SEO Strategies for Fitness Businesses
When this happens, consumers are not just going to the search engine and typing the product, but instead they are researching content. For example, someone looking for golf clubs may search for information on how to improve their golf game before deciding what type of clubs to buy. This consumer could be targeted by a golf club supplier at the very beginning of the purchasing cycle, if they provide an article on improving their golf game, which contains keywords related to the research and a link to their sales page. This link could generate traffic for months or even years if it remains live on the internet. However, the article will not appear in the top few pages of a search engine, if it is not optimized. This is why SEO is important, even for businesses that do not sell their products over the internet.
It is important for fitness businesses to have search engine optimization (SEO) if they are going to be competitive in today’s market. More and more consumers are doing price and product research on the internet before making a purchase. Often times they are looking for a particular product, but may not have a specific supplier in mind.
Importance of SEO for Fitness Businesses
PPC advertising is an effective means of getting your website to show up in search results, but it is a method that can be quite costly, especially for small businesses. Furthermore, research has shown that around 80 percent of search engine users ignore the sponsored results. With SEO, on the other hand, the traffic that you get is free once you have established a high ranking. Because the searchers are already interested in your type of services, the traffic is also highly targeted. Organic search is ultimately much cheaper and more effective than paid advertising.
To succeed in the highly competitive fitness industry, search engine optimization is absolutely critical. Whether you are a personal trainer, a yoga studio, a wellness coach, or a fitness center, you need to have an effective online presence that attracts customers to your business. Eighty-nine percent of internet users now do at least part of their searching for products and services online, and about 80 percent of those searchers will only click on the natural search results. In other words, if you want to get the attention of the vast majority of potential clients, you need to appear on the first or second page of search results. What’s more, people tend to trust the organic search results more than paid advertising. They feel that if a website ranks high on a Google search, it must be relevant to their needs. This is particularly true in the minds of fitness-seekers who are looking for professional help. A high search ranking can thus greatly enhance your online reputation and increase consumer trust in your services.
Benefits of Implementing SEO Strategies
Return on Investment (ROI) – ROI is one of the major benefits of SEO service. Optimization results in trackable and quantifiable results regardless if you are an e-commerce or non-ecommerce site, so there are no qualms when it comes to ROI. SEO agencies are able to track nearly every aspect of their strategy, like increases in rankings, traffic, and conversions. Comprehensive analytics also provide the ability to drill down at a granular level and see demographic information and other engagement metrics for individuals who have interacted with your website. E-commerce sites, SEO agencies can see which paths users take in order to complete a sale, all the way down to which keyword they used to search for you prior to purchasing. For non-ecommerce sites, you can assign values to your lead conversions. For example, contact us forms and estimate requests and calculate the value of your SEO strategy that way. These tangible results provide a clear-cut case showing exactly what you are gaining as a result of SEO.
Brand awareness – Increased visibility and ranking higher in search engine results in significant impressions. Being on the first page of Google for your targeted keywords will allow your potential customers to associate your brand with those keywords. This will instill trust as studies have shown that companies on the first page are generally perceived to be more trustworthy. The more your content and pages rank in high positions in the search engines, the more chances you have for users to see your content and associate with your brand.
Keyword Research and Optimization
One of the most effective and free methods of keyword research is to utilize the keyword tool from Google AdWords. This tool can give you broad and specific keyword ideas. It can also display the advertiser competition and whether you should use a keyword or not. With the keyword ‘fitness’, it has a global monthly search of about 37 million with high advertiser competition. This means that the keyword ‘fitness’ is too general and there is too much competition to use this keyword to drive traffic. Another example is the use of the keyword “pole dance lessons” which has about 8000 monthly searches and low competition. This could be a good keyword to use for long-tail optimization. Long-tail optimization usually targets niche demographics who are more likely to use a specific set of keywords to find anything. 60% of all search engine traffic consists of long-tail keywords, which is a huge niche market not to be missed. Using this strategy, you can also display the locations, target audiences, and come up with better keyword ideas.
The best search engine optimization strategy is the application of relevant keywords to your fitness business. The correct use of keywords could drive potential clients who use search engines to find your fitness business. The more keywords, whether it be short or long-tail, that your website has, the more probability that your website will be recognized as the site that an individual is looking for. A crucial part of SEO is to find relevant keywords to optimize. Use keywords that are too general and you will be swamped by competition. Use keywords that are too specific and you might miss your target audience. Using “fitness” as an example, a person who is searching for a fitness business could be looking for anything. To narrow it down, “weight loss fitness” could indeed bring about more potential clients. Another good way to gather relevant keywords is to spy on your competition. By viewing the Meta tags of a site and applying a keyword research tool, you are able to see which keywords are driving traffic to their site. This can then give you an idea of which keywords you can and should use to drive traffic to yours.
Identifying Relevant Keywords for Fitness Businesses
The next step is to cut the fat. You must evaluate each keyword in terms of relevancy and competition. Most likely, you will want to focus on keywords that are very specific to your service. These are called niche keywords. For example, a personal trainer specializing in training baby boomers might be inclined to use “baby boomer fitness” as a keyword. This is very relevant to a specific target group, but it may be too narrow. A web user is more likely to type in something more general like “personal training for seniors.” Always consider the mentality of your target audience. What are they likely to type in?
The first step in conducting keyword research is brainstorming. Think about all the different services your fitness business provides. List everything that seems relevant. Consider your location, who your target audience is, and the essential benefits you offer. Just write. After you have compiled a good-sized list, group similar keywords and phrases together.
Optimizing Website Content with Keywords
Next, you will want to include your primary keywords in the header tags on each page. Using your primary keywords in an <h1> tag near the top of the page is ideal, but using them in any header tag is beneficial. It is important that you do not simply put a block of keywords at the top of the page – it must be readable for the user. Remember that the ultimate goal of a search engine is to provide relevant results for the user, so while it is important to incorporate keywords into your site it’s more important to make the site easily readable and not hinder the user experience. This is the same for body copy on the site, always write for the user first and the search engine second. Normally 200-500 words of copy on a page is sufficient, so avoid creating multiple pages or an excessive amount of copy to try and squeeze in more keywords. You can also bold your keywords in the body copy to give them a bit more weight with the search engines, but the same rules apply – do not overdo it. It’s much easier to incorporate keywords into a new site while it’s being built, so if you’re considering a site redesign or a new site keep SEO in mind from the beginning.
Creating a list of relevant keywords is only half the battle. The other half is weaving them into your site content in a way that isn’t awkward for the reader. Once you have your refined list of keywords, begin by making sure your primary keywords are used in the HTML title and meta description on each page of your website. The meta description should be well-written for both user and search engine, enticing the user to click through your site when it’s found in the search results, while also incorporating your keywords. Ideally, each page on your site should have a unique meta description to avoid issues with duplicate content.
2.3. Utilizing Long-Tail Keywords for Niche Targeting
Firstly, you should brainstorm a list of potential long-tail keywords that would be relevant to your business. Be sure to consider phrases that a potential customer would type into a search engine with the goal of finding a service similar to what your business offers. A great tool for generating long-tail keyword ideas is Google’s auto-complete function. By typing a partial keyword into the search bar, Google provides a drop-down list of the most popular completions for that phrase, making it a quick and easy way to find search terms related to what you offer. These search terms become the backbone of your content, and you should make effort to include them in titles, headings and throughout the body of your content. Long-tail keywords are often easier to implement organically, since they are more similar to typical conversation phrases compared to forcing awkward short-tail keyword insertions.
Keywords, the phrases that sum up your business and its services, can be short-tail or long-tail. Short-tail keywords (e.g. ‘fitness trainer’) tend to have more competition, making your site harder to rank for. However, long-tail keywords (e.g. ‘weight loss fitness trainer in Chicago’) are more specific, and therefore easier to rank well for. Utilizing long-tail keywords can greatly improve traffic to your site. A potential customer searching for a specific service you provide is much more likely to find your page, which is exactly what you want in a keyword-driven search. With fitness being a broad industry and your business likely having a defined target area and customer, niche targeting using long-tail keywords is highly effective.
On-Page SEO Techniques
An additional piece of content-related advice is to avoid duplicate content. This can happen when the same content is accessible from multiple URLs. This makes it difficult for search engines to determine the best URL for the content, leading to potential indexing issues. To solve this issue, you can use 301 redirects, the rel=canonical tag, or Google’s preferred method: simply specify your preference in Google Search Console.
One of the most important aspects of on-page search engine optimization is the creation of high-quality, engaging, and original content. Your content needs to be more than just keyword-rich; it should add value and relevance to your audience. This involves understanding who your audience is, what they are looking for, and what type of language will resonate with them. You should also pay attention to the various types of search queries related to health and fitness. They typically fall into the following categories: Informational (broad), navigational (specific brand or website), and transactional (purchasing). By understanding the intent behind the search queries, you can better define the type of content you need to create in order to fulfill your users’ needs and lead them into taking action on your website.
There are several on-page SEO techniques that can help bolster your fitness website’s search visibility. On-page SEO in fitness digital marketing refers to the optimization of both the content and HTML source code of your fitness website’s individual pages. This is in contrast to off-site SEO which focuses on signals and actions involving link building, social media, and other external optimization efforts.
Creating Engaging and SEO-Friendly Titles and Meta Descriptions
Title and meta description tags that are engaging and SEO-friendly. Title and meta description tags that are well-optimized and attractive can bring high click-through rates in the search engine results. High CTR can potentially positively affect rank using human rater data, making this an important strategy to implement. A page’s title tag and meta description are critical to SEO. Often times the title tag and meta description will be the first impression a searcher has of your page. Using brand in the title, especially at the beginning, can be an efficient means to own more branded traffic and improve CTR for high commercial intent search terms. It’s generally optimal to use title tags that are under 60 characters and meta descriptions that are under 160 characters. This is considered the cut-off for optimal mobile display. Any longer and search engines will cut you off, probably not best for you. Producing user-friendly URLs can also be an effective method to consolidate pages that are topically related. Information architecture is also important to consider. While keywords are important, don’t simply jam them into your title. Use your title tag to provide the most accurate description of what’s on the page. If you can write a good title tag, chances are higher that people will click through to your site. Title tags can also be a great place to add some more company branding. Meta description tags can influence click-throughs but aren’t directly used for rankings. They can help facilitate indirect better rankings. Often times, a well-optimized meta description tag can be the difference between whether a visitor clicks through to your page or decides to pass on your site. A page should have a single, unique meta description that accurately describes its content. Oftentimes it is more beneficial to produce an in-depth, well-researched piece of content that is likely to generate long-term traffic and links. This is why it’s often more beneficial to research appropriate search terms first, and then produce content that gives searchers better understandings of a topic. Use the researched keywords to guide an engaging and well-optimized title tag. Avoid being too obscure. If a page ranks for a term that isn’t actually what the page is about, it can cause high bounce rates. This is both bad for rankings and conversion rates. Simultaneously produce an easily scannable meta description that accurately detects what the page is about. This will improve CTR and minimize potential pogo-sticking on the SERP.
Optimizing Heading Tags and URL Structures
Schema markup is a relatively new and powerful tool that is used to improve the way your page is represented in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It is done by adding on page markups that add an enhanced description which will display in search results. The markup highlights specific content on the webpage which improves the way your page is presented in the SERPs. This can improve your page’s visibility and can result in higher click through rates. Having a better search result listing than competitors gives your page a competitive edge. This seems to be a very effective way to platform your page above your competition in search results and is definitely a tool worth utilizing.
Optimizing heading tags can greatly help improve your page’s ranking. This not only involves using a keyword in the H1 tags, but also using it in the subheadings that follow. It is important to make sure that the subheadings are indeed subheadings and not just bolded text. Using the keyword in H2 or H3 tags has more of an impact on search engine results. This is because H2 and H3 tags can act as mini titles for the sections which follow them. Because these tags hold more prominence than the regular text, it helps to reinforce the significance of the keyword within the page. In addition to H1, H2, and H3 tags, it is important to also name the URLs according to the keywords used in the heading tags. This is a good way to consolidate the impact of the keyword within the page. His major bit Conclusion on heading tag I previously did some research about this topic and wrote a post about it, however the article is not the best. With my improved understanding of web content writing and utilizing keyword search tools, I feel that I have progressed and it is now time to rewrite the article again from scratch.
Enhancing Website Speed and Mobile Responsiveness
In addition to this, mobile has a larger decrease of attention span and patience than PCs, as mentioned before 53% of mobile visitors will leave if a webpage doesn’t load within 3 seconds. Because of this, having a mobile responsive website and improving mobile website speed can increase conversion rates as it will make it easier for mobile visitors to access information and take action. Despite this, the leading fitness businesses do not cater towards mobile users. AMP search results have a lightning symbol and Google provides statistics for how mobile visitors are behaving on website. Because of this there is a huge competitive advantage for making a mobile friendly website or improving a pre-existing one. This is evidenced by the spike of mobile searches and industry changes, statistics have proven that mobile fitness searches are steadily increasing and have surpassed the amount of desktop fitness searches. AMP has also become popular among major publishers such as the Guardian and New York Times due to a high level of traffic to mobile users. Overall, enhancing website speed and mobile responsiveness is a simple and cost effective method that can bring about more opportunities for fitness businesses.
83% of potential clients visit a fitness website before choosing a fitness company. Considering that many people are visiting fitness businesses through mobile, it’s essential to make a good mobile site. It should be simple and easy to navigate to maintain a user’s interest and provide an impression of professionalism. A slow website is very frustrating to use on mobile, research shows that 53% of mobile visitors will leave if a webpage doesn’t load within 3 seconds. Because of this, mobile website speed has a significant impact on a business, or basically any website owner. Even if PC website speed and mobile website speed are independent of each other, it’s still important to make the PC website as fast as possible as Google takes this into consideration when ranking the website for mobile searches. The simplest way to improve mobile website speed is to use Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) which strips the website to the bare minimum and therefore can load webpages at an impressive speed. However, the drawback to AMP is that you are restricted to what you can do and how your website looks meaning that it could actually decrease traffic to the website. Another method is to have a separate mobile website which runs much faster than the original. This method is effective but requires a lot of maintenance and is very costly. The best method is to simply make the website as fast as possible using small changes like reducing image sizes and enabling browser caching. In contrast to this, mobile responsiveness tests how well users can interact with the website, whether it be clicking, scrolling, or typing. This can be affected by both website speed and the size of taps and spacing between links. Google’s mobile-friendly test can identify how mobile responsive the website is and provide a list of improvements to be made.
Implementing Schema Markup for Enhanced Search Visibility
Even though schema markup isn’t a direct ranking factor, this specific code can give you an advantage in the search, click-through rates, and user interaction it gives within the search engine results page (SERPs). Enhanced search visibility is only a good thing for traffic, and in the fitness game, it’s all about bringing prospective clients to your website. Schema tells the search engine what your data means, not just what it says. For example, if you implement local business schema and input your fitness business NAP, when people in your area look that up, the search engine can display your contact information as a rich snippet result or interactive graph within the right side of the page, making it easier to find and visually appealing. This can also enhance your appearance for local searches, which as a new business, is very important in the initial stages. Also, using schema to markup your services will still tell the search engine your business NAP and can result in rich snippet displaying above results and even videos on the specific service. This was just a brief example of what schema can do, and if it means more exposure in the competitive environment that is the business world, why not make the effort?
4. Off-Page SEO Strategies
To reach the point where you can effectively increase your off-page SEO, it is crucial to instill a strong understanding of the work provided on on-page SEO (as addressed previously). While on-page SEO deals with the factors that affect a website’s ranking in search engines, off-page SEO factors are more about increasing the perception of your site and its credibility (to both human users and search engines). An important part of any SEO campaign is to build links, or in other words, get other websites to link to your own. As mentioned in Section 3.3, not all links are equal. In an effort to increase your perception and credibility through off-page SEO, the most effective links are those that are built from fitness-related websites. For example, if you run a fitness center or a fitness-related blog, having a link from a fitness equipment website would be highly beneficial. On the other hand, a link from a football news website would not be as effective. Another way to increase link building is by way of article submission or guest blogging. Your goal here is to offer a fitness website owner free content and in exchange have that content posted with a link back to your site. This method is a win-win as they get free content and you get a free link. A vital thing to avoid in link building is ‘buying links’. This can be done with software that automatically posts links on various websites or by paying website owners. The next two methods of increasing off-page SEO are making great strides in today’s SEO world. Both leveraging social media and encouraging online reviews tie back into the brand new website Olifestyle. In regards to social media, the use of social networking sites to spread the word of your site has proven to be an extremely effective form of link bait. This, in part, has resulted in the boom of social media sites having a direct search engine re-inclusion feeds. In doing so, social media profiles now have a direct effect on overall brand queries. With regards to online reviews (while not a simulated form of link bait), having a product or service that is review-worthy often leads to bloggers posting their reviews on that product to their blog, and every blogger knows where to find the product they want to review more often than not a company’s website. Step one in achieving both of these methods is ensuring that you even have a solidified brand, and Olifestyle is still in the early phases of that. With the launch of the upcoming premium content, building a firm brand is the next big task at hand. The outline of the three methods discussed here is a clear and precise path from low to high internet savvy marketing. This is quite the ideal means of progression for Olifestyle in their quest to make it a top fitness website. While focusing primarily on the link building methods and knowing that there is much work to do, it is important for Olifestyle to keep that guide path in view come the time they shift some attention back to general marketing and brand building. With the various marketing methods possible, it is very easy to be all over the place, which leads to much inefficiency. Coming back to this guide as a reference point will maintain efficiency in marketing and serve to maximize the effects of Olifestyle’s marketing efforts. While off-page SEO may not be the most straightforward task, increasing the perception of your site’s credibility and brand will offer much in the way of a snowball effect leading to easier and greater results in the long run. Consider the example of a brand new health company with the goal of increasing popularity and sales revenue. High page rank and page authority—that’s the dream for every website, and the success of on-page SEO will definitely offer some of this. But the real success will come with pushing beyond the page to having the website and its individual pages recognized as credible sources of information. This is the essence of Holmes Internet Marketing and SEO and a task we are up for taking on with any client looking to take their website to the pinnacle of success.
Building High-Quality Backlinks from Fitness-related Websites
There are many different ways to build backlinks. The most well-known method would probably be directory submissions. There are many fitness-related web directories that you could submit your website to. These directories range from free to automatic approval to requiring a backlink in return. Although the better directories might be the ones that require you to post a link to their website on a page in order to be approved. This not only ensures that your link won’t be removed in the future but also will guarantee that search engines will notice the higher quality of your backlink.
Backlinking is a great way to get your website to the next level. Quality backlinks are a lot different than the standard backlink, and what I mean by quality is that making a backlink on a website that is relevant to your website’s content. Not only is the high-quality backlink going to get you more traffic to your website, but it also might get your website recognized by search engines and help increase your ranking position.
Leveraging Social Media for SEO Benefits
As a fitness business owner or manager, it is of utmost importance that you are demonstrating the process of staying ahead of the competition, especially other local businesses. One of the most useful and feasible ways for a fitness business to achieve this goal is by leveraging strategies of SEO on social media networks. Since social media has become almost essential in the day-to-day lives of your consumers and clientele, it’s only right that you are seeking to connect with them, engage with them, and promote your services to them through this medium. With 72% of the nation’s population already using social media, it’s only a matter of choosing what social media platform to start with. If you are just starting off with a social media campaign, it’s always best to start with Twitter due to the fact that to start a successful social media campaign, whether it’s being indexed from search engines or organic base, it starts with conversations that involve trending topics. Your company has to be a part of this conversation. Now that you have an idea of how to start, you need to consider the type of content marketing strategies you are going to be implementing on your social media platforms. This could range from posting blog posts with fitness tips and moving on to press releases with announcements on new service offerings at your facility. No matter what the case is, the key is to share your content socially. Social sharing adds the credibility of content and has the potential of being seen by people who may have never even heard of your company. The best thing about content marketing strategies is that they are designed to spark conversations, sharing, and promotion of content by the audience. This could be huge for your company simply because the back-end tactics you use to get people talking about that press release of fitness service could be industry keywords that are now being associated with your company.
Encouraging Online Reviews and Reputation Management
It is very important to note that reviews appear to be a significant factor weighted in local search engine rankings. A search conducted on a pizza place in Victoria, BC shows several pizza establishments with accompanying Google Maps and review summaries. The place with the most reviews appears first with the average rating displayed.
This is an effective strategy for fitness businesses to implement in their SEO campaign. Every review is content and can be keyworded. The more reviews that are written for your company, the more content you have created that can be indexed by the search engines. The assumption here is that the more keyworded content that is created and indexed by search engines, the more traffic your site will receive from search engines. This will result in traffic researching your products, services, and brand. If your website’s on-page content is set up correctly to convert these researchers into customers, you will gain future business from this reviewed content.