Getting your website listed in a personal trainer directory probably won't get you loads of new clients, massively increase your exposure to the whole world or even your local client.
Although the promise of new clients and increased exposure that most personal trainer directories shout about isn't true, there's one major benefit of listing your personal trainer website in one of these directories.
Although the promise of new clients and increased exposure that most personal trainer directories shout about isn't true, there's one major benefit of listing your personal trainer website in one of these directories.
Let's Get One Thing Clear
Fitness Website Directories are not search engines and behave nothing like search engines. For example, whereas a search engine collects entries using a search crawler or robot, search directories are populated by people. You enter your web site in a directory, and then the entry is reviewed by a real person before the site is included in the directory listings.
This means that your listing is not likely to appear high in a search results when someone searches for your services and location in a search engine.
With that being said, personal trainer directories do serve a purpose. A good directory will always continue to improve on their categories and make them more relevant for the personal trainer listings. By making very specific categories, directories help the users find what they're looking for. The sites that are found in directories are reviewed by people and most of the time will allow only quality sites.
This means that your listing is not likely to appear high in a search results when someone searches for your services and location in a search engine.
With that being said, personal trainer directories do serve a purpose. A good directory will always continue to improve on their categories and make them more relevant for the personal trainer listings. By making very specific categories, directories help the users find what they're looking for. The sites that are found in directories are reviewed by people and most of the time will allow only quality sites.
Should I Use a Personal Trainer Directory?
Absolutely, yes. But not because you'll be turning down clients because you're far too busy from all the enquiries you're getting. Directories serve another purpose.
Visit any website designer or search engine optimisation forum and one of the most talked about topics will be directories. Why? Most SEO's will tell you that it's a great way to get inbound links to your site especially if the directory allows you to have an anchored text title.
An inbound link is a link FROM another website TO your website and search engines use these links as a factor when deciding on where to place your website in search results. For instance, if your website (B) is mentioned on another site (A), Google will see this link and think "someone has linked to this site (B) so it must be good". After all, most people will only link to a site if they think it's good or relevant to the topic on site (A).
This is what directories are great for and there are a few things to look out for when choosing the directories you wish to list your personal trainer website on.
Visit any website designer or search engine optimisation forum and one of the most talked about topics will be directories. Why? Most SEO's will tell you that it's a great way to get inbound links to your site especially if the directory allows you to have an anchored text title.
An inbound link is a link FROM another website TO your website and search engines use these links as a factor when deciding on where to place your website in search results. For instance, if your website (B) is mentioned on another site (A), Google will see this link and think "someone has linked to this site (B) so it must be good". After all, most people will only link to a site if they think it's good or relevant to the topic on site (A).
This is what directories are great for and there are a few things to look out for when choosing the directories you wish to list your personal trainer website on.
- The cost of the personal trainer directory - At the moment there is no need to pay for a directory listing unless it comes included in some kind of membership site.
- The relevance of the personal trainer directory - The closer to your specific industry the better. There are loads of directories out there but try to pick ones that are specific to your trade as search engines use the sites data as a ranking factor.
List of Personal Trainer Directories
In a bid to get the biggest possible list of personal trainer directories, I teamed up with Josh Mullin from PT Toolbox. Well, I cheekily asked him via Facebook on a bank holiday weekend and he kindly obliged to give up his list of personal trainer directories. I've gone through them all, removed the paid directories and added some others I found myself. Here goes:
- Personal Trainer Directory at the Institute of Personal Trainers
- www.UKpersonaltrainers.com
- http://matesratesforfitness.com/freeprofile/
- www.freeindex.co.uk
- www.personaltrainerworldwide.co.uk
- http://www.instructors-directory.co.uk/register.php
- http://www.findmytrainer.com/personal-trainer-network.php
- http://theptnet.com/personal-trainers/
- http://www.pthub.com/profile/register/
What Next?
Getting your website listed in as many directories as possible is just one of many things that should make up your search engine optimisation strategy. Not only will having your website listed on multiple directories increase your business exposure but, if done correctly, can boost your local fitness marketing strategy.
