SEO for gyms: Everybody decides
in the same three weeks.
Gym search is almost entirely local and almost entirely seasonal. People search "gym near me", look at three, and join one, and a disproportionate number of them do it in January.
Map pack·Timetable·Trials·Reviews
The job
I built a site for a local gym years ago, long before this was the job, and the thing that struck me then is still true: people decide on the timetable and the price, and most gym websites hide both.
So this is the map results, a timetable somebody can read on a phone, and a trial that takes seconds to book. Everything else is decoration.
Gym SEO: what's included: The whole list, nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
The map results
Profile claimed, categories right, photographs of the actual gym, opening hours correct including bank holidays. This is where "gym near me" is decided.
A timetable people can read
As real text on a page rather than a PDF or an image. It is the most visited thing on a gym site and the most commonly unreadable.
Classes as their own searches
Spin, yoga, reformer pilates, strength. People search the class and the place together, and one timetable page cannot rank for all of them.
A trial that takes seconds
The free week or the first session, bookable in a few taps. Every extra step costs you people who had already decided.
Reviews, and answering them
Volume, recency and replies all count in local search, and a gym gets more opinionated reviews than most businesses.
January, prepared for in October
The busiest search weeks of the year are predictable. Work done in autumn is ready for them; work started in January is late.
What gets crawled
Your site crawled the way a search engine sees it, not the way it looks in a browser: what Google can reach, what it is ignoring, and why.
What gets measured
Core Web Vitals measured on your own pages, with your real content, rather than on a sample page built to score well.
What you get, in order
The findings written down in the order worth doing, so the first thing on the list is the thing that changes most.
The call
A walk through the findings, so you know what each one means before deciding whether any of it is worth paying for.
What gets fixed first
Whatever is stopping pages being found at all comes before anything that improves a page already working. A closed sign beats a slow page.
What happens next
The list is yours either way. Plenty of people take it away and do the work themselves, and it is not a lock-in.
The quick check
Quick check, £400. One day, the whole site crawled, and a written answer to what is reachable, what is ignored and why.
The full audit
Full technical audit, £1,200. For thousands of pages, a shop, or a migration behind you, where a day is not enough to be sure.
Keyword research
The keyword list from £150: the phrases, what they are searched, how hard they are and what the searcher actually wants.
Monthly, and the hours
From £150 a month, with the hours written on the plan, so what you are buying is a number of hours rather than a promise.
What is quoted separately
A migration, a rebuild, or writing the pages themselves. Those are their own jobs with their own prices, not absorbed into a retainer.
No ranking promises
Nobody can promise a position, and anybody who does is selling you the one thing they cannot deliver.
The first month
Setting up and finding out: access to Search Console and analytics, the site crawled and measured, and an ordered list of what is holding it back. The quickest fixes get made that month.
Months two and three
The list, worked through in order, with the hours on the plan. What changed is in the note at the end of each month. Search Console rarely shows much before week six.
What Search Console shows
Impressions before clicks, and clicks before anything that looks like a position. It is the only free record of what Google actually did with your pages.
What takes longest
A new site has no history, so it starts from nothing however good it is. That is the part nobody can shorten by paying more.
What I report
What was looked at, what was changed and how many hours went on it, next to the invoice. The same note the care plans get.
When to stop paying
When the fixes are done and nothing on the list needs an expert, a monthly plan stops being worth it, and I will say so rather than keep invoicing.
How local SEO for gyms runs: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
30 minutes. The gym, the classes that fill, and how joining works today.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
The profile work, the timetable and the classes worth a page. Priced before anything starts.
Step 4
First
The profile
Claimed, filled and photographed, because that is what "gym near me" reads.
Step 5
Then
Timetable and classes
Readable, findable, and bookable.
This is for you
SEO for gym owners: is it for you?: SEO for gyms is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- Not in the map results for your own town
- A timetable that is a PDF
- Classes that fill and ones that do not
- A quiet autumn before a busy January
It is not, if
- You want to outrank the chains by name
- Nobody keeps the timetable current
- You are full
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What SEO for gyms costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
Timetable and trial questions: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 What does SEO for gyms actually mean?
Local search, mostly. "Gym near me" and your town with a class attached are where the members come from, and both are decided by your profile, your reviews and whether your timetable can be read.
02 Why is a PDF timetable a problem?
Because it is the page people come for and it is the one they cannot use. A PDF opens separately, arrives at the wrong zoom on a phone, and cannot be read by search engines. As text it fixes all three at once.
03 Can we rank for the big chains’ names?
No, and it is not worth trying. Those searches are people looking for that brand. Your winnable searches are "gym near me", your town, and the classes you run.
04 When should we start?
Autumn, if you want January. The busiest search weeks of the year are entirely predictable, and profile and timetable work needs to be in place before them rather than during.
05 Is there a gym website page too?
No, deliberately. Somebody typing "gym website" is nearly always after a particular chain by name rather than a gym to join, so there is nothing there worth winning. The local searches on this page are the ones that bring members.
Usually goes with: SEO for gyms
and local SEO.
The profile, listings and reviews underneath it, which is where a gym is found or not found.
See local SEOOr one of the other three
Quiet autumn
before a busy January?
Tell me about the gym and which classes fill. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave knowing what SEO for gyms would need in place before January.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better