Koa Sports
When your business is world-class, your website should be too.
The Brief
Koa Sports came to us with a problem more common than you’d think – a wildly successful business held back by a website that didn’t come close to telling their story.
As the #1 globally ranked 1:1 triathlon coaching service in the IRONMAN TriClub Global Program, with 22 championship titles and athletes across 30+ countries, Koa’s credentials are extraordinary. But their website hadn’t kept pace. It had served its purpose – Koa had simply grown far beyond what it could represent. The mismatch between the quality of their coaching and the perception their website created was costing them credibility with every visitor who landed on it.
The goal was clear: build something as bold, confident and results-driven as the people behind it.
Our Client
Founded by Tim Ballintine in 2017 and based on the Sunshine Coast, Koa Sports is the most successful 1:1 triathlon coaching club in the global IRONMAN TriClub Program. Their team of five full-time, nationally accredited coaches work with athletes remotely across 30+ countries, from first-time IRONMAN finishers to Kona World Championship qualifiers. Like us, they punch well above their geographical weight, proving that where you’re based has nothing to do with how far your reach can go.
Working with Tim was one of those projects that reminds you why you love what you do. Tim is efficient, decisive and genuinely fun to work with – it’s no surprise the business runs as well as it does. And when you spend weeks immersed in Koa’s world, their race-day photography, the raw emotion on athletes’ faces as they cross finish lines, the authentic community behind the red kit – it’s hard not to get swept up in it. I may or may not have briefly considered signing up. Briefly.
“On Time. On Budget. A pleasure to work with.”
Tim Ballintine
Founder, Noosa
Our Approach
From dated to dominant
The old site was built on Weebly – a platform that served its purpose once but had become a ceiling rather than a launchpad. We moved Koa to WordPress with Divi 5, giving them a platform built for performance, flexibility and long-term growth. The result is a site that loads fast, scales easily and looks the part.
A user journey built for conversion
The old site had 113 pages, many of which were duplicates, legacy content or pages that served no current purpose. We stripped it back to a lean, purposeful structure, with every page designed to move a visitor toward an enquiry.
Packages are clearly presented with real pricing, real inclusions and real differentiation between tiers. The athlete story pages give prospective athletes someone to see themselves in. The contact path is never more than one click away.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) built for a global audience
Koa doesn’t just compete locally – they coach athletes in 30+ countries and need to be found by people searching from Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo and beyond.
We built a comprehensive SEO foundation from the ground up. A clean URL structure targeting high-intent triathlon coaching keywords, unique optimised content across every page and FAQ section. We targeted long-tail search queries, and a full suite of structured data markup (schema) to help Google – and AI-powered search – understand exactly what Koa offers and why they’re the best at it.
For a business that gets many of its clients through word of mouth and organic search, getting this right wasn’t optional. Our Noosa SEO services ensured the new site was built to be found, not just admired.
Fast, reliable website hosting
A site this visually rich – full-width video, large imagery, dynamic content – needs hosting that can carry the load without slowing down.
We moved Koa onto our fast WordPress hosting infrastructure, optimised for performance from the server level up. Speed isn’t just a user experience issue; it’s an SEO signal. A slow site loses visitors and rankings simultaneously. Koa’s new site does neither.
Design that matches the brand
Koa Sports is bold, a little bit loud and completely confident in what they’ve achieved – and their new website reflects exactly that. Full-width video on the homepage pulls from real race-day footage, giving visitors an immediate sense of what it feels like to be part of the tribe.
Big typography, strong imagery and a dark, high-contrast aesthetic communicate premium and performance before a single word is read. Our Noosa web design team translated Koa’s personality into every pixel – this isn’t a template, it’s a brand.
Content that earns trust fast
Koa’s credentials are extraordinary – #1 global ranking, 22 TriClub championship titles, 30+ countries, Kona qualifiers, age-group champions.
The challenge was surfacing that proof quickly, before a visitor had time to doubt. We restructured the homepage to lead with the strongest trust signals – the ranking, the titles, the no lock-in contract – and built each interior page to reinforce credibility at every scroll.
The athlete story pages in particular do heavy lifting: real names, real results, real quotes from real people who started exactly where the next enquiry might be starting.
Schema and AI search readiness
This is where we went beyond what most web design projects include. We implemented a full schema library across the site – organisational schema, person schema for each coach, service schema for each coaching package, podcast schema, article schema for every blog post, review schema for athlete stories and breadcrumb schema across all child pages.
As AI-powered search (Google SGE, ChatGPT, Perplexity) becomes the way people find services, structured data is what gets a business cited as a source rather than buried. Koa is built for that future.
FAQs
Do you build brand new websites, or redesign existing ones?
Both, and any size project in between. Whether you’re launching a new business and need a website from scratch, or your current site no longer reflects how far your business has grown, we handle new builds and full redesigns. We particularly enjoy complex projects – multiple brands, multiple locations, or intricate information architecture – where there’s more going on than a simple brochure site.
Can you build and manage multiple branded websites for one business?
Yes. As a Noosa web design company, we specialise in building flexible WordPress and Divi systems that let each website keep its own unique branding – different logos, colours, and imagery – while sharing the same underlying structure. That means your team can manage many sites without needing to learn a new system for each one.
Do you offer hosting, support, and maintenance after the site is built?
Yes, all three. We provide fast website hosting built to handle real traffic without slowing down, along with ongoing support and maintenance so you’re not left managing updates and security yourself. If your current site is already performing well but simply feels slow or unreliable, we can also assess whether that’s a hosting fix or a sign the underlying platform needs replacing – and tell you honestly which situation you’re in.
Can you move my website from Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly to WordPress?
Yes. Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly are fine for getting started, but many growing businesses outgrow them – they hit limits around performance, flexibility, or SEO. We migrate businesses onto WordPress with Divi, giving you a platform built for long-term growth rather than a ceiling you’ll eventually hit again.
We're not based in a major city. Can you still help us reach a wider, national audience?
Absolutely – this is one of our specialities. Through our Noosa SEO services, we help businesses build genuine visibility in Google search regardless of where they’re physically located, so you can attract customers or clients from right across the country.
Do you build ecommerce websites?
Yes, primarily using WooCommerce on WordPress, which gives you full ownership and flexibility over your online store. We can also work with Shopify where it’s the better fit for a project.
What platform or CMS do you build on?
WordPress, using the Divi theme/framework, is our core platform for the vast majority of projects – it gives us the flexibility to build custom, high-performing sites while keeping ongoing management straightforward for our clients. For dedicated ecommerce stores, we’ll occasionally use Shopify instead, where it’s genuinely the better fit for that business.
What is AI schema, and does my website actually need it?
AI schema is structured data added to your website that helps AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and Perplexity understand and accurately cite your business when people ask them questions. As more people search using AI tools instead of typing into Google, having this in place helps ensure your business shows up in those answers rather than being overlooked.
Ready to get started?
Let's discuss your Noosa website project
The sooner we get started, the sooner you’ll see increased leads, growth, and a solid return on your investment.
From scaling startups to national companies, Phancybox partner with forward-thinking businesses to create exceptional digital experiences.
CONTACT US
0406 217 994
Email Us
Noosa, Sunshine Beach, Australia.
Phancybox is an LGBTIQ+ inclusive workplace, ensuring all clients and employees feel valued, safe and respected.
