How Fitness Businesses in the UK and Ireland Can Improve Their SEO Strategy

As a fitness studio in the UK or Ireland, you’ve probably heard the letters ‘SEO’ used together many times, but maybe you’re unfamiliar with what SEO is and how it can be beneficial for your business. So, what exactly is it, and why is it important for you to implement it into your fitness website?

Simply put, SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation,’ and its main goal is to help your fitness website rank higher in search results when fitness aficionados are looking up gyms or services that your business provides. In other words, SEO makes it easy for your ideal, local client to find you with just a click of a button – literally. You know you have competitors sprinkled throughout the state’s capital, so taking your SEO strategy seriously is imperative if you want to drive more people (and potential clients!) to your website from search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the like.

Your state may be rocky, but your SEO strategy doesn’t have to be. In fact, just by implementing a few simple techniques, you can drastically improve the way your clients find you online. Here are some ways to easily improve the health of your website with SEO.

Research relevant keywords

You’ll want to start this process by compiling a list of applicable keywords to see how your ideal clients are searching for you online. What’s a keyword? In short, it’s the words or phrases users search for that help them land on your page. You can use free tools, like Google Trends, to help you nail down a list of keywords that work for businesses that offer similar workout classes in your area. Not only will this help you build a robust list of keywords applicable to your business, but it can also help reveal some keywords that your competitors haven’t picked up on just yet.

The perfect equation to your keyword strategy should have a primary keyword and some secondary keywords. For example: let’s say you own a London yoga studio in Soho, some example keywords might be:

• Soho Yoga Classes

• Soho Meditation Classes

• Covent Garden Yoga Classes

By intentionally utilising these keywords in your website copy and blog content, you’ll be more likely to rank as high, if not higher, than your competition.

Once you have your list of keywords, you can start implementing them into the backend of your website.

• Meta titles and descriptions: The ultimate goal for a meta description is to generate click-throughs from search engines like Google. In other words, these short descriptions on your website encourage people to click on your website’s link when someone is searching for the services your fitness studio provides. By inputting relevant keywords into your descriptions, you can greatly increase your online visibility.

• Image alt tags: Let’s say your fitness studio creates stellar content for your members and prospective clients. Most blog articles contain embedded imagery you can tag with descriptive keywords. These alt tags help search engines understand what your fitness studio is all about when they are crawling your website, which is when a search engine scans your website for information.

• Content: One of the easiest ways to improve your SEO strategy is by implementing keywords into your already-existing page content. Find a way to work in a few relevant keywords on your home page, about page, and blog content as much as you can without keyword stuffing. In other words, don’t go overboard and make it obvious you’re using certain keywords to rank higher.

• Backlinks: Having outside links that direct back to your website is a great way to improve your fitness website’s SEO. To build credible backlinks from other websites, partner with like-minded businesses, write guest posts on other blogs, and submit your business to applicable directories. These links let Google know it can trust that your website offers high-quality, relevant content.

• Be mobile-friendly: While you may have created your website on a laptop or a desktop, the majority of people searching for fitness studios in your area are using their smartphones to find you. Since Google now prioritises mobile over desktop, it’s imperative you make sure your website is optimised with mobile versions of each page to enrich your SEO strategy.  

When it comes to your UK or Ireland fitness business’s website, these simple keyword techniques are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re excited to learn more, check out our SEO Checklist created specifically for savvy fitness studio owners like you.