Home / Industries / Yoga: classes, studios, retreats
People choose a yoga class close to home, at a time that suits them, for a given level. Whoever is searching wants a timetable, a place, a price and a chance to try. If your Google Business Profile and your website give those four pieces of information, you've done the main job. I help you get there in a few hours, and I keep ongoing support for teachers who are developing retreats, teacher training or online classes.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroA title about harmony, not class times
A Jarnac resident is looking for a beginners' yoga class. Your website appears in third place, under the title “Yoga and harmony”. She sees no day, no time, no town, and clicks on the gym above. Change the title first, then the description.
Fig. 1. Three results for a first class in Jarnac. Only one has a studio in the town. (Your Tuesday class still had places. Your title gave no times.)
What this means for you. The title and description of each class page take ten minutes to write once you know the method. I teach it to you during coaching, and you apply it to all your classes.
SEO for a yoga teacher is the work that makes their classes visible on Google and in AI answers to people in their town and nearby towns. It relies on an up-to-date Google Business Profile, a readable timetable, one page per type of class with the level, place and price, and one page per retreat. Yoga is presented as a physical and breathing practice. The pages describe the classes and announce no health effect.
The problem
The class times are in an image posted in September, or in a document to download. Google can't read those formats, and neither can a visitor on their phone. When a class changes day, the old version is still going round.
Monday in a village hall, Wednesday in a studio, Saturday with an association. Online, these places are mixed up or missing. Someone living in one town doesn't know you teach a class five minutes from their home.
Sign-ups are concentrated in a few weeks at the start of the season, then searches drop. A teacher who isn't visible at that point spends the year with half-full classes. So the preparation happens before the summer.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
Reconnect with your inner self
Yoga for everyone, in a simple, friendly atmosphere.
Find out moreFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Six searches shown as examples. When a health reason creeps in, it comes from the searcher: I attribute no effect to yoga. Your own searches appear in your profile's statistics.
What works
If you have your own studio, the profile is yours and it must be complete. If you teach in venues that don't belong to you, it's a different situation: I look with you at what Google's rules allow before creating anything.
The timetable is the page your students and future students check every week. It must be written as text, not an image: day, time, style, level, place, teacher. You must be able to edit it yourself, in two minutes, from your phone.
All-levels classes, beginners' classes, gentle yoga, morning classes: each format gets its own short page. It says who the class is for, what happens in it and where it takes place. These pages show up for specific searches that the home page doesn't catch.
Trial session, ten-class card, annual membership: these options must be clear at a glance. A visitor who finds the price and how to try signs up more easily than one who has to send a message.
A retreat has a date, a place, a programme and a number of places. So each retreat gets its own page, put online several months ahead. Once the retreat is over, the page stays and announces the next date. That way it keeps its place in Google.
What costs dearly
Pose names and Sanskrit terms mean something to your regular students. Someone looking for a first class doesn't know them. Write in plain English first, and keep those words for a more in-depth page.
Some pages credit yoga with an effect on the back or on mood. You teach a class; you don't act on your students' health. Google and AI look at these claims more strictly. Describe the session: poses, breathing, rest periods.
A website still showing last season's dates makes people think the classes have stopped. Update the sign-up page as soon as the new timetable is set, and remove the old dates.
When everything goes through a booking app, your students only know the app. If it changes its prices or shuts down, you start from scratch. Your website must remain the place where your timetable and contact details live.
The method
Four steps. A teacher who gives classes in one town rarely needs to go beyond the third.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 500 searches a month for a yoga class in your town, 4% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one industry to another), €350 per client. Click-through rates by position are orders of magnitude, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your figures
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
In Charente, yoga can be taught in an independent studio in Angoulême or Cognac, in an association, a village hall or a community centre. A teacher may split their week between several towns. They may also run retreats in the countryside, in a holiday cottage or a guest house. These are two separate activities, with two audiences and two ways of searching.
A class in Ruelle-sur-Touvre on Tuesday, another in Saint-Yrieix on Thursday: each place deserves a paragraph with the venue's address, the time and parking. Residents search with the name of their own town, rarely with that of the neighbouring one.
Next to gyms that also offer yoga, an independent studio stands out through what it shows on its website: the teachers' names, their background, the number of places per class and a detailed timetable.
A weekend retreat near Confolens, Aubeterre or in the vineyards can attract participants from other départements. The retreat page must state the driving time from the nearby big cities, the accommodation and how the days run.
Beyond Google
An AI receives detailed requests. For example: “I work in Angoulême until 6 pm, I've never done yoga, is there a beginners' class on weekday evenings?”. To answer, it has to find a class that meets every condition: level, time, day, town.
It can only do that if this information is written as text on your website or your profile. A timetable in an image escapes it. A line such as “beginners' yoga, Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30 pm, studio in the centre of Angoulême, trial class available” gives it exactly what it's looking for. It then cites your class with its details. On requests linked to pain or pregnancy, it recommends medical advice and tends to pick up pages that do the same. So an up-to-date timetable and precise class pages serve Google, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral, and your current students, with no extra work.
Question asked to an AII've never done yoga and I finish work at 6 pm in Angoulême. Is there a beginners' class on weekday evenings?
Three classes partly match this request:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three fictional portraits, written for this page. They show the point at which broader work is justified, and when it isn't.
Her classes are full and the association handles sign-ups. Recommended format: none, or a simple profile audit.
He has premises, a timetable and six months to fill his classes. Recommended format: coaching hours and a short training course.
Her participants come from several regions. Recommended format: ongoing support, timed around her retreat calendar.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
The copycat, the price-slasher, the big chain: they all want your spot. Grab the piece and slide it into the slot.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds, five opponents, only one first place.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
Probably not. If you're turning students away, SEO will only bring you requests you'll say no to. It becomes useful again the day you open a new slot, a second location or a retreat.
It depends on your situation and on Google's rules about shared venues. I won't answer without looking at your case. If in doubt, a page in your name on a simple website is always possible and poses no problem.
Before the summer. The September timetable should be online as soon as it's fixed, ideally in June. That gives the pages time to be read by Google before searches rise at the end of August.
Yes, if you really teach a regular class in that style. The page explains its pace, its level and the slot concerned. Don't create a page for a style you only teach once a year.
I'd advise you not to. It's a health claim, and you're a yoga teacher. Describe the content of the class and suggest that people with pain ask their doctor's advice before signing up.
Say where you trained, for how long and with what personal practice behind you. Only mention titles you are entitled to use. If a title raises a question, check it with a qualified source.
They show your teaching style to the people who follow you. They hardly appear when someone types “yoga class” and the name of their town. Always put a link to your timetable in your profile.
Create the page early, several months before the date, and keep it afterwards. You'll announce the next edition there, at the same address. A page deleted every year starts from nothing; a page you keep holds on to its history in Google.
Yes. You're no longer targeting a town but the whole country, against long-established offers. You need sales pages, a clear checkout and content. I sell online myself in my own shops: I know what it takes, and I'll tell you straight.
You know your classes; you write or dictate the content to me. I structure, correct and train you to make updates. For a retreat or online sales project, the Newp team can handle the writing and the technical side, always with your sign-off.
See also
30 minutes · video call · with me
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
