Ep. 11: Local SEO Quick Wins you can do today
Recent studies have shown that over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine, and nearly 80% of users ignore paid ads and focus on non-ad search results. And now you may be wondering what you can do TODAY to get a piece of that. So let’s talk fitness studio SEO!
In the last episode, we discussed Google ads and whether they make sense to run for your studio. I left you with a bit of homework from that episode to check out how visible your studio is on the search results page for the most obviously relevant search term you can think of, like “barre studio near me”
In today’s episode, I will give you five quick tasks you can do to improve your fitness studio SEO and how you show up on that search results page — without paying for ads. These are pretty easy things. They don't require any special tech skills or expensive research tools, but many fitness studio owners don’t do them because they don’t realize how important they are. But that’s going to change today!
Fitness Studio SEO Takes Time
Showing up on Google Maps or as one of the first few results under it will help your studio get new clients daily, year after year. These are also placements that everybody wants, so it’s not a quick and easy thing—there’s no magic button. Search Engine Optimization is a marketing tactic that builds over time. Google wants to serve up trustworthy results to searchers, so it rewards established businesses, aka studios that have been around for a long time with good reviews, etc.
But just because you’ve been around for a long time doesn’t mean you necessarily ARE showing for all the search terms you want to show for. And likewise, just because you’re a new-ish studio doesn’t mean you have no hope of getting ranked well. Because there are some basic things that you, as the business owner, need to do to help Google connect the dots to know to whom they should show your listing and for what. And that’s what we will talk about today: how you can help Google with knowing and trusting your business.
First, let's break down what that search results page looks like when someone Googles "fitness studio near me." You've got three main sections that show up: Ads, the map, and the website listings:
Ads are the paid results you see at the top of the page and sometimes on the map listings. They're marked as ads, and businesses pay to be there. This is what I discussed in the last episode. While they can be effective—and might be your only way to get visible on this page quickly- many people ignore them and focus on the organic (or non-paid) results instead.
Right under the ads — if Google deems the search to have “local intent” — you'll find a map with several studio listings marked on it. This is the cornerstone piece of what's known as "local SEO." It's precious digital real estate for a brick-and-mortar business and is mostly about your Google Business Profile (the listing you create and manage on Google).
Website listings are underneath the map. These are the regular web pages that Google thinks are most relevant to the user's search query. This is where you’ll often see directory listings like Yelp and Mindbody’s app pages and where YOUR website comes into play.
So, how do you improve your fitness studio SEO rank in those two non-ad areas? (we already know that money will get you more visibility in the ad area!!)
Making an Impact With SEO: Tips and Tricks
While Google doesn’t actually publish what things specifically contribute most to their algorithm favoring your business or not, there have been lots of SEO experts who have published their insights. Although there’s plenty of debate about the exact order, Here are the big things, according to a 2023 survey of SEO professionals by searchengineland.com:
For visibility on the map:
Primary Google Business Profile category.
Keywords in your Google Business Profile name (you do need to be careful with this though as Google guidelines require that your profile business name matches how you actually are referred to in the real world via signage, logos etc.)
Proximity of your business address to where the searcher is actually standing.
Is your studio address in the actual city of search. (similar to the one before but this time the actual city address match matters vs the physical proximity).
Quality and amount of reviews, and closely related, how High your overall Google ratings - Ie. 4.8 stars.
Additional Google Business Profile categories.
You’ll notice, none of those top contributing factors for map placement have to do with your website, instead—for the things that you can control, they’re settings you have in place on your GBP.
You can find see the full list of indicators right here.
When it comes to listings below the map, this is where your website does the work.
These are the top contributing factors to how you rank in that section:
You have a dedicated page on your website for each service you offer.
You have good Internal linking structure (so this is where you’re linking between pages on your website - this is the foundation of an easy-to-navigate site as well… where people can logically and easily find their way to relevant content.
The quality and authority of inbound links TO your website. When another respected website links to your site, it show Google that you have valuable content on that site and they assume others would like it to.
Geographic keyword relevance of website content (this is why it’s important to include location terms throughout your site).
Keywords in Google Business Profile landing page title (this is likely your home page.. The page that you have linked up to your GBP… (this is why we spell out your services and location plain as day in your website title and one of the main headlines of your home page) This is actually #11 on the map list as well, so it influences placement in both sections.
Quantity of links TO your website from locally relevant sites (this shows that you have respect in your local area).
You can read more about these things right here.
Your Fitness Studio SEO: Five Ways You Can Take Action
OK, so with those things in mind— the things that actually matter most when it comes to your fitness studio SEO as a brick and mortar, here are five things that you can do today in 5-10 min each.
#1. Check and revise your Google Business Profile categories, if needed. Go Google your business name. If you’re logged into the right account you should see an icon and “Edit Profile” right in front of you (if you don’t, you may need to try logging in to a different Google account). There are about 4000 different categories and Google continually updates those options, so find the one that’s the most specific for your primary category. For example you’d want to choose yoga studio over fitness center if you primarily offer yoga classes. Then add as many additional categories as you want as long as they are all relevant. Make sure you stop adding when they stop being relevant though.
#2. Check your Google Business Profile name and see if there’s a natural and logical opportunity to add more descriptive words to your business name. I almost didn’t mention this one because I absolutely don’t want you to force this one if it doesn’t make sense in the real world, so please don’t shove keywords in your business name that don’t belong but if you happen to be using a short version of your business name, you may want to change it to the full name if there are keywords that can be included. For example if your GBP name is simply “Pixality” , can you make it Pixality Yoga & Fitness or Pixality Fitness Studio” instead? .. but again, only if your business is actually referenced this way in real life in some logo variations or signage.
#3. Add your primary service and location keywords to your website page title. This is what shows at the top of your site if you hover over the browser tab. You can edit this in Squarespace under Marketing / Marketing Tools / SEO Appearance. If you’re using another site builder, just Google “how to edit website title in ____” Your website title should be something like “O’Fallon, IL yoga studio - your business name” or “Austin reformer pilates studio - business name”... so you’re getting both the service words and location word in there.
#4. Add in your city keyword to a few more pages of your site while you’re at it. You can add these to the page titles of other core pages of your site and also sprinkle them into some of the page content itself. For example, make your Class Descriptions page headline be “Hot Yoga Classes in Colorado Springs” instead of just “Class Descriptions”.
#5. Send an email to ten clients and personally ask them to leave a review on your Google page. Explain that this small act would help your small business a lot. You can even grab the direct link to make it easy for them. To find that link, search for your business by name on Google, then if you’re logged into an account that’s admin on that Google Business Profile you should see an icon in the bottom right that says “ask for reviews”
That’s it! Five things that you can do in under 10 min each to help improve your fitness studio SEO. So — can you spare an hour this week to potentially move the marketing needle for your studio? Thought so…
Need help with your fitness studio SEO strategy or creating a more comprehensive digital strategy for your business?
Pixality Design offers Digital Strategy Consulting for Wellness, Yoga and Fitness business. Find out more about how we can help right here.
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