SEO is seen as the holy grail of ways to find new coaching clients. While appearing in your ideal coaching client’s search results takes a little time and effort, it is well worth it in the long run. Once set up, it is a low-maintenance lead generation method that sends you prospects that are actively searching for advice in your area of expertise. In this post, we will teach you SEO basics that will have your coaching blog content climbing the Google rankings.
The Benefits of SEO for Coaches
The old saying, “build it and they will come” no longer applies. You can’t just start a coaching business and sit back to wait for dream coaching clients to roll in. You need to get your name and your services out there to start converting clients.
SEO helps you to develop brand awareness for your coaching business because your clients are seeing your name come up in their search results. Even if they don’t click on your blog post or article at that time, they subconsciously remember your name. This is important because it is believed to take, on average, 8 touchpoints to make a sale. For coaches, in particular, these touchpoints help you to build trust in your expertise. You want your ideal coaching clients to think, “oh, I’ve heard of them” when their friend tells them about your blog post or when they see your advert.
One of the main reasons SEO is a powerful tool for coaches is that the traffic generated by search engines is more qualified than other forms of lead generation. The people who find your blog post after searching are actively searching for information on that topic. For example, if you are an eating disorder recovery coach, then people searching for “28 daily affirmations for eating disorder recovery” are extremely valuable prospects. This is why a big part of SEO is to create blog content that is as specific as possible.
SEO Basics for Coaches
Consider this SEO for Coaches 101 because we are going back to the basics. There is a lot of misinformation out there about SEO, so we’re going to look at all of the factors search engines take into account for your search engine ranking.
SEO Terms for Coaches
First, let’s go over some of the SEO jargon we’ll be using in this article. Feel free to skip this section if you already know a little bit about SEO.
- SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is the act of revising your digital presence so that your website or individual blog posts appear higher in search engine results. To improve your website’s SEO, you need an SEO strategy that outlines the types of coaching clients you want to attract and keywords that will attract those clients.
- Keyword – A keyword is a word or phrase that search engines use to determine if your blog post or website is relevant to the searcher. Search engines like Google look at how often the words from the search query show up in your blog post.
- Search query – The search query is what the person searching on Google types into the search bar.
- Keyword research – Keyword research is the process of finding which SEO keywords to use in your blog post or overall website. There are tools that help you to see what words people use when they are searching for the information you provide.
- Search volume – Search volume refers to how many people use those keywords in their search query in a given period of time (usually a month.)
- Keyword competition – Keyword competition is a metric that shows the saturation of that keyword. A high competition indicates that many other websites are targeting that keyword, so it will be more difficult to rank for that keyword.
- Rankings or position – Rankings or position refer to what number your blog post or coaching website will appear in the search rankings for the specified keywords. The first page of Google shows 10 organic search results plus up to 3 ads.
How Search Engines Determine Relevancy
Search engines use algorithms to determine the relevancy of a result to the particular search query. Each search engine uses a slightly different algorithm, but each algorithm has the same goal: to return the most valuable information so the searcher will continue to use the search engine as their preferred search engine. All search engines make their money through ads, so their priority is to ensuring they have enough users to be profitable.
Another thing you need to know is that all search engines use search engine bots, or web crawlers, to index content. This is how search engines can return results in less than a second. The web crawlers work 24/7 to store information in the search engine’s index so the algorithm can make relevancy decisions.
The algorithm will look at factors like:
- Keyword saturation
- Website authority
- Quality of information
- Bounce rate
- Context from your website
- Context from the searcher profile
We don’t know all of the factors that search engine algorithms use, nor can we know how much weight they give to each individual factor. Search engines want to prioritise high-quality search results, so if they release too much information about the algorithm, people would game the system to rank higher with poor-quality content. We saw this a lot in the mid-2000s with keyword stuffing.
Tailoring your website and content to your ideal coaching client profile is the best long-term SEO strategy. No matter what changes are made to search engine algorithms, we know that search engines will prioritise returning the most valuable information for the searcher. Get inside your ideal coaching client’s head when building your SEO content strategy. Find out what information they are searching for and how they are searching for that information.
For example, your clients may not know the technical term to describe the problem they are having. They may not even know what solution they are looking for. They’re more likely to search for things like “why am I so tired on a keto diet” rather than information about keto flu or “how to get more email subscribers” instead of looking for a lead magnet.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is a key part of SEO for coaches. It allows you to see the search terms people are using when searching for your article topic. Search engine algorithms look at how closely your article matches the search query, so you want to use the exact words they are using. Keyword research allows you to do this.
The first step of keyword research is finding a keyword research tool. The most accurate keyword planner for finding keywords that rank on Google is Google Keyword Planner because it has the best access to information about search volume and competition. Google Keyword Planner is designed for Google Ads, so it doesn’t give as much insight as keyword planners that are specifically designed for SEO keyword research.
We use SEMrush for keyword research and monitoring our SEO strategy because it gives a great overview of multiple aspects of SEO. It also allows you to do keyword research by country in addition to general keyword research, which is great for international brands. They have a 7-day trial if you want to try it out.
Other popular keyword research tools include:
- Ahrefs
- KeySearch
- Long Tail Pro
- SpyFu
Keep reading to find out how to conduct keyword research.
Internal Links
Internal links are links in your blog post which lead to other pages on your website. You can use internal links to recommend related blog posts or to link to relevant coaching programs or products. Internal links improve your website’s SEO because search engines track searcher behaviour after they choose a search result. They factor this behaviour into your search engine ranking.
If a searcher spends a lot of time on your website and clicks on other links, this tells search engines that your website was extremely relevant and valuable to the searcher. This boosts your search engine ranking.
If a searcher clicks on your website and closes the tab or navigates back to the search results quickly, then that tells search engines that your website was not relevant or valuable. This will decrease your search engine ranking. When you look at analytics, this is referred to as bounce rate. Your analytics will track how many people (or percentage of visitors) bounce within less than a minute.
It is important to note that a single website visitor’s behaviour will not impact your website’s search engine ranking. Search engines look at the overall trends.
There is no right number of internal links that you need to hit to improve your website’s SEO. It’s best to add internal links with your ideal coaching clients in mind. Link relevant blog posts or web pages that will help your ideal coaching client learn more about the topic. Most website hosts have widgets that will automatically link relevant posts at the bottom of a blog post based on your content tags.
External Links
External links are links to websites outside of your domain. It is generally understood that linking to high-quality external sources will improve your search engine ranking, though many SEO experts disagree on the reasons why external links are essential for SEO.
Some SEO experts believe that search engines value external links because it shows a well-researched (and therefore valuable) article, similar to a scholarly article. This could be the reason why websites like Wikipedia rank top on search engines – have you seen all of the sources at the bottom of a Wikipedia article?! Other SEO experts believe that external links improve the “human factors” of your website’s search ranking. That is to say, people view your content as well-researched and read the post or view other piece of content on your website.
What we do know for sure is that not all external links are considered equally by search engines like Google. Search engines consider the following types of websites high-quality:
- Official websites like government websites
- Research articles or scholarly articles hosted on journal websites
- Articles or websites that already rank high on search engine results
There is a lot of differing opinions about this particular factor of SEO, so take everything you read (including our content) with a grain of salt. Each search engine has a different algorithm and the algorithms are continually updated to provide a better experience for the person searching.
Website Maintenance
A large factor in your website’s and your content’s search engine ranking is the functionality of your website. The user experience will affect how long someone stays on your webpage or blog post. If your website is slow to load or you don’t have a mobile responsive website, then you risk a high bounce rate.
Optimise the following things to improve your website SEO:
- Website load speed
- Mobile responsiveness
- Readability
- Website architecture (links, sitemaps, etc.)
- SSL certificate
We’re not great at the technical side of things, but this article does a great job of explaining the technical elements that impact SEO for coaches and how to fix them.
How to Conduct Keyword Research for Coaches
The best way to conduct keyword research is to start with a list of 10 umbrella topics for your coaching business. For example, if you are a financial coach, your umbrella topics may be things like debt-free, credit card debt, emergency fund, budgeting, side hustle, etc.
Under each of the umbrella topics, list everything your ideal coaching clients may search related to those topics. Try and think of the words they would use. When doing this step, it is useful to search any analytics you have running on your website to see which keywords are already sending you traffic. Take a look at your social media messages and comments to find more terms.
Now that you have a starting point type these search terms into your chosen keyword research tool. The keyword research tool will show you the search volume and competition for that search term, plus related search terms. This allows you to pick the best possible one for your coaching business. Ideally, you want to find SEO keywords with a high search volume and low competition. These will mean it is easier to rank, and you will receive a high level of leads if you do rank high in search engine results.
The only thing that keyword research tools can’t tell you is what percentage of the search volume is your ideal coaching clients or which keywords are most appropriate for your coaching business. This is why you should cross-reference keyword research with your market research to choose the keywords that your ideal coaching clients would use.
You will have two types of SEO keywords when you conduct keyword research.
- General SEO keywords that can be used across your website and blog content
- SEO keywords that are specific to your blog post topic
Both types of keywords need to be considered when you’re writing a blog post for your coaching website.
How to Write an SEO-Friendly Blog Post
The method of writing an SEO blog post for your coaching business can vary. Keyword research and content ideas are a bit of a chicken or egg situation. Sometimes you’ll get content ideas first, and other times, content ideas come from your keyword research. Let’s say, for example’s sake, that you had the content idea first.
The first step is to choose 3 or so keywords from your general keyword research that you want to target in this blog post. These keywords will be related to your coaching business and the topic. Ideally, you want to integrate them seamlessly into the blog post.
Next, conduct keyword research for the topic of your blog post. Just like when you were doing your general keyword research, write down a list of relevant words or search queries to run through your keyword research tool. This will help you to find other relevant keywords and choose the ones that will help your blog post rank the best.
Pick 2-5 primary keywords and 5 secondary keywords that you want to target in your coaching blog post. Write them down for when you’re ready to write the blog content.
The length of the blog post can also affect your search engine ranking. Research the average blog post length for the blog posts that rank on the first page of Google for your desired keywords. You want your blog post to be at least that long. If you are struggling with the length of the article, look at the related search terms on Google. You can use them as new sections or FAQs.
Next, plan the headings you will use in your blog post. There are a few different headings:
- H1 Tags – This is the primary heading and is only to be used for the blog post title.
- H2 Tags – These are your main subheadings throughout the body of your article.
- H3 Tags – These are the headings under your main subheadings.
- H4 Tags – These are used either for subheadings under H3 tags or to emphasise body text like quotes.
Headings are important to SEO for two reasons. They make the content easier to read, and search engine web crawlers index the headings of each article, so using SEO keywords in your headings give you a boost for those keywords.
Ideally, your primary SEO keywords should appear:
- In the blog post heading
- In a H2 tag
- In the first paragraph of the introduction
- At least 3 times throughout the blog post
- In photo captions
- The meta description
If you have multiple primary keywords, rank them because you can’t include multiple keywords in the heading. You need to find a balance between incorporating keywords while still making the article easy and pleasurable to read.
Next, include internal and external links throughout your article. There is no ideal number, but 2 or 3 of each hits the right balance between including links without your article being entirely links.
Finally, write a compelling meta description that includes your primary SEO keyword. The meta description is the section that shows in the search engine results. We wrote an article that explains meta descriptions here if you want to learn more. Having keywords in your meta description doesn’t actually count towards your search engine ranking. However, search engines bold the parts of the meta description that match the search query, so having your keyword in the meta description will help the searcher see your blog post as more relevant.
How to Create an SEO Strategy for Coaches
SEO strategies for coaches also require a little bit of content planning. The goal of your SEO strategy should be to cover all of your SEO keywords in your content.
You can create a content calendar using spreadsheets or Trello boards to organise your content. Your content calendar should list the blog post topic and the keywords you want to use in the blog post. That allows you to see which keywords you have covered and which you still need to account for.
Seeing your content planning in calendar form helps you to manage your content creation. You can prioritise and ensure that seasonal content is released on time. It also makes it really easy to hand your content calendar over to a content writer or VA to take over.
How to Evaluate an SEO Strategy for Coaches
Evaluate your SEO strategy on a regular basis so you can make the changes you need to rank on the first page of Google. The best way to evaluate your SEO strategy is to use Google Analytics, which is free. You’ll be able to learn about your website visitors, where they come from, and how they interact with your website. We also recommend using Google Webmaster Tools to see your ranking for different keywords and troubleshoot any issues that may be impacting your coaching website’s SEO.
Most keyword research tools also provide functions that help you evaluate your SEO strategy. Keywords should be seen as trends. The perfect keyword today may see reduced search volume in a few months. Competition may increase dramatically and bump you way down in the search results. Trending topics may run out of steam. Check your keywords at least every 6 months to see if they are still the best choice, and make changes if necessary.
While you’re doing keyword research, double check all of the links still work, and double-check that your website speed and all of the technical aspects are still working.
Do I Need to Hire a Content Writer to Improve My Website SEO?
An SEO strategy for coaches doesn’t require you to hire a content writer. You can rank on the first page of Google by writing your own content – a lot of coaches do.
Where you will benefit from hiring a content writer for coaches is when it becomes too much work to keep your content up to date. Writing SEO content takes longer than writing thought leadership content because SEO blog posts tend to be longer, and you need to focus on incorporating keywords. Also, thought leadership content tends to be written under the power of inspiration, so it just flows a lot more easily.
You can outsource the SEO content to a content writer and then write thought leadership content when the inspiration hits. This allows you to keep your coaching blog up to date with informative, keyword-rich SEO blog posts that generate qualified leads for your coaching business. You can focus your time on your coaching clients creating new coaching products.
Content writing for coaches is one of our services. You can choose from weekly SEO content or weekly thought leadership content (or a combination of the two) for £750 per month. Learn more and view our portfolio here.