Determining how to increase your gym’s website rankings is probably one of the least understood parts of the digital realm we live in today – especially as it relates to social media campaigns. We all know search engines and social media are an important part of building a successful company. Yet, many small businesses, such as privately owned gyms, struggle to put the pieces in place. In this post, we’d like to cover website ranking basics and offer you a few good ideas.
Here are some common terms and why they mean something to your business.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — The marketing elements put in place to increase visibility of your business. This is the structure behind increasing rank.
- Keywords — The words and phrases people use to find your business. Although most businesses are familiar with the use of keywords, it’s important to understand they need to be in both your external content (blogs, social media, etc.) and integrated into the backend SEO of your company’s website. This would include the meta descriptions, photo files, link structure, individual pages, and more.
- Backlink building — Backlinks are references from external sites to your site. These are crucial because high-quality backlinks build your reputation and authority among search engines. The more times an external site refers to your business in its content, the higher your credibility among search engines.
- Local SEO – Allows people to find you on their mobile device, and synchs with local directories, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Apple Maps.
- Search Engine Marketing — Paid campaigns, such as pay-per-click (PPC), Google shopping ads, native ads, and such.
How Does Social Media Support SEO?
In all the ways you would think it does. Social signals increase the urgency and recognition of your company, but they don’t, as is best known by the industry, directly increase your search engine rankings. Instead, your credibility grows within search engines as more people share and refer to your product. Your company name, as well, increases its reach as individuals follow and share. Social media then becomes the “froth” that supports your company’s key marketing campaigns. And, like the cream on a latte, it acts as one of the incentives for a search engine to rank your business above another.
Five Tips to Increasing Your SEO Rankings Using Social Media
- Add your brand name to posts using an established and agreed upon voice/tone. Consistency is important in social media, so presenting your brand in a uniform way helps with response and minimizes brand confusion. While social media pages don’t rank, searches for branded content do.
- Focus on building a following of both devoted fans and of influencers within your sector. Influencers are simply individuals with a large social media following. One repost out to an influencer’s community can supercharge the number of backlinks tied your company.
- Add keywords associated with existing social media platforms. For instance, “how to” is common to YouTube; “near me” with Google My Business.
- Craft a good profile. This is the first thing a scroller sees when visiting your social media page. Make sure it is rich with details on your business, add relevant business keywords, and include backlinks to your site’s pages. This is especially critical in local SEO efforts, as business listings with social media profiles rank higher in search results.
- Integrate your keyword campaign into your shareable content. The closer you can align your primary keywords and phrases with both your brand and social media campaign, the more likely you are to increase in the rankings.
How can your gym dominate the top of Google?
The crazy little secret to website ranking is simply this: the best, strongest-configured websites outrank weaker ones. Why? Because they have a stable of experts constantly researching, refreshing, and revising their keyword/SEO strategies. This push-and-pull between what individuals are searching for and what exists on your website, as well as social media, is never-ending.
That’s why if a company can identify a unique phrase or term and jump on it through social media, they can then “own” that real estate. For example, in 2021 Netflix became synonymous with the TikTok “#tudumchallenge.
That’s why, I personally believe, businesses should hire experts in digital media and SEO content development to guide and flesh out their websites. I’m not recommending one company in particular or even a specific way of achieving this end. But I am suggesting that SEO is complicated enough to warrant having a specialist either on your team or from an outside company to help you. It’s already a ton of work to succeed at running a gym business, so focus on doing what you do best. Trying to become an expert at an ever-evolving, constantly changing marketing tool should not be one of your concerns.
Thanks for reading and let us know what you think of our post today!
Gym Insight
We design and sell the easiest-to-use fitness center software in the business! Take a look at our website at gyminsight.com, our social media, and our YouTube channel for testimonials, product details, and information on how you can save money and run a better, thriving business through Gym Insight’s gym management software. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter or visit our Gym Owner’s Podcast at YouTube.