(Because pretty isn’t enough to help you grow your business!)

Newly qualified and just getting started as a nutritionist, dietician or functional medicine practitioner?

Firstly - YAY! 🎉 I’m genuinely so excited for you to be pursuing your goals and following your heart to help others. This is SUCH an exciting time in your wellness entrepreneurship journey.

Now - the reason you’re here - those nutritionist website design tips. I’ve spent a fair number of hours reviewing nutritionist, health coach, and wellness practitioner websites, and I’ve seen where people commonly go wrong — so, in this post, I’m breaking down some foundational website design tips and tricks to attract clients, grow your business, and ensure your site supports your growth goals rather than hinders them.

First—why is having a professional-looking website important?

(Note, I did NOT say “perfect”!!! Perfection is a trap — trust me, coming from one overly perfectionistic copywriter and website designer.

So all the things I talk about in this article are things to get “good enough” not “perfect” and to not get hung up on to the point of getting stuck.)

However, It’s 2026, and in today’s digital age, having a professional looking website to promote your work is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity for any nutritionist looking to get consistent clients and grow their practice.

Pourquoi? I’m glad you asked. 😉

For starters, people do judge a book by it’s cover when it comes to your website.

Stanford Web Credibility Research findings suggest that about 75% of people judge a business’s credibility based on its website design.

This means roughly three out of every four potential customers decide how trustworthy and professional a business seems just by looking at its website. 🫢

OK, now we know WHY a website is a helpful tool — let’s dive into the next phase, building it!

The Pages Every Nutritionist Website Should Have

To create an effective nutritionist website, there are several essential pages that you should include.

Combined, these pages provide browsers with all the information they need to go from curious browser to courageous action taker, confident buyer, and firm believer in you as the practitioner for them.

A clear homepage. This is often the first page visitors will see, so it needs to clearly communicate who you are, what you do, who you help, and how you help them. Then it’s the doorway to other important pages on your site — and a place to scoop up people’s email address and contact information.
A strategic service page. You can create one overarching page, or individual services pages. Potential clients want need to understand what you offer and how your services can meet their needs. Each service page should include a comprehensive description, benefits of working with you, your process, and any relevant pricing information. This transparency around pricing helps build trust, particularly in this climate, and makes it easier for clients to make informed decisions.
An “About” page. This is where you can introduce yourself and share your qualifications, experience, personal story, and the root of your passion for nutrition. A genuine, well-crafted “About” page helps build a personal connection with potential clients and establishes your credibility as an expert in the field.
A blog or resources section where you can share helpful content related to nutrition and wellness, and make the Google Gods happy too. Regularly updating your blog with informative articles, tips, and case studies not only positions you as an expert in your field but also improves your website’s SEO, making it easier for potential clients to find you online. Yes please.
Email opt-in(s) to build your list and improve your ability to build a client pipeline. (Studies indicate that only X amount of people are willing to purchase on the first visit to your site, so having a way to capture them before they head off into the www is great.)
Sprinkle in “Testimonials” or “Case Studies” throughout your site, or have a stand alone page, to showcase client success stories. (With respect for privacy.) Positive feedback and happy outcomes from satisfied clients serves as social proof and can heavily influence the decision-making process of potential clients.
A booking page! Make it easy for people to take the next step by integrating your booking system into your website.

These core pages work together to provide a comprehensive overview of your practice and make it easy for visitors to find the information they need.

All of these are included in my Squarespace Website Template for Nutritionists and Functional Medicine Practitioners if you’re looking for a strategic site on a tighter budget!

Choose Your Colour Palette and Typography Carefully

When used consistently across your site, your fonts and colour scheme will create a recognisable brand identity for your nutritionist business.

When selecting typography, it’s important to choose fonts that are easy to read (being legible is legit ESSENTIAL).

Squarespace has some fantastic built-in fonts — across Script, Serif and Sans Serif options — and you can also install fonts you’ve purchased into your site in one click. I use a built-in font for my body copy, and a font I bought a web license for and uploaded to my site for headlines.

Just like fonts convey a “vibe” and energy — so do colours!

In terms of colour, lots of nutritionists choose colours that convey health, freshness, and nature. Greens, blues, neutrals are popular picks as they’re aligned with nature and trust — but others also go for bright vibrant colours to denote energy and vitality and a bright personality, or more autumnal vibes for calming contrast.

It is important to be mindful of having sufficient contrast within your colour palette to make your text readable, and to highlight important elements.

You could use a bold colour for call-to-action buttons to make them stand out — you can see this in practice on my Pippa website template for nutritionists — which also uses a calming green colour palette with a dash of lemon-y yellow for buttons. This can help catch website visitors’ attention to key areas and encourages them to take action on things you want them to, such as booking a consultation or signing up for a newsletter.

Use this website to test whether your text is readable on different colour backgrounds across your site.

Aim for 5+ across most of your colour combinations of text on different backgrounds. It doesn’t need to be perfect across the board, but it is something to keep in mind. As you can see here, on my Squarespace site that the majority of them have a good contrast—the only really no bueno one is Light 3 which I don’t use—and those are the section styles I prioritise.

Have a Clean, Uncluttered Top Navigation

This makes it easy for your website visitors to easily find the information they need on your website. No more 15 links in your top navigation with 7 drop downs please.

Consider: What do people need to see in order to take the next step and work with me? Those are the pages you want to link to up top. Don’t go overboard here. You have a bottom navigation where you can store other links — the top is for the main pages on your website that help you sell your services. Think: Spark Joy philosophy … declutter your top navigation. ;-)

Try to keep to your core 4-5 links.

One way to keep things tidy is to include a (simple) dropdown menus in your top navigation bar — I’ve done this on my own site for my Services and Templates. Or, you could have one link that takes people to a landing page, and they click through to other pages from there.

Either approach keeps your navigation menu clean and uncluttered while providing quick access to all important sections of your site.

Remember, the goal is to make it as easy as possible for potential clients to find the info they need and take the desired action—whether that’s booking a consult, getting to know you better, listening to a podcast episode of yours, or joining your email list.

Bake SEO Keywords into your Website Copy

A small paragraph for a big topic! Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a great tool for ensuring that your nutritionist website ranks well in search engine results and attracts organic traffic.

Start by conducting keyword research to identify the phrases that your target audience is searching for. Really think through — what might people be searching? Use these keywords strategically throughout your website, including in your page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and content. (Without keyword stuffing - if it doesn’t read naturally when you read it back outloud, change it.)

Then, focus on creating high-quality, valuable longer-form blog content. Regularly updating your blog with informative articles, tips, and case studies can help lead people to your services. How? Well, it not only helps improve your SEO by helping you rank for relevant keywords — but it also positions you as an authority in your field to both Google, A.I. LLMs AND prospective clients. And, any content you create can be repurposed or shared across different social platforms, like as an Instagram Carousel or a Linked In post, for example.

As well as using keywords, it’s a good idea to optimise the loading speed of your website by compressing all the images on your site to 250KB to 500KB before uploading them, using a tool like Tinify.

Optimising your website for SEO won’t immediately solve all your marketing problems as it takes time to kick in, BUT it can 100% increase your visibility and help you reach potential clients who are searching for nutrition-related services and information online.

Use Cohesive, High-Quality Imagery

Getting great brand photos and supporting imagery can make or break how your website looks to visitors.

Stock photos can be a good option to SUPPORT your brand photos, but using original brand photography will add a far more personal touch — and likely be far more cohesive in terms of tone, colours, and aesthetic— especially if you are a personal brand and private practice, rather than a large clinic or practice.

Consider using images of you behind-the-scenes in your coaching/nutrition business to create a genuine connection with your audience. And whether you sprinkle in a few headshots, or primarily use stock images, please don’t hide, do feature photos of you — even if it feels uncomfortable to do so. It does help people feel more connected to you, and confident moving forwards in working with you.

If you’re in Auckland, New Zealand, Zanda Photography took my photos and she was wonderful!

Optimise your Nutritionist Website Design for Mobile 🤳

Cause, chances are, your prospective nutrition coaching clients will be scrolling their phones looking for your support, perhaps clicking over from Instagram or TikTok — not just sitting on their desktop at the office. Right? Right. So the last thing we want is a bad experience when many of your potential clients will be checking out your site from their phones.

Mobile optimisation means creating a responsive website design that adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes and provides a smooth browsing experience for users on the go. My Pippa website template has already been optimised for mobile.

If you’re designing your own nutritionst or dietician website in Squarespace (or any other platform like Showit, Shopify, or Wix) pay attention to the layout, font sizes, and button placements on mobile - to ensure that they are user-friendly on smaller screens.

A new feature Squarespace has introduced is being able to hide certain design elements on mobile, which can be really helpful for keeping designs tight and tidy. That eye with a line through it means that shape element isn’t displayed on mobile.

Pro tip: Squarespace does love to shuffle mobile designs around after you’ve made changes on the desktop version, so check your website on different devices (phones, tablets, laptop, desktop) to make sure that it looks good and provides a consistent and enjoyable user experience for all visitors, ESPECIALLY if you’ve been updating it.

You’re welcome! ;)

Bringing it Together for a Site you’re STOKED to Send People to

OK - now we’re all clear that potential clients are way likely to work with someone who presents their services online in a polished and profesh manner.

And you understand why, when you promote a sub-par site, you risk losing out on 75% of your target market who search online for nutrition advice, consultations, and services — because you’re pushing them away as soon as they land on your digital doorstep.

A clear, well-designed website (it doesn’t need to be complicated) that houses strong copy sell your services and persuade people why you are the nutritionist for them, how you can help them, and show them what to do next.

And sure, Instagram and TikTok are helpful for getting visibility and sparking connections, but most health coaches and practitioners I know don’t want to be on there 24/7. A website is a way to sell your services off social — providing a great SUPPLEMENT to your social media presence, and an important part of your marketing eco-system. Plus, Instagram and TikTok can disappear at any moment (eep) and unless you go viral getting traction on there can be tough.

Your website is something you own, that you can always direct ANYONE too, whether it be in conversation, at a networking or social event, a yoga class … you name it, anywhere you’re connecting with people who could benefit from your work, you can direct them to your site to connect further and close the deal.

When building yours, focus on the key elements outlined in this article, and you can create a solid online home that supports the success and growth of your practice. :)

And if you want help - check out my services and get in touch! 🤍