Facebook reach has never been lower and acquiring new leads and clients from a Facebook Business page is now something that’s talked about in the context of “the good ol’ days”. So personal trainers are on the lookout for new and alternative sources of leads and I think search engine optimisation is the solution.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of positioning a website high up in the Google search results when a user searches for your services. For example, we use SEO as a primary source of leads and if you go to Google and search for “personal trainer website design” you’ll find us on page one.
Google Fitness Classes in Roscomon and you'll find our client Full Body Workhouse on page one... three times.
Google Fitness Classes in Roscomon and you'll find our client Full Body Workhouse on page one... three times.
I now what you’re thinking… Why not just pay for Google ads? Here's why. Because research shows that approximately 80% of all Internet users disregard paid advertisements in favor of organic search results. For a fitness website owner, this means the focus should shift from paid advertising to writing superior-quality organic-results-driving SEO content.
Good, strategic SEO can drive:
- Website traffic by 2000% (300% more than social media)
- Revenue generation by 40%
- Searches by 70%
- Close rates by 14.6%
Figures like this show us how powerful a fitness marketing strategy SEO can be in the hands of even a novice marketer. And you really don’t have to become an expert to start ranking your personal trainer website on page one of Google search results.
Here’s how:
1. Find Your Keywords
All good SEO campaigns start with keywords. Keywords are the words one might type In to Google when you’re looking for something. When you potential clients are looking for a personal trainer, they might search “personal trainer [LOCATION]”.
There are two kinds of keywords that you can use:
- Short-tailed keywords – Individual words like ‘fitness’, ‘gym’, ‘yoga’, ‘Pilates’ and so on. very difficult to rank for because competition is usually high.
- Long-tailed keywords – Group of words which are always used together; for example, ‘gyms near me’, ‘yoga classes in Manchester’, ‘only women swim classes’ and more. Much easier to rank for, especially when combined with a location.
Some great keywords you could use on your website are:
- Personal trainer [LOCATION]
- Fitness Classes in [LOCATION]
- Bootcamp in [LOCATION]
- Gym trainer
- Fitness trainers near me
The list is endless but the important thing to note is that Google is very smart now and can identify synonyms of keywords. This means the emphasis of you website copy can and should be quality, instead of trying to stuff keywords in there somewhere.
2. Adding Primary Keywords to Your PT Website
When adding keywords during your personal trainer website design, try to assign one long tail keyword to each page of your website. For example:
On this website we have the main keyword in the domain name (optional) in the site title and the main header.
- Home page – personal trainer [LOCATION]
- About page – [GYM IN LOCATION]
- Blog page – fitness tips in [LOCATION]
On this website we have the main keyword in the domain name (optional) in the site title and the main header.
The primary keyword will then be mentioned once in your:
- Page title
- Meta title
- Meta description
- First paragraph
- Last paragraph
Remember, Google is smart so you can use synonyms of your keyword. For example:
- Personal Trainer
- Fitness Coach
- Fitness Trainer
- Health Coach
- Etc
3. Adding Secondary Keywords to Your Fitness Website
Secondary keywords can often be just as important as primary keywords. Especially of you have a well defined niche. For example, if you specialise in pre and post natal training, some secondary keywords might be:
You might also want to include keywords like HIIT, Tabata, and TRX as they are more focused and attract a niche crowd.
- Pre natal fitness
- Post natal fitness
- Fitness for new moms
- Etc
You might also want to include keywords like HIIT, Tabata, and TRX as they are more focused and attract a niche crowd.
4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
More is not better when it comes to keywords. The primary focus of your content should always be for the reader, not for the search engine. 2-3 keywords mentioned once or twice in the website copy of each page is more than enough.
Search engines like Google have been designed to identify when website administrators indulge in unnatural keyword implementation in websites, and once identified, the search engine automatically demotes the website for wrongful implementation of keywords. As opposed to ranking your website higher, your website will be flagged for keyword stuffing and you will be penalized either by demotion in ranking or it may even be removed from the list of indexed websites.
An example of keyword stuffing is:
Search engines like Google have been designed to identify when website administrators indulge in unnatural keyword implementation in websites, and once identified, the search engine automatically demotes the website for wrongful implementation of keywords. As opposed to ranking your website higher, your website will be flagged for keyword stuffing and you will be penalized either by demotion in ranking or it may even be removed from the list of indexed websites.
An example of keyword stuffing is:
We have many fitness trainers working with us. If you wish to contact our fitness trainers, take a look at our fitness trainers’ page, select the fitness trainers you want as trainers and call. Our fitness trainers will help you with anything you need.
The word ‘fitness trainers’ is overused, unnecessary and unnatural…it’s stuffed into the copy. Don’t…. Just don’t.
5. Create an On Site Structure
One of the ways Google finds pages on your website is via the search engine spiders. Sounds creepy but a spider is just part of the algorithm that searches the web (get it?) to find website pages.
To find new pages, a spider searches the pages it already knows about for links to new pages.
To find new pages, a spider searches the pages it already knows about for links to new pages.
If your home page has zero links to other pages of your website, those other pages would take more time to get indexed and rank in Google search results.
To take advantage of this system, simply link to all other main pages of your website from each page.
For example, your Home page would have a paragraph about your company that links to your About page to find out more.:
To take advantage of this system, simply link to all other main pages of your website from each page.
For example, your Home page would have a paragraph about your company that links to your About page to find out more.:
It may have a brief paragraph about your services that links to your Services page. And so on.
This structure helps to create a website hierarchy and makes it easy for Google to index your website pages.
6. Outbound Links
One of the best ways to improve the quality of your SEO is to include hyperlinks to other websites or blogs which add value to what you offer. For example, if you’re writing a page for your ‘Yoga Classes’, you could link an article on the ‘Different types of sun salutations’, thereby enriching the value of your content.
A lot of trainers worry about linking to competitors but hyperlinks to external sources help you create a strong reputation in the industry. After all, if you have the confidence to link to external sources, you must have confidence in your product or service.
Another way to do this is to publish SEO optimized articles with relevant links to authority websites to increase the value of your article in the eye of Google and the website visitor as well.
A lot of trainers worry about linking to competitors but hyperlinks to external sources help you create a strong reputation in the industry. After all, if you have the confidence to link to external sources, you must have confidence in your product or service.
Another way to do this is to publish SEO optimized articles with relevant links to authority websites to increase the value of your article in the eye of Google and the website visitor as well.
When you create outbound links, link to the external source from your keywords. This will not only improve your SEO quality but it will also help people who aren’t actively looking for a fitness center, but browsing for information about specific fitness activities find your website through the hyperlinks and keywords.
7. Optimising Images
Google spiders have no way of reading the content of an image. An image to the Google spider looks like this:
<img src="personaltrainer.jpg" alt="personal trainer">
So it's important to identify what that image is with the file name and the alt text of the image. If the filename says “personaltrainer” then, by definition, the Google spider will assume the image is of a personal trainer.
See the Alt text? That alt text describes what the image is to the Google spider. Just in case the filename of the image fails to do so.
<img src="personaltrainer.jpg" alt="personal trainer">
So it's important to identify what that image is with the file name and the alt text of the image. If the filename says “personaltrainer” then, by definition, the Google spider will assume the image is of a personal trainer.
See the Alt text? That alt text describes what the image is to the Google spider. Just in case the filename of the image fails to do so.
So your job when adding images to your website is to:
- Change the filename of the image to what the image is before you upload it. Don’t cheat and call an image of an apple a personal trainer.
- Add the alt text of the image. You can usually find this in the image settings somewhere depending on your site builder.
That’s It
Follow the steps above to optimise your personal trainer website (<-- see what I did there?) and, in time your website rankings will make massive improvements.
If you get stuck or want to know more about SEO, send me a message or comment below.
If you get stuck or want to know more about SEO, send me a message or comment below.