Whether you offer personal training services in a gym, virtually or a combination of the two, there’s a high chance you have already built a website, which you intend to use to help you get more clients.
But the reality is, your website will only help you to attract more clients if your target audience can find it. And this is where search engine optimization or SEO comes in.
SEO refers to various processes that can help your personal trainer website to rank better on search engines. And by ranking higher on search engines, more potential fitness clients will find you.
In this guide, we will explore the importance of SEO for personal trainers. We will also share effective and actionable SEO tips and strategies for personal trainers, which can help to boost your rankings and bring you more clients.
1. About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
So, what exactly is search engine optimization (SEO)? Search engine optimization or SEO is a blanket term that refers to various processes which you can implement on your personal trainer website.
The main goal of these processes is to help your website acquire a higher ranking on search engines for your target keywords, search phrases and search terms. SEO for personal trainers involves two parts. These are on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
1.1 On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to any optimizations that you make on your website. It can entail customizing your headers, body text, title tags and various other on-site elements, to include phrases or words that your target audience is searching for on search engines like Google. Including these words or phrases will help your web pages to rank higher on search engines.
1.2 Off-Page SEO
Also, known as off-site SEO, off-page SEO refers to methods, actions or strategies undertaken outside your personal trainer's website, in an attempt to boost its search engine rankings. Some of the most popular off-page SEO strategies include building backlinks or increasing social shares. Simply put, off-page SEO are all the activities that you may engage in off your personal trainer website so that Google can see your personal trainer website as authoritative and trustworthy.
2. Importance of SEO for Personal Trainers
With the right optimizations, on-page SEO and off-page SEO can considerably help your personal trainer website to rank high on search engines. And appearing high on search engines comes with numerous benefits such as:
2.1 More Traffic
According to Web FX, only 25% of online users will visit the second page of the search engine results page. Simply put, most people who use Google and other search engines to look for personal trainers will not visit the second page of the search results.
Therefore, your best chance of generating more leads for your fitness business is to appear on the first page of the search engine results page. And SEO can help you with this.
2.2 Enhanced Credibility
As mentioned above, SEO will help your website appear higher on the search engine results page. And as you may expect, websites that appear high on search engines will be deemed more credible and dependable, compared to the low-ranking ones.
Consequently, if a potential client was to hire a personal trainer, there’s a high chance they will go for those whose websites are appearing high on the search engine results page since they are considered more credible.
2.3 Valuable Insights into Your Customers
SEO data can also provide you with valuable insights into your customers. You simply need to use tools like Google Analytics to conduct an SEO analysis. And from this analysis, you will gather valuable insights into your target audience.
For instance, you will see the devices that your target audience is using to visit your website, the bounce rate, top-performing pages, underperforming pages, and audience behavior, among others. This valuable data will then help you to make informed decisions, as opposed to shooting arrows in the dark.
3. SEO Tips for Personal Trainers to Boost Your Ranking
Without a doubt, SEO for personal trainers will help to boost your online presence as a fitness coach. And this will, in turn, lead to more clients. Here are some personal trainer SEO tips that can help to boost your website’s ranking, steer ahead of the competition and dominate your target market.
3.1 Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword forms the foundation of any effective SEO strategy. Keywords refer to phrases and words that online users type into search engines. These words and phrases make it easy for users to locate websites relevant to their search query.
For instance, if someone is looking for a personal trainer in your local area, it’s likely they will start their search on Google. The Google results will then feature websites of personal trainers in that area.
And if your personal trainer website isn’t optimized with the right keywords, it may not appear in the search results, meaning no one will discover it via this method. So, you need to undertake keyword research, identify the keywords that your target audience is searching and then place them throughout your website. Some of the areas on your website where you can place your relevant keywords include:
- Homepage
- Services page sections
- Landing page
- Title tags
- Descriptions
- Alt text
- Internal links
3.2 Choose Distinct Keywords
As you may expect, there are hundreds of other personal trainers out there, trying to rank for the common keywords in the industry like “weight loss”, “personal trainer services”, “gym” and “fitness coaching”, just to name a few.
So, if you target these same keywords, you will find it extremely hard to stand out from the competition. Instead, it will be advisable to target distinct keywords as opposed to generic keywords. And there are a couple of approaches to consider:
First, you can go for location-based keywords. For instance, if you live in Atlanta, Georgia, you will find it easier to rank for a keyword like, “personal trainer in Atlanta, GA” compared to a generic keyword like, “personal trainer” or “fitness coaching services.”
Second, you can target niche-specific keywords. For example, you can target keywords like, “personal trainer for weight loss”, “fitness coach for marathon training or “personal trainer for senior citizens.”
Choosing distinct but relevant keywords will boost your online visibility and separate you from the competition. Furthermore, you will only attract clients who are specifically looking for your services, which translates to high conversion rates.
3.3 Create High-Quality and Engaging Content
Choosing the right keywords to target is only half the battle. If you want to attract visitors and keep them coming back to your personal trainer website, then you will need to create relevant, engaging, informative and top-quality content.
And when it comes to content, you have numerous types to choose from, depending on your target audience. For instance, you can post informative articles, videos, and podcasts, just to name a few.
After you’ve settled on the type of content that you would wish to post on your personal trainer website, you will then need to decide how often you will be publishing or posting that content.
While there’s no magic number as to the frequency of posting, publishing at least two to four times weekly or 11 to 16 posts monthly tends to deliver the best results, both in terms of traffic and conversions. However, you’d rather have a few high-quality posts as opposed to having hundreds of low-quality posts. So, you should always prioritize quality over quantity.
3.4 Scope out Your Competition
To maintain a competitive edge, you will need to keep a close eye on your competitors. So, first, make a list of all your competitors. Your competitors will be other local personal trainers and fitness coaches as well as those offering online personal training services.
Once you’ve identified them, you will should then go ahead and keep track of their online activities. Analyze the keywords that are featured on their articles, paying close attention to the title pages, as well as h2s and h3s.
You also need to check whether they are making any changes to their fitness websites. Monitor any redesigns they have made in any way.
After gathering this information, you will then use it to identify their strengths and weaknesses. From there, you can then adjust your personal trainer SEO strategies accordingly. And with time, you will find your personal trainer website outperforming your competitors.
3.5 Optimize Your Site’s User Experience
Whenever visitors land on your website, they want a smooth user experience. If your website is making it hard for them to access the content that brought them there, then your bounce rate will skyrocket. Consequently, Google may end up punishing your website, leading to poor rankings.
Hence, you need to make sure that whenever someone lands on your website, whether they are a first-time or repeat visitor, they will have a great user experience. So, how can you optimize your personal trainer website to achieve this?
First, make sure you optimize its loading speeds. Ideally, it should load within 1 to 2 seconds. If it takes longer than that, then the visitor may abandon it and seek alternatives.
Second, make sure your website is responsive. Your prospects will be visiting your website using different devices such as laptops, tablets, phones and desktop computers. To this end, you need to ensure that your personal trainer website can adapt to these different devices and enjoy a positive experience.
Third, make your fitness website easy to navigate. Remove all unnecessary elements or other obstacles that may make your website hard to navigate.
3.6 Get Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are a key ranking factor. If you have several backlinks from high-quality and credible sources, your personal trainer website will rank higher, compared to a competitor that has low-quality backlinks.
So, how can you get quality backlinks? Well, the most effective method of getting high-quality backlinks from credible sources is by earning them. And this is mainly through publishing great and engaging content.
Other methods that can help you to earn quality backlinks include guest blogging, outreach campaigns, giving interviews, publishing skyscraper content, using infographics, making guest appearances on podcasts and contributing in forums, just to name a few.
4. Wrapping It Up
Implementing the personal trainer SEO tips we’ve shared here will help you to build a strong online presence, outperform your competition in search, and convert your personal trainer website into a powerful, lead generation machine.