Business models for fitness centers and gyms worldwide are evolving rapidly as marketers tailor their strategies to meet changing customer needs.
Consider this: a family has just moved into your neighborhood and is looking for nearby gyms. What do they do? They either ask Siri about nearby gyms or search for them on Google, using terms like “gyms near me” or “best gyms in (town).”
Want your gym to show up in search results for prospective clients like this one?
It’s time to optimize your website and other digital marketing collateral for search engines.
Creating a website alone isn’t enough. You need a viable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy to make sure that your site shows up at the top of search results for anyone looking for gym and fitness facilities in and around your locale.
This article will explain four easy-to-implement killer SEO tactics for gyms to help them rank higher on Google and drive more sales.
4 SEO Tips For Gyms To Attract New Members
Listed below are the top four SEO tips for gyms to help promote their business, generate more traffic, leads, and overall sales:
Determine The Right Keywords
You must perform keyword research to optimize your gym website for Google. It helps you understand what your targeted audience searches for online and how often.
Conduct thorough keyword research to make a comprehensive list reflecting the services you provide at the gym. Examples may include ‘CrossFit,’ ‘yoga classes,’ ‘functional fitness, etc. Also, it’s better to target long-tail keywords instead of short-tail keywords.
Once you’ve all the relevant keywords (create a long list), it’s time to set up a Google Ads account. This free account will enable you to utilize Keyword Planner to see keyword suggestions, competitive data, and search volume.
Look at the buyer’s intent and information needs to come up with keywords that you want your website to rank for:
Buying Intent
Buyer intent keywords are search queries showing people are ready to make a purchase. For instance, if people are looking for “CrossFit Los Angeles,” they’re prepared to sign up for Crossfit workout and decide which gym to join in Los Angeles.
Focus on buyer intent keywords in local SEO campaigns as they drive better and increased conversions. Also, incorporate these keywords into your homepage and build service pages to win new customers.
Research Intent
Prospects use research-intent keywords (also called search intent keywords) to gather more information about a business or service. Although they may eventually join your gym, they’re at the first stage of a sales funnel.
For instance, keywords such as “benefits of a gym membership” indicate that prospects consider joining a gym but want more information about its benefits.
Place these keywords on low priority in campaigns, as they won’t drive fast conversions. However, it’s best to utilize search intent keywords in blog posts and FAQs to help prospects know more about your gym and facilities.
Create Citations & Quality Links
Building citations and quality links can help improve your gym’s visibility and increase its ranking on SERPs.
According to one survey, 76% of respondents employed citation building to secure quality links. And over 67% of SEO experts believe link building significantly impacts Google rankings.
Citations
Citations are key to local SEO. The online directory lists a business name, phone number, and address. Examples may include local chamber of commerce sites, yellow pages sites, online directories, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, etc.
In addition, target gym-specific directories. Make sure to check gym details such as name, address, and contact number are similar in all listings.
Although most directories are free to use, some provide paid listings only. Before investing, utilize Google Analytics or any other web analytics tool to see whether you receive website traffic, qualified leads, and conversions. `
Links
Build inbound links (backlinks) from authoritative, credible websites to achieve better rankings on SERPs. These require you to build offline and online relationships with reliable complementary businesses like health food shops and ask for backlinks.
Utilize tools such as Link Explorer by Moz to know where your business competitors take most of their links, along with insights about your site’s rankings and authority.
Solicit Reviews
Reviews can help improve rankings when used efficiently. Online reviews help people make buying decisions. For instance, people are 63% more likely to buy a product or service with online reviews.
Here are two key reasons why reviews are crucial for your gym:
- They assure Google and other search engines that your gym (business) is genuine and legitimate
- They convince customers to join your gym
All review websites are helpful. However, if you want to increase your rankings faster, choose “Google My Business.”
Send emails to happy customers with links to Google Business Profile and ask for reviews. Make it a habit, and you’ll have a barrage of reviews.
Track Your SEO Performance And Results
After putting all the effort, resources, and time into implementing organic marketing campaigns, you must know how to track your SEO performance and results.
Knowing what works and what isn’t and why is crucial. This way, you can fix mistakes efficiently and refine strategies to make your subsequent campaigns more effective and successful.
Although there are various indicators, make sure to track these three key metrics:
Rankings
Wondering how website pages rank on Google? If so, utilize a tool such as Search Console. Google personalizes the search results based on previous search texts or browsing behavior.
Previously called Webmaster Tools, it’s a perfect tool to help measure your website’s search performance and traffic, fix issues, and make it shine on SERPs.
For better and more detailed SEO performance and results, use a paid tool like RankRanger. This tool monitors your “Google My Business” page along with web pages and offers quick ranking outcomes from your various SEO campaigns.
Traffic
To track website visitors or web traffic, use Google Analytics. You can view your overall site traffic and learn how many people visit your site from Google and determine pages that draw higher traffic. Check reports every week and month and watch out for long-term trends.
Conversions
Conversions are specific actions you want site users to perform. For example, common conversions for gyms can be signing up for free classes.
With the help of Google Analytics, you can monitor both telephone and website conversions effortlessly, see services that drive higher conversions, and know which web pages have the highest and lowest conversion rates.
Bonus Tips
Here are a few more SEO tips for gyms to help attract new customers and make more money:
- Optimize your gym website, including meta descriptions, meta-page titles, page URLs, headers, navigation menu, etc.
- Make shareable and engaging content
- Create a Google Business Profile
- Include schema markup
Grow Your Gym Business With The Right SEO Strategy!
People who want to lose weight, get stronger or even get in better shape turn to Google to find fitness classes or gym membership.
Improve your gym SEO strategy with Treetop Growth Strategy to get more web traffic, increased leads and conversions, and higher sales. We specialize in helping fitness centers and gyms attract new local customers using Google.
Get a free consultation with our SEO expert to know how we can help your business grow three times!
