1. The basics of a website for massage
What are massage therapist websites?
A website can house all sorts of important information about your massage business, including information about your services, business hours, an appointment booking tool, customer testimonials, contact information, and more. Your website can become a one-stop shop for your customers to get to know you and contact you.
Below, we’ll get into the details to explain why you need a website for your massage therapy business, what should go on it, and how to get started.
Why does a massage therapist need a website?
Maybe you’re new to the massage business. Maybe you’ve been in business for years. Now, you may be asking yourself, “Do I need a massage website?” The answer is absolutely yes. All sorts of businesses now have websites, from restaurants to clothing stores and, yes – massage therapists.
Websites are how the average person will find out about your business. Appearing in online search results for nearby massage therapists can be a critical source of new business. Having a good website can help you stand out among your competition and attract new customers.
How do I start a massage website?
With the benefits out of the way, you may now be asking yourself, “How do I create a massage website?” The answer is a lot simpler than you’d expect. You start by deciding whether to hire a website designer or do it yourself using a website builder. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of each in more detail below.
Then, you find an open domain. Pick something easy to remember, and that is clearly associated with your business. After building your website with the help of a designer or a website builder, it takes minimal effort to maintain.
What should be included in a massage website?
Don’t be overwhelmed when you’re deciding what to put on your new website. We’ve compiled a list of the essential components that every massage website should have:
- Call-to-Action: The most important part of a massage therapy website is the call-to-action. You aren’t building this website just for your customers to read – you’re building it for them to buy your service. Whether your website call-to-action links to a sophisticated digital reservations system or a simple email or phone number, it’s important to have a prominent button for website visitors to reach out to you.
- Business Information: You should make your website hours, location, and phone number easily visible so that visitors don’t have to go looking for them.
- Services: Explain the various massage therapy services your business offers. This will help visitors see if you have what they are looking for.
- Customer Testimonials: It’s great to have a place to showcase the words of satisfied customers. This can help visitors to your site get a sense of the quality of your service and can be the difference between them choosing you or a competitor.
- About: Tell the story of your business. This humanizes you and makes site visitors comfortable that you’re a real small business that cares about their customers.
- Social Media Links: Social media is one of the main ways that customers can become familiar with your services. Linking to it prominently from your website will help grow your social following.
The last essential piece of a massage website is technically optional: a blog. The reason we think a blog is essential is because posting regular articles about health and well-being can make your massage website stand out from the rest. Actively maintained websites are more trusted by visitors. This blog content also helps your website appear higher in search results. Above all, turning your business into a lifestyle brand by posting about the well-being benefits of regular massages will help you get repeat customers.
Professional design services V.S. Website builders
When it comes time to build your website, you have two main options, each of which has its benefits and tradeoffs. Let’s take a look at them below.
| Category | Professional Design Services | Website Builders |
| Ease | Using a professional design service is much more hands-off. You express your preferences and opinions, but the designer and developer build it for you. | Website builders can have a bit of a learning curve, but many of the top website builders out there today have pretty intuitive user interfaces. You’ll be a website-building pro in no time! |
| Control | When you use a professional design service, you may have to go back to the developer even for simple updates. This is especially true for fully customized websites. | Website builders are the DIY solution, and you have total control over making changes or updates whenever you need to. |
| Flexibility | A professional designer can make your website do anything that their development skills allow, giving you some additional flexibility in look, feel, and features. | With a website builder, you will be working from a pre-designed template. Many of these templates are fairly customizable, but there are definite limitations. |
| Tech Support | Check your agreement with your professional design service to make sure they will be providing tech support if you have issues with the website over time. | Website builders are large businesses, and they will have dedicated (often 24/7) tech support options. |
| Cost | Professional design services can be offered by freelancers or design agencies. Freelancers can frequently cost between $500 and $5,000, depending on website complexity. Design agencies typically start at about $3,000 and go up from there. | Most website builders charge a monthly or annual flat fee for access to their platform that includes the cost of your domain and web hosting. These prices are usually less than $30 per month but may be slightly more if you plan to conduct e-commerce. |
2. How to build websites for massage services with website builders
Massage service website builders and templates
There are many different website builder options out there – and many that provide templates tailor-made for massage therapy businesses! But, amid all of the different options, it can be hard to decide. Below we’ll dive into some of the website builders with massage templates and tell you a little about the templates themselves.
Wix
Wix is a top choice among small businesses because of the great value they provide. With plans starting at $16 per month and hundreds of templates to choose from, it offers tons of features, including a logo design tool, email newsletter integrations, and more. If there’s any downside to Wix, it’s that there are so many features and options that you may not know where to start.
Wix has three website templates purpose-built for massage therapy businesses: Lisa Cole, The Health SPA, and Ray Klien Acupuncture. We’ll talk more about their color, tone, and features below.
Lisa Cole
Lisa Cole is a website template that screams approachable well-being. Its earth-tone palette of green and pale yellow subtly shows the connection between nature and health. Down to the hand-written style of the quotation marks on the client testimonials, the website is casual and modern, with soft lines. It’s certain to attract a young and creative customer base.
It’s a great choice for a small massage therapy business that wants a simple website to house its most important information. This template has a service catalog and built-in e-commerce options for accepting direct payment through the site.
Its main drawback is that the call-to-action is not highly visible at the top of the page. But this is something that could easily be fixed during the customization process.
The Health SPA
The Health SPA template has a simple layout that centralizes most options in the top menu. With a green-and-white design, this template looks very clean. It has a notable call-to-action button and some nice carousel features for showing several services on a page.
But, this template has a slightly dated look. It’s probably best for massage therapy businesses going after an older customer demographic that prioritize simple and easy-to-navigate websites over creativity.
Ray Klien Acupuncture
This elegant template for Ray Klien Acupuncture uses a nude color scheme, crisp photography, and bold sans-serif fonts to draw in visitors. Its design choices create a sophisticated atmosphere that is perfect for attracting a high-end clientele.
With a prominent call-to-action and straightforward continuous scroll design that puts most information in one easy-to-understand page, this template is a great option for any massage therapy business.
WordPress
WordPress is the top website builder and is famous as the platform of choice for bloggers and magazines. Its features allow for the seamless integration of blogs into websites and also allow your blog content to be cross-published with the WordPress Reader community, enabling you to reach a wider audience.
But, WordPress’s most basic plans aren’t very suitable for businesses, especially those that plan to accept payments directly through their site. With one of the higher tier plans, however, you’ll unlock access to a massive library of templates and plugins unmatched anywhere else on the internet.
With the option to host your website through WordPress or use its platform to build a website housed on a separate web hosting service, WordPress offers maximum flexibility for those DIYers most excited to customize their sites.
We’ll discuss six massage-specific WordPress templates below: Chea – Spa and Massage, Rela – Spa Massage, Jacqueline | Spa & Massage Salon Beauty, Natural Spa – Massage Booking, Massage Therapist and Spa Salon, and Grand Spa | Massage Salon.
Chea – Spa and Massage
Chea – Spa and Massage uses large images, dark space, and motion to create a stunning website. The gentle motion on its banner images excites visitors’ eyes, and the dark backgrounds focus attention on the images.
The theme has a plethora of customization features. One potential drawback is its navigational complexity. It’s a good website to house a lot of information, but it doesn’t have a prominent call-to-action, and it tends to have a lot of sub-pages to search through. This drawback can be mitigated with some thoughtful customization.
Rela – Spa Massage
Rela – Spa Massage is a pink-and-nude theme with an intuitive interface and a homepage carousel to highlight photography of your massage business. It has a convenient menu at the top of the page that centralizes navigation, contact information, social media links, and a prominent call-to-action.
The home page itself also has customizable feature blocks for a lot of features, including a timeline feature for telling your business’s story and a people carousel for showcasing your massage therapy team.
Jacqueline | Spa & Massage Salon Beauty
Jacqueline is an especially good theme for massage businesses that focus on female customers. The pink theme and cursive writing provide a feminine touch, and the template is full of various feature blocks that allow the easy rollout of e-commerce.
This template also has a very useful menu at the top of the page with customizable links and information, including business hours and contact info.
Natural Spa – Massage Booking
The Natural Spa theme highlights images. It uses moving features to add visual interest and light green accent colors to give a healthy and natural style to the site. These attributes make it a very fun theme.
However, the movement can be a little extreme, and it may be distracting. We recommend using movement sparingly to highlight the most important info on your site. As for the visual design itself, it’s a little old-fashioned but very straightforward to use.
Massage Therapist and Spa Salon
The Massage Therapist and Spa Salon theme is very crisp and professional. With a chunky but stylish top menu bar that shrinks as you scroll and a light orange theme, the website seems warm and elegant.
If you have great photos of your massage business, this website’s central banner image carousel is a great way to spotlight this. With a very notable call-to-action and easily visible business information, this theme is a great choice.
Grand Spa | Massage Salon
The Grand Spa theme is simplicity itself! With an all-screen photograph and discreet top-side toolbar, this website theme is clean and modern. If this is your website template of choice, you’ll want to use professional photographs to make the most of this site’s visual appeal.
It has a prominently placed appointment booking button in the top toolbar to make it easy for your customers to schedule a massage from any page.
Webflow
Webflow is another website builder with a smaller user base. Their best offerings are for blogs and content-driven websites, and they are known for their Content Management System (CMS) features. While you can build e-commerce sites using their platform, the plans can run into hundreds of dollars per month for premium features. If you plan to sell any products through your site, it’s recommended you use a different website builder.
The design platform is also slightly less intuitive than some of its larger competitors, but there are also Webflow-trained experts that you can hire for help and a large library of trainings through Webflow University. Website templates are also comparatively expensive on Webflow.
We’ll discuss three massage-specific Webflow templates below: Bliss, Belliuri, and SPA X.
Bliss
Bliss is a clean and modern template that prizes simplicity. Slightly less minimalist than other similar offerings, it has clear, legible text and bold images and accent colors. With a bright orange call-to-action button that appears on the landing page banner image and in the page header, it’s very easy for your site visitors to schedule an appointment.
The template also makes good but subtle use of motion to keep the user experience interesting as you scroll.
Belluri
Belluri is a very retro template that will help you build a website that looks straight out of 2010! With serif font, a green accent color, and transparent background images that pop off the screen, it’s a fun website for a quaint little massage business.
Don’t expect to attract sophisticated customers with this theme, but it’d be a nice template for a small business in a small town.
SPA X
SPA X is an elegant site template with orange accents and a bold call-to-action button on its home page banner image. It also has e-commerce features built in and stylish carousel feature blocks that flash onto your screen, creating visual interest.
Some of the features feel a bit hidden on the sparse landing page, but if you keep scrolling, you’ll find a world of information.
Things you need to consider before building a massage website
Looking through these templates, you’ll see that the sky is really the limit when it comes to the features of modern website builders. Most templates can do anything you want, so it’s important to be thoughtful and intentional about how to design and build your site. Simplicity helps customers find their way to the information they want.
As we mentioned before, blog features are also an important part of a good massage website strategy. Posting regular content on your website helps build trust with visitors, attract new customers, and place you higher in search results.
3. Best massage websites examples for inspiration
If you’re getting started and want some inspiration from real-life massage websites, you’re in luck. We’ve gathered our top picks for the best massage websites. Check them out below.
Massage Naples
The Massage Naples website is simple and accessible. With a large header that houses simple navigation and clear contact information and social links, it has a prominent call-to-action on top of a full-width banner image.
The website also highlights the services and expertise and adds a humanizing touch by referring to the massage therapist by name.
Kaya Kama
The website for Kaya Kama welcomes you with the bold words “where beauty meets soul.” The landing page is certainly beautiful, using a muted palette of creams and tans and soft movement to highlight beautiful natural images.
The site has an e-commerce store and clearly marked call-to-action buttons that help you access its services. The website also has a blog where you can see more information about the benefits of massage therapy.
Healthy Massage
Healthy Massage has a very clean and angular website with feminine pink-colored accents and a curly logo. Their image banner carousel highlights their various services, and they have a dedicated page to discuss the health benefits of their massage services.
The website is easy to navigate and gives clear information for both of their locations. A clear price list also makes it easy for potential customers to pick their desired service ahead of time.
ROA Bodywork
ROA Bodywork’s website has a straightforward menu at the top of the landing page that centralizes navigation, contact information, and the call-to-action button. As you scroll, the menu stays accessible, making it easy to book an appointment from any page. The subtle purple accent colors also complement the banner image.
This website even has a careers page for prospective employees, a great feature for a growing business.
Float Luxury Spa
Float Luxury Spa clearly has luxury in the name for a reason. The website’s muted color palette and stunning photography rely on the green and blue in the images to add visual interest. With a discreet menu at the top of the page and a personalized message from the CEO to welcome visitors, this website looks minimal and elegant.
Remedy Wellness
With a bold banner image that puts bright purple at the center of your screen, the Remedy Wellness website also makes bold font choices that add visual interest. With a minimal menu along the top of the page, the website reveals new secrets as you scroll down, culminating in “Our Promise,” a section explaining Remedy’s commitment to its customers.
Body Balance Massage & Float
The Body Balance website has a full-width banner image and a prominent call-to-action. Its most unique feature may be the pop-up message form that appears when you arrive on the landing page. It lets you send a question directly to the business.
Body Balance has also made good use of the top banner of the page by advertising discounts for first-time customers. With convenient online booking and a crisp, comprehensive website, Body Balance exudes professionalism.
NYC MASSAGE AND SPA
With nude accents and boldly labeled buttons, the NYC Massage and Spa website is easy to navigate and very clear. It has convenient business information at the top of the page, which includes a live business hours widget that tells you what the hours are today.
The website also features testimonials and an explanation of massage therapy’s benefits right on the home page.
4. Best website for massage therapists: Turnkey Websites
From our perspective, there is a way to create your massage website that’s even cheaper and more efficient than using a website builder to do it yourself. Turnkey Websites Online is a top provider of turnkey websites, which are fully developed sites that are ready for you to plug your business into and start almost immediately.
They have excellent tech support to make sure your website stays up and running 24/7. Turnkey Websites Online also has an unique auto-blogging feature which other competitors do not have. The turnkey websites will allow you to focus on your massage therapy business, while the website automatically adds active blog content, to help you rank high on search engines and attract new customers.
You can check out Turney Websites Online’s easy and unique ready-to-use massage website demo here!
