many responsibilities, and it’s easy to overlook website content maintenance. However, your website may be the first exposure to your business for many customers, so delivering updated news and event dates is crucial.
From reviewing these three sites, we’ve learned the importance of making key information like class details, pricing, and registration easy to find on the homepage. Navigation should be simple and intuitive, with no broken links, duplicate menus, or confusing layouts. Your website is often a parent's first impression of your studio, so every detail from clean design to updated content should build confidence and make it easy for families to get started.
If you're a business owner looking to refine your website this year, please fill out the contact form and mention that you'd like a website review in the project description. I'll personally evaluate your site and provide a consultation with tailored feedback and a plan of action.
