Local SEO Tips for Personal Trainers

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If you work as a personal trainer, you understand how much your clients rely on you. While you may have a loyal customer base, there may still be a lot of room for growth, as the need for personal trainers has been on the rise in recent years.
However, because there are so many qualified personal trainers out there these days, the competition in this field is a little stiffer. The stats show that the number of personal trainers increases year on year.
If you're a personal trainer trying to grow your clientele, you should focus on digital marketing, specifically local SEO. It takes time to experiment and find out the best local SEO practices. But here are some of the best tried and tested local SEO tips for personal trainers that you can implement today.

10 Local SEO Tips for Personal Trainers

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1. Create A Potential Google My Business Page

Concentrating on the most fundamental suggestion - developing an effective Google My Business profile - is the most effective strategy to rank on a search engine.
This will also benefit you when people search for your niche on maps; that is, when someone searches for "personal trainers near me," your Google My Business account will assist you in being displayed on Google Maps.
Here’s a screenshot of Google maps displaying personal training businesses present in New York.

Things to not miss out on while creating your GMB profile:

• Complete your Google My Business profile and claim it to ensure that it is validated.
• Make sure to fill out every element of your profile with relevant information, such as your website URL, company hours, products and services, and so on.
• Keep an eye out for any mistakes. Ensure that your company's name is consistent across all social media and other platforms.

Pro Tip: You can share pictures of your online training sessions with your clients as a personal trainer.
With the ongoing pandemic, many people may feel compelled to contact you if they realize that you provide online personal training.
This is a fantastic method to make the most of your current circumstances. You can refer to GMB's photo guidelines for better understanding.

2. Ensure You Collect Happy Reviews And List Them

According to a BrightLocal poll, 73 percent of consumers read less than a month old reviews. This means that when you approach a new client, they are more likely to read your reviews first before approaching you about being their trainer.
So, regularly ask for reviews from customers to receive continued opinions that send a positive vibe to the review readers.
Feedback from a first-person perspective is more valuable than feedback written from a third-person perspective.

Here are a few tips on how to collect smart client feedback

• To collect their comments, use smart forms. Using platforms like Typeform and Surveymonkey to collect consumer feedback allows you to channel it effectively.
• After each session, send a brief reminder to your clients, asking them to review their experience.
• Do not inundate your clients with requests for input regularly, as this may irritate them.

Pro tip: As a personal trainer, you have the freedom to ask your customers how they are feeling about their session while they are in it.
You can also request that they share their comments on their social media accounts, tagging your page. This is a fantastic alternative, especially if you're training a social media influencer.
Related: Reviews & Its Role in Local SEO

3. Harness The Power Of Local Keywords

Keyword research is the most basic and important step in local SEO. Choosing the right keywords can help you target the right clients, especially when you are a personal trainer in a busy city.
With the demand and the competition in the field, using popular local keywords in your website, etc., can help you gain more exposure.
Here’s an example of keywords that personal trainers in new york can include in their webpages to rank on top in new york SERPs.

Here's how to pick the right local keywords for your business

• Pick commonly used phrases. Think of what you would type if you searched for a business like yours.
• Pick keywords by location. For example, it could be the best personal trainers in Chennai or the best personal trainers in Bangalore.
• Add keywords in as many places as possible. This could be websites asking customers to add their reviews or listing in other directories.

Some tools to use for effective keyword research for local SEO

• Soovle is a keyword research tool that collates keywords from multiple sources and picks the most searched.
• Google's Keyword Planner is the best for anyone starting to learn keyword research, especially their business.
• SEMrush is a tool that does the job of even picking the best keywords your competitors are using.

4. Optimize Your Content For Mobile And Other Devices

Let's face it. Researching for laptops’ products has become a thing of the past now. People surf the most while traveling and there's nothing handier than a mobile phone for them.
A tidy website or profile is important not just to see through a big screen but also for mobile screens. If your site does not display well or has navigation issues while checking for it on mobile, then the chances are that people might not go ahead with their research in knowing your brand more.
For example, here’s a fitness website whose navigation bar is not aligned properly. This will irritate the users making them never return to your site.

Best practices for mobile optimization for your brand

• Ensure your mobile's responsive design is on point and that it works for all mobile devices.
• While designing for mobile, don't use pop-ups or flash as the plugin might not sync well with mobile design.
• Make sure all the images are optimized for the mobile, tab, and other devices.

5. Build a Mobile-responsive website

Building a website is easy but making one that will cater to everyone is more important. As a personal trainer, there is not enough stress on how an SEO-friendly website can help you rank on the top in Google. This means your website should be all-inclusive.
As shown in the screenshot below, you should always keep the website mobile-friendly to let search engines pick up your website in mobile SERPs.

Tips to ensure your website is launch-ready for better SEO and visibility

• Ensure your website caters to differently-abled as well. Google considers this as one of the important ranking factors. This includes alt-text, adding speech, etc.
• Understand the design and create a user-friendly website to ensure the least bounce rate.

Platforms you can use to create amazing websites on your own

• WordPress is opted by many beginners who are new to website building.
• Wix is also a great platform to create your first website with no or least hassle.
• Squarespace is another website builder you can consider for making your website.

6. Optimize Your City Pages For Your Website To Ensure Maximum Visibility

You probably might have heard a little about City Pages. You can optimize these pages within your website for a particular service or product in a particular city or market. It is a powerful way to connect with new customers and make yourself easily discoverable.
As a personal trainer, you can have a great scope when covering your city and the adjacent cities when taking sessions.

Here's how you can smartly include locations in your city pages optimization

• Write quality content and add city names in the text.
• Perform keyword research with tools like SEMrush, LSIGraph, and Moz's Keyword Planner to add relevant keywords to your city pages.
• Pro Tip: Follow a simple rule of thumb - 'Keyword' + 'City Name' or 'Target Location Name.'

7. Make Sure Your Website is Interactive

Web designing is one area you can explore to attract more customers to your website.
More than a well-designed website, a well-functioning website tends to get more visitors. This means you should integrate creative elements like AI, VR, and other visuals to make your website unique from the others in your niche.
Take a look at the below screenshot. This website uses interactive videos to show the perfect training positions.
As a personal trainer, you have the liberty to make it creative enough to attract more clients. For example, you can have a smart integration to survey their accurate physical health and get quick tips. Here are a few things you can incorporate to make a creative website:

• Use Adobe XD to bring the best of your digital projects to life.
• Marvel is another tool you can use to build prototypes before you draft the final look of your website.
• Figma is also a great tool to integrate and work with other designers.

8. Social Media Marketing is the New SEO

As an entrepreneur, you may use social media channels to reach out to the proper customers. For example, on social media sites like Instagram, you can quickly find a lot of fitness enthusiasts, which is a great place to look for new clients.
Your page will increase in popularity as you post fitness videos and tips, and many people will eventually start following you. This could be a good chance to attract new clients.
Here’s an example of a brand that often posts images, reels, and videos to engage with the audience and keep them connected with their brand.

• You can also run ads on Facebook and Instagram to make your profile visible to relevant users.
• Actively using platforms like YouTube will also help you gain more subscribers to your channel that can help you grow your customer base.

9. Focus on Online Reputation Management

Your reputation is determined by how or what your customers tell about you online.
Customers online weigh brands together before making a purchasing decision, and online reputation management is important for this very reason. This practice helps you control damage when someone is unsatisfied with your brand and expresses the same online.
You can use any brand monitoring tools like Awario to find the negative comments on the web and remove them from harming your reputation.
One best way to balance this is by adding positive and happy reviews from customers.

• You can use tools like SEMrsuh or Ahrefs to have proper reputation management.
• Another useful tool for ORM is Reputology which will help you manage your ORM effectively.

10. Write Credible And Trustworthy Content

Content writing or content creation is another major aspect of local SEO management. For instance, you have to create and share original and unique content for your followers.
You cannot always expect your website visitors to come only to buy products or avail of your services. So, not to sound salesy, you can include testimonial graphics or have a section of testimonials to build trust in your brand.
They might even be there to learn something new, and when that happens, they will have better trust in you as a brand.

• Use Grammarly for all your blog writing. A blog free of errors and plagiarism ranks well.
• Google Search Console will help you understand why or what makes visitors come to your site.
• Animaker or Canva can help you create great visual content which has better reach on social media platforms.

Being a personal trainer is not easy, especially given the field's competition these days.
As more people choose to make better lifestyle choices and opt to be physically fit and active, the need for more personal trainers arises.
However, to be on top, you have to know how to tap on the opportunities in the first place. If you follow the above-mentioned local SEO tips, you can surely land in to get more clients.
Related: Benefits of Content Marketing for Local SEO

Local SEO for Personal Trainers - FAQs

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Q1. How Can I Use Social Media For My Benefit As A Personal Trainer?

Instagram has amazing features like reels, IGTV, stories, and others created to help you have better reach on the platform.
The more content you create as a personal trainer, the better visibility. You can make tips, workout videos, and other useful content to boost your followers who might become your clients someday.

Q2. How Important Is Keyword Research For A Personal Trainer's Profile?

Using keyword research tools like Soovle, Keyword tool.io, KWFinder, SEMRush, and Moz can help you tap the right keywords for your profile as a personal trainer. Using local keywords like 'personal trainer in' 'city name' can easily help people locate your profile.

Q3. I Am New To Website Creation. Will I Be Able To Create A Website On My Own?

While creating integrated website designs requires professional help, you can always create a basic website using simple website builders made for beginners. Use platforms like Wix, WordPress, WebStarts, and Squarespace are great to explore.

Q4. Where Should I Start As A Personal Trainer To Brand Myself On Digital Platforms?

The first thing to start as a personal trainer is to create a profile for yourself on Google My Business. Make sure wherever you mention, your NAP is matching and is consistent.
Then, create a simple website so people can know of your brand's identity when they look up for it online. You can also consider starting social media pages while setting up your local SEO to rank better on search engines.

Key Takeaways

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• Create a GMB account with all necessary and right information.
• Ensure your NAP is consistent across all platforms and all places online.
• Invest in creating a compelling and integrated website.
• Focus on creating a mobile-friendly design that is interactive and responsive.
• Do keyword research to incorporate the right keywords in your blogs and online content.
• Retain your best reviews and encourage your clients to add a review or feedback after their sessions.