Search Engine Optimisation & Social Media

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and social media can be a confusing topics to address because they mean different things to different people. There are many tips out there to help you get more traffic to your website. Always ask yourself, ‘Is this strategy designed to trick search engines into sending me traffic I probably don’t deserve?’ If it is, stay away from it completely. It is what they call black-hat SEO and can get your website downgraded in the search engines, worst still blacklisted completely where you will be sent no search engine traffic at all.

The use of keywords in your content, particularly in your headlines and title tags is really the best place to start when it comes to SEO. ALT tags are also great. These are tags on images and are a great way to boost your keyword use without messing with your content. Meta tags may also be helpful but not as much as they were in the past. Meta tags are words hidden on your website to help the search engines know what your webpage is about.

When selecting keywords, think about what people might type into Google to find a personal training business like yours. For example, if you focus on weight loss, a good keyword for you might be “weight loss”. The trouble is, this keyword is very competitive and hard to rank highly for, so you could extend it and make it easier to rank for. You could try ‘weight loss training’. However, this might still be too competitive and hard to rank well for. A great way to extend it further, making it a long-tail keyword is to add a location, so it could be ‘Melbourne weight loss training’. Now, all of a sudden, your keyword is a lot easier to rank for and is much more targeted, meaning the people who type in ‘Melbourne weight loss training’ are far more likely to purchase your services because you provide exactly what they are looking for.

More comprehensive search engine optimisation can also be helpful, like link building and article marketing for example. You should stick with getting your keywords right first before you invest time into these more complex strategies.

Social Media

Aside from the opt-in feature on your website, there are now other ways you can build lists and extend your reach as a business. These include setting up a Twitter account, Facebook Fanpage or Group and LinkedIn account and inviting everyone you know to join. Social media isn’t for everyone so don’t just launch into this half-heartedly. Think about your long-term strategy and if you want to invest your time into something like this. There are two strategies to consider when it comes to social media. The first is to form meaningful conversations and provide value to people, positioning your business as the experts in your area of personal training. This keeps the ‘social’ in your social media strategy for the best results. The other strategy is to use it as a broadcasting tool to funnel people back into your website, with links to your blog articles. Some might frown upon this strategy however the truth is, it can work and is a viable option. There are tools to help you automate your social media and they are ever changing so contact us for our latest advice.

This is an extract from the ebook "Marketing Essentials for Personal Trainers"

For your free copy REGISTER TODAY.