We’ve spent the month of August in Hub focused on SEO and getting found when people are looking online. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again…
It’s virtually pointless to invest time and money into a website if you’re not also going to invest time and money into making sure that website gets found.
It’s a little like having a mailbox, but not putting an address on it. You’re probably not going to get much mail.
Matt Scanlon, founder and owner of CrossFit Memorial Hill has done the work with SEO, using the SEO resources provided by Josh Sturgeon in Hub. Because of that, he now shows up everywhere online when people are looking in his area for a gym, or fitness, or nutrition, or anything to do with the services he offers.
We asked him to give us the top 5 things he drilled down on when getting himself ranked high in the Google searches. The list below is his Cliff Notes version of where you should focus your efforts for the biggest bank for your buck. He even ranked them according to Cost, Time, and Technical Know-How (1 being low, 5 being high).
Most Impactful Things To Focus On For Overall Rankings:
1. Reviews – Cost: 0 | Time: 1 | Technical Know-How: 1
Reviews are singlehandedly the most important thing you can do to show up online. We wrote another article on why they are so important. If you focus on nothing else, focus on this.
Tips:
– If you have a a lot of drop-in’s, offer their 2nd drop in free with a Google review.
– If you’ve done (or are doing) the Bingo game, make “leave a review” a square.
– Simply ask your members… they most likely think you’re pretty great!
– Biggest thing: Create a system for getting reviews.
2. NAP: Name, Address & Phone Number – Cost: 0-2 | Time: 4 | Technical Know-How: 2
Google doesn’t like inconsistency. If you have different addresses in different places, it confuses Google. Even down to if you have “Street” in one place and “St.” in another. Make sure you use the exact same address anywhere you show up.
Tip: Use https://moz.com/local to get a score for your consistency. You can then opt to go and change everything manually or pay to have Moz do it for you (in Matt’s opinion, it’s worth paying for).
3. Local Listings – Cost: 0-2 | Time: 5 | Technical Know-How: 2
This is, basically, just getting your website on other local websites – Chamber of Commerce, fitness center listings, City Visitors page – ANYTHING you can think of. This will take a tremendous amount of time on your part.
Tip: If you have free interns – set them to this task. If not, pay the money to have Whitespark.ca do it for you. It’s a few bucks a listing and well worth your time. Their set-up doc takes a long time, but they use it for any projects going forward. (again, Matt’s opinion, it’s worth the cost)
4. Guest Blog Articles – Cost: 0 | Time: 4 | Technical Know-How: 3
Is there a local website that gets a TON of traffic? If so, ask them if you can submit some content for them. Establish your expertise. Or, if you’re not a writer, have one of your coaches write something.
Tip: Make sure that your website is listed in the content or your bio.
5. Yoast SEO Premium Plugin – Cost: 2 | Time: 5 | Technical Know-How: 4
This is a last line of defense. You can optimize pages and blogs with this plugin, but it can feel a bit tedious and overwhelming if you’re not comfortable on WordPress and with blogging.
Tip: If you don’t have a regular blog, don’t bother here, focus on #1-4 first.
These tips are not magic bullets, but they do work if you’re disciplined to make them happen. And you will see, there is a good amount of low-hanging fruit that you will find if you commit yourself to doing the work.
Want step-by-step help? We’ve got and handful of exceptional video courses in Hub that teach you how to optimize your website so that you get found, every time. Check them out for only $10 for the first month of Hub.
Also… if you haven’t registered yet for the 1st Annual Gym Owner’s Growth Summit, do so today!! It’s FREE and it’s 3 days of content from some of the greatest minds in our industry!!
