When it comes to marketing and sales for a fitness business, there are a lot of methods and tactics that you can explore. While every situation is different, some common tools can often be implemented to help move the dial for business growth. One of these common tactics is search engine optimization or SEO.
What Is Local SEO?
Similar to the general concept of search engine optimization, local SEO focuses on influencing your website’s position on the search engine results page (SERP). Still, it focuses more on Map Packs and featured content-style results for your area. These types of results tend to display geo-specific results based on your query and your physical location in relation to the results. With local SEO, the closest option based on the query won't necessarily be the first option in the results. Due to the search algorithm factors being proprietary and constantly updating, many businesses continue working to try their best at reverse engineering what factors go into the results and how much influence they carry compared to the other variables. With this, there are some well-documented best practices and tactics that you can implement to help improve your local ranking potential.
Methods to Help Influence Local Ranking
- Google Business Profile — From a user standpoint, you are probably familiar with Google's company profile feature on local-based searches. This feature includes a company overview, address, phone number, website link and other relevant information like hours of operation, accessibility information and even reviews. This profile can actually be claimed or established by the owner and enhanced with further details and edits.
- Address on Website — One point that may seem like common sense but that people often need to remember is putting the physical address of your fitness studio on your website. This could be added to the footer, contact page or anywhere you deem relevant. This information can help the crawlers properly place your business. Note, it can be beneficial to have your address reflect the formatting of your Google Business Profile exactly (e.g., if your business profile address has Rd. instead of road, use the Rd. version on your website)
- Local Directories — When boosting your business’s visibility, some of the same tactics can also help with your local SEO. Local directories and listing websites relevant to your area, niche market or industry can help drive up your ranking potential. This boost comes from the additional link juice provided by backlinks. Backlinks aside, having credible and well-established directory sites can also generally help get additional impressions for your business.
- Backlinks from Local Businesses — As mentioned in the local directories portion, backlinks generally help distribute “link juice” from one website to another. This concept is how many believe website authority is established and built. That said, getting backlinks from local businesses within your service area or region can help nudge your authority, but it also enables crawlers to rank your location and local authority better.
- Local Content — The last point to cover is adding local content to your website. You can add posts referencing popular or well-known local locations if you have a blog. Further, linking out to other local shops, businesses and restaurants can also help (similar to receiving backlinks from them). Finally, partaking in or mentioning significant local events can also work for this topic. The idea is to have multiple pieces of content (not all your content, though), help highlight your local presence and benefit your visitors with relevant information.
Where to Start
There are plenty of documents and websites out there that can give you a “local SEO playbook” or some type of system to follow, but a great way to start is to focus on building a digital footprint for your facility. In order to get found online, you need to be online. Luckily, going digital can also benefit your business in other ways besides just trying to rank in online searches.
One of the first places people can start with this is by building a proper website for their business. This should be a mobile-ready design that is ADA compliant and lists all the relevant information someone would need to know what you do, where you do it, who you do it for, how much it costs and the next steps to join/purchase.
Once your website is established and you have checked the key elements it initially needs, focus on expanding your presence by building your gym's Google Business Profile, getting links in relevant/credible directories, and building out your social media presence on appropriate sites.
Finally, once your footprint is established, reaching out or networking with local businesses to build relationships and backlinks can be a powerful authority-building move. Continuously working on this over time will help keep your backlink profile and local content fresh and relevant.
Next Steps
After the dust settles from all the local SEO work you put in for your fitness studio, there are some next steps you can take to continue to enhance the quality of your ranking, user experience and sales conversions. One option is to look at your keyword and phrase strategy for SEO more seriously. Look at what your competition is doing and focus on where you can work your business to outshine them. This maneuver typically revolves around keyword relevancy improvement and website authority development, so concentrating on those elements may help move the dial. Finally, focusing on establishing, improving, automating and optimizing your sales funnel can be a game changer for your user experience and overall business operations regarding growth.
Tim Mauk is a results-oriented marketing professional who started GymSplash as a free resource to help small- to medium-sized fitness facility owners thrive. GymSplash.com helps equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to elevate your fitness business.
