The chains take over the map
They have several locations, long opening hours and a volume of reviews you won't have. On “gym” and the town name, they take the three visible spots. Your profile comes after, if at all.
Home / Industries / Gyms, yoga and Pilates studios, in-gym coaching
SEO for gyms: make your classes known to the people in your town.
An independent gym or studio shares its town with chains that put a cheap membership on every billboard. On the map, their profiles have hundreds of reviews. You won't beat them on price or on advertising budget. You have something else: supervised classes, coaches people know by their first name, a timetable, a place. But all that has to be written where local people search.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
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Ingram MicroThe detail of this page
The map, one evening in September
A local resident types “gym Angoulême” in early September. Three profiles show up, two of them chains with hundreds of reviews. Yours comes next, with a category and nothing else. Give it some content.
- A chain gym 640 reviewsGym · retail park
- Another chain gym 415 reviewsGym · open late
- A sports complex 178 reviewsFitness centre · outskirts
- More businesses
- YouYour gym 86 reviewsGym · no further details
Your profile: no. 4, off the map
Fig. 1. Three profiles on the map for a gym in Angoulême. Yours comes after, almost empty. (The resident was looking for a supervised class near work. The map showed him three car parks.)
What this means for you. I won't get you to catch up with their number of reviews. I make your profile say what theirs doesn't: the classes, the times, the coaching.
What is SEO for a gym or studio?
SEO for a gym is getting a gym, a yoga or Pilates studio or a coaching business to rank on local people's searches: “gym” followed by a town, a discipline, a time, a price, a trial session. It relies on a complete Google Business Profile, on one page per discipline and per class, on a timetable Google can read and on published prices. The pages describe what happens in the gym: they promise no physical result and make no claims about health or weight.
The problem
What holds back an independent gym or studio.
Your timetable lives in an image or on social media
You post it every week as a photo. Your members see it. Google can't read an image, and the person searching for “Pilates class Tuesday evening” can't find you.
Sign-ups come in waves
September and January fill the gym; the rest of the year is quieter. You rely on posters and word of mouth to get through the lulls. A steady presence in searches partly smooths out these swings.
An audit, for real
What I see in thirty seconds on a gym's website.
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
https://votre-salle-de-sport.exemple
YOUR GYMThe club · Activities · Timetable · Offers · Contact
Push your limits
Join the community and reach your goals today.
Sign me upFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
- 1“Home” instead of the townThe title contains neither “gym”, nor the town, nor a discipline. Those are the three things a local resident types when looking for somewhere to join.
- 2“Offers” with no pricesThe section leads to a contact form. The visitor wanted a figure. They'll find it in ten seconds on a chain's website.
- 3A catalogue sloganIt intimidates beginners and informs no one. Write what people find at your place: the classes, the times, whether a coach is there, the town.
- 4A stock photo athleteNobody in your gym looks like him, and your visitors know it. Show a real class, the gym floor on a Tuesday evening and the team at reception.
- 5A timetable to downloadThe file dates from last season and Google can't read it. The timetable should be a page, with days and times in text.
What your customers type
How people look for a gym or studio.
Six searches I give as examples, without having put figures on them for this page. The first is hotly contested; the others are the ones the chains neglect.
- 1“gym” followed by the town
- On this search, the chains are firmly established. The map comes first. You get in through a complete profile, recent photos of your spaces and regular reviews, rather than a race for volume.
- 2“yoga class” or “Pilates” followed by the neighbourhood
- The person is looking for a discipline and a nearby place. Chains rarely have a page per class. A studio that presents each class, its level, its time and its teacher answers the question exactly.
- 3“gym no contract”
- This search reveals a fear: paying for a year for nothing. If you offer a no-commitment plan or class packs, a page explains it with the price. If you don't, say clearly what you do offer.
- 4“trial session” followed by the discipline and the town
- The decision is almost made; all that's missing is a reason to walk through the door. The page says how to book the trial, what to bring and who will greet them. The form has three fields.
- 5“personal trainer at the gym” followed by the town
- The person wants support and chooses a coach as much as a place. A page per coach, with their qualification, disciplines and slots, lets them choose. It contains no “before and after” photos.
- 6“gym open Sunday” or “early morning”
- Opening hours are a deciding factor in their own right. Your hours, including bank holidays and summer, must be correct on the profile and the website. A gym listed as open and found closed loses a member and gains a bad review.
What works
What gets an independent gym found.
The gym's Google Business Profile, updated every week
Categories, disciplines, opening hours, photos of the spaces and classes, answers to questions. A gym has plenty to post often: a new class, a timetable change, an open day. I show you what to update and how often.
A page per discipline and per class
Weight training, group classes, yoga, Pilates, cross training, boxing, personal coaching. Each page describes how the session runs, the level needed, the equipment and the instructor. These precise searches are where the chains are least present.
A timetable in text
The timetable becomes a real page, with days, times and class names written out in full. Google can then answer a search by day or by time. Your members also find it easier to check on a phone.
Published prices
Chains show their price everywhere. A gym that hides its own suggests it's high. I advise you to publish your plans, what each includes and the conditions for cancelling, in terms you'll have had checked.
The team and the place, in real photos
The coaches with their qualifications, the gym floor, the changing rooms, access, parking. People choose an independent gym for the people who work there and for the atmosphere. Both reasons are better shown than described.
What costs dearly
Common mistakes on a gym's website.
Promising a transformation
“A new body in a few weeks”, comparison photos, kilos announced. These messages commit to a result that depends on each person, and I don't write them. Describe the session, the coaching and the regularity you offer.
Relying solely on social media
Your posts reach people who already follow you. Someone who has just moved in doesn't follow you; they search on Google. The two channels complement each other, and the website is the one that still reads well in six months.
Copying the chains' message
Low introductory price, unlimited access, state-of-the-art machines: on that ground, they'll always have more to announce. Talk about what they don't have, such as small-group classes or a coach on the gym floor.
Sending people to an app for every bit of information
Your booking tool is handy for members. Visitors who aren't signed up can't access it, and nor can Google. The timetable, prices and trial must be viewable without creating an account.
The method
Four workstreams for a gym or studio.
I'm neither a coach nor a teacher. You tell me what you offer, to whom and with what coaching. I make it findable, without adding any promise.
- The map. I complete the profile, sort your photos and prepare a posting schedule.
- The classes. A page per discipline, then the timetable written in text and kept up to date.
- The plans. Prices, trial, conditions: everything readable without calling or creating an account.
- The sign-ups. I count trial requests and calls, month by month, to spot the lulls.
One-minute test
Is SEO right for you?
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
SEO you can count in euros.
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: 1,200 searches a month for a gym in your town, 3% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €450 per client. Click-through rates by position are rough orders of magnitude, and they have been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your figures
What your page could bring in
Ticket no. 10th · worked example- Searchesper month, for a gym in your town
- 1 200
- Estimated visitsclick-through rate: 1.5%
- 0
- Potential enquiries3% of visitors
- 0
- Possible customersone enquiry in three
- 0
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Gyms and studios in Charente.
In Charente, a gym or studio may be in a retail park in Angoulême or Cognac, in a town centre or in a small town. In town, people search by neighbourhood, by discipline or by time. In a small town like Barbezieux or Ruffec, they type the town's name and look at the driving time. In each case, the address and opening hours are what your profile and website must show first.
The independent gym in Angoulême
A town-centre gym can be reached on foot or on the way to work. That's an asset, and it deserves to be written down. I write it on the profile and the site: neighbourhood, parking, lunchtime and evening slots.
The yoga or Pilates studio in Cognac
A studio works in small groups, at set times. A page per class and a readable timetable inform someone who arrives in Cognac and looks for a class near home, without knowing anyone.
The gym in a small town
In Barbezieux, Ruffec or Chasseneuil, people search for “gym” followed by the town name. The alternative is driving to Angoulême. An accurate profile and reliable opening hours show residents they have a gym close to home.
Beyond Google
When an AI recommends a gym or studio.
A gym gets questions like this from AI tools: “where can I do small-group Pilates in Cognac in the evening after 6pm?”. A chain generally has no page that answers that. A studio that has written its timetable in text, with group sizes and the teacher's name, gives the tool exactly what it's looking for.
So I prepare your pages for this kind of question: discipline, day, time, level, instructor, price, all written down and up to date. I check that this information is the same on the Google Business Profile, the website and leisure directories. An AI repeats what it reads, including a promise. That's one more reason for your pages to describe sessions and announce no results.
Question asked to an AIWhere can I do small-group Pilates in Cognac in the evening after 6pm?
Answer
Three places appear in the information online:
- Our client— independent studio: evening Pilates classes listed with their times, group size stated, teacher named, trial session bookable.
- — chain gym, group classes mentioned, times and group sizes not detailed.
- — leisure directory, address only, no timetable.
Studio's websiteGoogle Business ProfileLeisure directory
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three gym and studio situations.
Three imagined scenarios, unrelated to any existing gym. They only show the order in which I go about things.
An independent town-centre gym
A budget chain has opened in the retail park and September sign-ups have dropped.
- Redo the Google Business Profile with photos of the classes and the gym floor.
- Publish a page per group class and a page per coach.
- Show the plans and the trial session on the home page.
A yoga and Pilates studio
Everything goes through a social network and a booking app.
- Create a simple site with a timetable written in text.
- Write a page per class with its teacher and level.
- Make the trial bookable without creating an account.
A coach who rents space in a gym
His clients know him; everyone else can't find him.
- Give him a page in his name on the gym's site, or his own site.
- Describe his sessions, qualifications and slots.
- Check with the manager who appears on which Google Business Profile.
In practice
What you get.
- A complete Google Business Profile and a posting schedule
- A page per discipline, per class and per coach
- A timetable in text, easy for your team to edit
- A prices page and a trial session page
- A monthly log of trial requests and calls
Pricing
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
- The size of the site: ten pages or ten thousand
- The competition on your queries
- What you can do in-house, and what needs producing for you
- The pace you want
Fancy a game?
Insert a coin.
A brochure website that hasn't changed in ten years is a set of undead pages. Grab the piece, slide it into the slot, and watch them fall.
Slide it into the machine
ZOMBIE SERP
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Credit: 0
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. Five of the undead, including an article from 2014.
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
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
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
SEO and gyms: your questions.
Can an independent gym get ahead of a chain on Google?
On “gym” and the name of a big town, it's hard, and I won't get your hopes up. On a discipline, a neighbourhood, a time or a plan, it's entirely possible. That's where I focus the effort, because that's where your future members make up their minds.
Do I really have to show my prices?
I advise it. A visitor who can't find the price assumes it's high and goes back to their search. Show your plans and what they include. If your price is higher than a chain's, the page explains what justifies it: group size, coaching, classes.
My timetable changes often. Is that a problem?
No, as long as updating it is easy. I set up a page your team can edit in a few minutes, without going through me. An accurate, dated timetable beats a nice image that's been out of date since the holidays.
Isn't social media enough?
It keeps your community going and I won't tell you to stop. It does little for the person who doesn't know you and is looking for a gym near home. The website and the Google Business Profile are made for them.
Can I publish photos of my members?
With their written consent, yes, and it's up to you to get it. Photos of real classes are worth more than bought images. I advise against side-by-side comparisons, which amount to promising a result.
How do I get reviews without spending my evenings on it?
By asking at the right moment, for example after the first month, to all members and without offering anything in return. A sign at reception with a code to scan does the rest. I also prepare template replies to negative reviews for you.
Do I need a page for every class?
For the disciplines you want to fill, yes. A “Pilates” page that states the level, time and teacher ranks for searches your home page won't reach. For occasional classes, the timetable is enough.
I have two gyms. How should I present them?
Each gym has its own Google Business Profile, page, timetable and photos. Residents search for the gym in their town, not your brand. Plans valid at both locations are explained once, on a shared page.
What can I write about the benefits of physical activity?
I recommend not making it a selling point. As soon as a page talks about health or weight, it makes claims you can't stand by for every person. Talk about the class, the coach, the equipment, the atmosphere and how beginners are welcomed.
When should I start to be ready for September?
Several months before. A page put online at the end of August won't have time to rank for September. The Google Business Profile, on the other hand, can be fixed quickly. These timeframes are estimates based on what I observe, and results vary from one town to another.
See also
Other industries
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