What a yoga studio website needs: pages, words and photos

A yoga studio website needs fewer pages than most owners think: a home page that says what kind of studio you are, a schedule, a page for newcomers, a page explaining prices, a teachers page and a contact page with directions. What makes it work is the words on those pages and photos of your real room, not an extra ten pages of philosophy.

The pages, and the question each one answers

Think of each page as the answer to a question someone has before they walk in.

Home: "Is this my kind of place?" Say the style or feel of the studio in one line, the neighborhood, and the next step.
Schedule: "Is there a class I can make this week?"
New here / First class: "Will I be lost, and what do I bring?"
Pricing: "What does it cost to try, and what after that?"
Teachers: "Who will be at the front of the room?"
Contact and directions: "Where do I park and which door do I use?"

Optional pages earn their place only if you really offer the thing: workshops and teacher training, private sessions, a rental page for the space, a small shop for mats. If you run one retreat every two years, a short mention on the home page is enough.

The home page: what a newcomer checks in ten seconds

Someone who finds you on their phone looks for three things before they scroll: the kind of yoga, where you are, and whether beginners are welcome. Put all three above the first photo or right beside it.

Compare these openings:

"A space to breathe, move and come home to yourself."
"Small, heated and unheated yoga classes in downtown Ashford. Beginners welcome every day."

The first could be any studio in America. The second tells a person what they will get. You can keep a softer line underneath; the plain one goes first.

Below that, a short strip of next steps works well: "See this week's classes", "New? Start here", "Prices". Then a few lines about the studio itself: the size of the room, the size of classes, whether props are provided, if there are showers.

Photos that help, and the ones that do not

People choosing a studio are trying to picture themselves in your room. That makes your photos more important than in most trades, and stock photos less useful than anywhere.

Photos worth taking:

The empty room in good daylight, so people see the space, the floor and the light.
A real class from the back of the room, with permission from everyone in it. Ordinary bodies of different ages tell beginners they belong.
The entrance from the street, so a first-timer recognizes the door.
Each teacher, smiling, not in an advanced pose.
The details: the props wall, the changing area, the cubbies.

Skip the sunset beach handstand unless it is your beach and your class. Advanced poses look beautiful and scare off the person who has not touched their toes in twenty years. Taking good photos for your website with a phone covers light and framing if you are shooting them yourself.

The teachers page

A short block per teacher beats long biographies. For each one: a photo, the classes they teach, how they teach in a sentence ("slow, lots of cues, plenty of options for tight hips"), and their training. A list of every workshop they have ever taken is not needed; a newcomer just wants to know if this person is kind and clear.

If your schedule shows the teacher for each class, link the teacher's name to their block. People often pick a class by teacher once they have been twice.

Words to leave out

Many studio sites lose newcomers with language that is meaningful to regulars and confusing to everyone else.

Sanskrit names with no translation. "Vinyasa" means little to a first-timer; "Vinyasa (flowing, moves with the breath, moderate pace)" helps.
Long passages about lineage before the reader knows when classes are.
Phrases like "all levels" on every class, including the ones that are clearly not. Be honest about which classes are gentle.
A pricing page with seven membership tiers and no hint which one a newcomer should buy.

The rest of the detail about how to lay out class times, beginner paths and memberships is in our companion guide on yoga studio schedules, beginners and memberships.

The contact path: phone, email, door

Yoga students often have one small question before they commit: "Can I come if I'm pregnant?", "Is the heated class too much for a first time?", "Do you have mats to borrow?" If they cannot ask it easily, they do not come.

Make asking easy:

Your phone number at the top of every page, as a link that dials when tapped, with a note if the desk is not always staffed ("Call or text; we reply between classes").
An email address or a short form with just name, email and the question.
The full address, a map, and one line about parking or transit.
Which entrance to use, and whether the door is locked once class starts.

If your contact form messages seem to disappear, read where website contact form messages go before you assume nobody wrote.

What to do this week

Rewrite the first line of your home page to say the kind of yoga, the neighborhood and "beginners welcome" if it is true.
Take three photos: the empty room, the entrance, the props wall.
Give every class style on your site a plain-English description in brackets.
Check that the phone number on your site dials when you tap it on your own phone.
Ask a friend who has never done yoga to find the first-class page in under a minute.

If your current site has the right content but feels cluttered or old on a phone, you can see it rebuilt as a modern studio site and decide once it is in front of you.