How to Improve Your Gym’s Local Search Rankings

Optimizing for local search for your gym is crucial to getting leads online. Since you’re a gym or a fitness business, you’ll probably want people who are local to find you. If you’re located in Florida, it doesn't help you get more members if you target people in California.

Here are the main ways to improve your local search:

• On-Site Optimization
• Citations/Directories
• Reviews
• Google Places
• Social Media

We’ll go into each of these in detail.

On-Site Optimization

• Use your city and state in your homepage title. It could look like this: <title>Awesome Gym in Venice, CA</title>
• Use a phone number on your pages with a local area code. Also, include the physical address of your gym.
• Use your location in your logos alt attribute. It would look like: <img src="http://example.com/images/logo.png" alt="Awesome Gym, Venice, CA">
• Regularly blog and include content and images that are related to your local area.
• Display testimonials on your site, especially from people or businesses who are local.

Citations/Directories

Claim your listings on these citation sites and directories.

1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo!
4. Yelp
5. Merchant Circle
6. LinkedIn
7. YellowPages.com
9. Whitepages
10. Supermedia
11. Yellowbook
12. CitySearch
13. Mapquest
14. Biznik
15. Local.com
16. Foursquare
17. ThinkLocal
18. CitySlick
19. USYellowPages
20. SuperPages
21. Outside.in
22. Dex
23. BizJournals.com
24. TeleAtlas
25. JustClickLocal
26. Discover our Town
27. Metrobot
28. EZ Local
29. twibs
30. LocalEze
31. Kudzu
32. CityVoter
33. Manta
34. Zipweb
35. MatchPoint
36. UsCity.net
37. Local Site Submit
38. InfoUSA
39. Axciom
40. Infignos
41. Yellow Assistance
42. Get Fave
42. My Huckleberry
43. GenieKnows
44. MojoPages
45. Brownbook
46. Magic Yellow
47. CitySquares
48. TeleAtlas
49. Navteq GPS
50. Judy's Book

An easy way to get your listings setup is MOZ Local

Reviews

• Ask your current clients to leave you reviews. After 5 reviews on Google Places you will unlock the star rating system. This really helps you stick out.
• Respond to negative reviews. Do not get into online battles with people. Be professional.

Google Places

• Upload at least 5 photos including your logo. You can add videos as well.
• Upload the correct info such as addresses and phone numbers.
• Get more than five positive reviews to unlock the star rating.
• If you upgrade to premium you can create offers.
• Fill out a Google+ Local page.

Social Media

• Create a Twitter profile
• Create a Facebook profile
• Create a YouTube account
• Claim your Foursquare business listing

This should be plenty to get your started on your local search journey. Remember, this isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of deal. You need to be actively working on this such as consistently getting review and being active on social media and blogging. If you go through everything on this list, you should definitely see a boost in your local rankings.

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