If a guy named Mikko Salo moves to Wodville, where there are 4 CrossFit boxes, he’s got choices. Which CrossFit box will he choose? Well, my guess is the first thing he’ll do is google “CrossFit in Wodville.”
People will go to your website before they come in the door. It is comfortable and easy to check out a website from the couch while drinking a protein shake. They’ll take a look at the trainers, pictures of the facility and wonder what 5 OHS 10 T2B AMRAP 10 minutes, stands for? Five years ago, multiple box’s in one city was not an issue, but now it is becoming standard. I opened a box in San Diego in 2010, already a crowded market. 3 years later, there are 10 more box’s in the same area. One CrossFit is less then a mile away and three more are five miles away.
When the potential customer in Wodville is searching on Google you want to make sure your box shows up first. The higher your box shows up on google, the more people will click on it. More clicks equals more business (if you have the right website, which 321Go Project will handle). We will just replace “Google” for “search engine” in this post because 99% of world uses it to search for just about everything.
So how do people end up in the first position or worse yet on the third page of a Google search? A study at Cornell determined that if you are below the third spot you will only get 4% of the traffic clicking on your site. That should set a pretty clear goal for everyone reading this article. You must be in the top three!
Step One – CREATE CONTENT
You need to write about your facility, your members, and your box. The content needs to be put up on your website. Easy enough, right? Well most CF Box’s just have a WOD page that is filled with only workouts. That is great and you need that, but there needs to be more substance on your page to increase your position. By substance I mean articles that are related to CrossFit, fitness, healthy eating and the quality and community of your box.
Check out CrossFit Verve! they have a WOD Blog page not just a WOD page. They post the WOD, but somedays also have an article below it. A simple idea for picking a topic to write on is listening to the questions you get asked as a coach. If three people ask you about the grotesque calluses that keep growing on their precious hands then you should put together an article on hand care. Google loves content. They want to direct people to sites that have more content then less. Your members will benefit from this resource and it will save you time by directing future questions to that post.
Step Two – Backlinking
Backlinking is how you get to certain posts. So you might have logged on 321Go Project and clicked on a link to get to this article. You may found a link on google or another affiliate may have put a link to this article on their site. It is basically the link you use to get to this article. The more backlinks the better. Imagine if CrossFit.com put up a backlink to your box at the bottom of their WOD page? The traffic you would get that day would be amazing. The more backlinks you have the more credible Google thinks your site is, which increases your ranking. Remember if this was a competition we want to get top three!
An example is the paragraphs above, they both have backlinks in them to CrossFit Verve and CrossFit.com.
A few tips to get back links: You can link a few of your own articles to each other. At the end of a post say check out this article on hand care if you rip on pull ups today. Another trick is to write about a hot topic so others will repost the link on their site. During the games, write about who you think will be top dog and why? During the CF open, breakdown the workouts and give people strategies to use during the WOD. Last and most important, if you create quality content, people will share it.
Step Three – Titles and Keywords
We are getting a little more into detail here, but stick with me. Titles are very important. That is why people will click your article and backlink it. Google also pays attention to titles because it gives the reader an idea of what the article will be about.
Give people a clear understanding of what the article is going to be about. Use keywords that you want to rank for. Keywords are another way of saying buzzwords or important words. If you are writing about a new ladies only class you are offering, you should use words like “Ladies” “CrossFit” and “Fitness” in your title and throughout your article. Do not over do it and make it unnatural. But if someone were to search “Ladies Fitness Class in Wodville” you want to land on the top three of Google.
Step Four – Take Action
90% of people will read this, get distracted by a member, then go in the gym to prove they are the best at lifting heavy things and moving large loads over long distances.
Not you though. You are going to pull up your WOD page and start to plug in an article for tomorrow. You can wait 10 min to WOD. It can literally be a paragraph. Do not over think it, just do it. How to Kip. Why You CrossFit. 3 Steps to Eating Paleo. Pick an idea and run with it. Next time someone decides to pick a gym in your town, your gym will be the first one on the list.
Now it’s your turn! Comment below to share with others what has worked for you and the questions you have!
This blog post was kindly written for us by Geo Rockwell, the owner of CrossFit Mission Gorge in San Diego and founder of Fitrilla.com, where fitness entrepreneurs share their secrets to success. He has his CrossFit level one certification, CrossFit Endurance Certification, ACE Certification, and a Bachelors in Physical Education.