More and more fitness coaches are looking to go global or at least reach audiences outside of their home country. Whether you offer online personal training for international clients or you sell fitness products worldwide, you will want to reach as many ideal clients wherever they are as possible.
Now, when you offer local personal training services, it's straightforward what you need to do for your personal trainer website to rank high on Google for your location.
However, when you want your online services or products to rank, that's where it gets more challenging. Did you know that 77% of users check Google at least 3 times per day?
So, there's no better way to say this but you need to develop an international SEO strategy. In this article, we'll aim to help you understand what it takes to go global and appear in searches around the world with your fitness website.
What is an international SEO strategy?
An international SEO strategy involves various practices, processes, and policies that your fitness brand utilizes to optimize search content for other countries. The aim here is to make it a lot easier for search engines to determine where your business is situated and what languages you support.
What facts impact international SEO?
There are a number of different factors you need to consider carefully when building an international SEO strategy:
Link building
Firstly, you need to have high-quality, relevant links, from international sources, pointing back to your website. It is a good idea to write for local blogs. You can also connect with overseas influencers who can point back to your fitness site.
Google My Business
You can boost your SEO efforts with a Google My Business account. Make sure you optimize this, as it acts as a starting point for Google when looking for language and geographic meta data for your website.
Mobile responsiveness
59.5% of all internet traffic comes from people using mobile devices. So, having a personal trainer website that's responsive is imperative for your search ranking which is why you can check how mobile-friendly is your website via Google's tool.
Link building
Firstly, you need to have high-quality, relevant links, from international sources, pointing back to your website. It is a good idea to write for local blogs. You can also connect with overseas influencers who can point back to your fitness site.
Google My Business
You can boost your SEO efforts with a Google My Business account. Make sure you optimize this, as it acts as a starting point for Google when looking for language and geographic meta data for your website.
Mobile responsiveness
59.5% of all internet traffic comes from people using mobile devices. So, having a personal trainer website that's responsive is imperative for your search ranking which is why you can check how mobile-friendly is your website via Google's tool.
Customer feedback
If you have positive reviews from different countries, this will also help to boost your worldwide SEO efforts. In this case, if your goal is to demonstrate to prospective clients that you are helping clients across the Globe, ensure you add their country of residence to their reviews and testimonials, with their consent of course.
How to Create an International SEO Strategy for Your Fitness Brand
To get international clients from your fitness website, you need to develop a solid strategy. Here are five key steps to do so:
1. Identify Who Your Ideal Clients Are and Where They Are Located
Firstly, you need to determine your target audience and market. For instance, you may decide that you want to target the wider market of the USA. Then, you may want to hone in on a subset of that market that has the means and motive to purchase your fitness services and products.
Your results are going to be better when you really focus your decisions on the “where” and the “who.” If you have an incredibly broad approach, you’re going to struggle to target the people who will turn into high-quality leads and really be interested in your personal training services.
If you want to go global, you might consider writing articles on the key topics that matter to your ideal clients and take a local approach for the main markets. So, that could mean separate articles for website visitors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or the EU.
Your results are going to be better when you really focus your decisions on the “where” and the “who.” If you have an incredibly broad approach, you’re going to struggle to target the people who will turn into high-quality leads and really be interested in your personal training services.
If you want to go global, you might consider writing articles on the key topics that matter to your ideal clients and take a local approach for the main markets. So, that could mean separate articles for website visitors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or the EU.
2. Decide Whether You Want to Outsource Your SEO or DIY
This is a question that only you are going to have the answer to. Do you have the means and resources to handle all of this in-house? Or, would it make more logical and economical sense to work with an international fitness SEO company?
There are pros and cons associated with both approaches. It all depends on your current marketing know-how, as well as the availability of critical resources; time and money.
There are pros and cons associated with both approaches. It all depends on your current marketing know-how, as well as the availability of critical resources; time and money.
3. Do Your Keyword Research
Keywords that work for your online personal training business in the United States may not work overseas and the other way around so focusing on international keyword research will be crucial.
There are a number of reasons why this is the case. It could be linked to how your customers in your target market refer to your company or it may be down to keyword volume or how people use the language. There's also the differences of vocabulary between US , British and Australian English you might want to consider even if you're sticking to English-speaking markets.
In the fitness industry, people may be looking for different things. In the United States, there may be more focus on diet plans when it comes to nutrition assistance, whereas in other countries, they may want nutrition that factors in their cultural recipes and natural ways of cooking.
In the fitness industry, people may be looking for different things. In the United States, there may be more focus on diet plans when it comes to nutrition assistance, whereas in other countries, they may want nutrition that factors in their cultural recipes and natural ways of cooking.
4. Consider Your Domain's Structure
The domain structure of your personal training website will either make it easier or harder for search engines and visitors to locate your content, depending on the choices you make.
Here are the different options that are available to you:
We'd like to add that most online personal trainers who want to serve the global market may not need to get this nerdy with their domain, however, if you're building an empire like Ultimate Performance's webshop that's available in the UK and the US, you'll want to have everything in place that will help your international SEO.
Here are the different options that are available to you:
- gTLD - A generic Top-Level Domain is a domain extension that has three or more characters. Common examples include .org, .gov, and .com. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains these TLDs. With this approach, results are not going to be restricted based on region, yet total traffic may reduce because a lot of users prefer websites that have their country code TLD.
- ccTLD - A country code Top-Level Domain is a two-letter domain that is assigned to a specific country. In the US, this is .us. In the UK, you have .uk, and Canada has .ca. Creating a unique ccTLD website for every country can help improve SEO.
- gTLD or ccTLD with subdomains - You can opt to create website subdomains, which combine elements of gTLDs and ccTLDs. For a UK-based personal trainer this could look like uk.mypersonaltrainerbusinessdomain.com.
- gTLD or ccTLD with sub-directories - Finally, a sub-directory will change the location of the country code, for example, myfitnessbusiness.com/ca/ for Canada.
We'd like to add that most online personal trainers who want to serve the global market may not need to get this nerdy with their domain, however, if you're building an empire like Ultimate Performance's webshop that's available in the UK and the US, you'll want to have everything in place that will help your international SEO.
5. Language and Region Optimization
This step is crucial, you want to ensure all of the website content is optimized for both the local language and your target region. This incorporates double-checking all content elements, translations, and TLDs to make sure they are aligned with local anticipations. After all, we all know that automatic translations can result in some embarrassing blunders from time-to-time.
An hreflang tag is also needed. This HTML attribute specifies the language and geographic area of a website page. It is utilized to differentiate similar web pages that are aimed at different audiences to ensure Google does not accuse you of plagiarism.
An hreflang tag is also needed. This HTML attribute specifies the language and geographic area of a website page. It is utilized to differentiate similar web pages that are aimed at different audiences to ensure Google does not accuse you of plagiarism.
Get Clients from Around the World for Your Fitness Website
As you can see, there is a lot of work that needs to be done when developing an international SEO strategy. However, if you put in the research and carefully craft a plan, you can attract a much higher number of international people to your website.
You can also decide that you're better off outsourcing your SEO campaign to an agency to save time you can spend on other activities you enjoy within or outside your personal training business. If that's the case, feel free to get in touch to find out how My PT Website can help.
You can also decide that you're better off outsourcing your SEO campaign to an agency to save time you can spend on other activities you enjoy within or outside your personal training business. If that's the case, feel free to get in touch to find out how My PT Website can help.
