In this guide to SEO for yoga studios I’ll show you how to market your yoga studio on Google and how to get your yoga website to rank highly in Google search.
You know you want your yoga studio to rank highly in Google so you can use the internet for lead generation and to bring people into your yoga studio, right?
SEO should be a big part of your yoga marketing plan / strategies.
You’re probably aware that Google is the biggest online search engine, so ranking your yoga studio in Google should be a top priority. But how do you do it? Well, you use this guide. Simple.
In this guide I will how you how to do SEO for yoga studios and yoga teachers, so you can bring people to your yoga website and get them to, you know, actually come to your yoga studio for real.
I’m going to assume you have a blog already. If not, my guide to optimising WordPress for yoga will help.
As a leading yoga SEO expert, many people have asked me to write a guide to the best yoga SEO strategies for 2021.
This is that guide.
In this guide I’m going to show you how to get the best SEO for spiritual entrepreneurs, yoga experts, and meditation teachers, whether you’re going-it alone or if you’ve chosen to hire an SEO expert.
This is going to be a completely unique guide to SEO for Hamilton Ontario. Partly because I love Hamilton. Partly because there are already about 168 million results for “SEO Guide” (MOZ’s is number one).
The Spiritual, Mindfulness, & Yoga SEO Guide 2021
This guide is going to cover everything. My aim is to teach yoga studios SEO to improve Google ranking position. I will start from the very beginning. As well as using this guide you will want to read my tutorial on social media for yoga sites.
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation” (usually spelt with a “Z”, although proper English spelling is with an “S”).
SEO is about ranking highly in Google search and other search engines. The ultimate aim of any SEO strategy is to improve ranking position in Google search as well as in other SERPs like Bing. Search Engine Land describes SEO as “the process of improving your site to increase its visibility for relevant searches”
This requires many skills from the SEO expert.
For the best SEO strategy, you have to know:
- How to create SEO content for content marketing (content that is specifically written so that search engines like Google understand it and can thereby rank it highly in the search results).
- How to earn quality backlinks from external sources and how to get local backlinks (e.g. backlinks from blogs in Hamilton / Ancaster / Burlington etc) to improve ranking position in Google local search.
- How to Optimise internal link structure and site architecture (the way the site is organised)
- How to optimise on-site SEO
- How to improve the technical aspects of a website such as by improving page load speed
- How to create high quality content for the blog–content that achieves low bounce rates (the number of people who visit only one page of a site) and high dwell time (the amount of time visitors stay on the site). Note that these are somewhat simplified definitions.
- How to do a complete site audit (experts consultation is needed before attempting this)
- Important design elements for UX (User Experience).
Those are the basics of good SEO yoga studio owners and spiritual entrepreneurs need to know. Anytime you’re looking for an SEO expert such as myself, make sure they can cover all those points above.
But why are these points so important?
The reason SEO experts are so obsessed with these factors is essentially because Google is. You’ve played “Simon says?” Well, Google is Simon. Simple as that. What Google says goes.
Except, Google doesn’t actually say anything. Google’s ranking factors are kept hidden in a deep, dark cave in Google Land in order to prevent SEO experts from abusing the system.
But, SEO experts around the world constantly analyse data to find out the most important ranking signals on Google and other search engines. And because of this, we now know that there are over 200 ranking factors. These are the 200 factors that determine your ranking position on Google.
Don’t sweat.
The good news is this: You can cover many of Google’s 200 ranking factors fairly easily, and I’ll show you how in this guide. Plus, I’ll share some excellent resources for local SEO for yoga studios, so you rank highly specifically for people searching online in your area.
The 14 Step Plan for SEO For Yoga, Mindfulness & Spiritual Entrepreneurs
1: Realise that SEO is just one part of your yoga studio’s marketing plan
If there’s one huge weakness in the way most yoga SEO experts approach their work, it’s this: they look at the SEO strategy as a standalone thing and not as part of an overall online marketing plan.
As a yoga enthusiast, meditation teacher, certified yoga SEO expert, and certified online marketing expert, I’ve gained a great appreciation and knowledge of the best SEO strategies for yoga studios and how they work together with the overall online marketing strategy of your yoga studio.
Speak to a search engine optimisation expert and they’ll tell you that you need high quality content, backlinks, and optimised site and a good site architecture. All of which is true. Except for one thing: The only reason to implement these efforts is as part of your overall marketing plan.
Sure, it is good to know how to get backlinks for SEO to improve Google search position and increase traffic to the business website. But if none of your traffic is converting on your website, the SEO expert is wasting their time because your site isn’t actually making you money.
On the other hand, if you know how to get Google traffic to convert on your website, so that visitors to your website end up booking a yoga lesson with you, your business will become successful.
Point is: Never forget that your SEO strategy / online marketing strategy must work together. When you’re working with a yoga of mindfulness SEO expert, make sure they know how your SEO strategy / online marketing strategy work together. When you do this, the SEO expert’s work becomes far more valuable because their SEO generates leads that convert.
2: For a truly expert yoga SEO strategy, integrate your buyer personas
For successful online marketing, SEO and buyer personas should match. [Here’s an explanation of buyer personas]
This is another area where a spiritual SEO expert might stumble because, sure, they know how to do search engine optimization, but many do not know how marketing elements like buyer personas fit into the picture.
It’s imperative to plan SEO strategies for buyer personas. Indeed, I find that this is where I shine as a yoga SEO expert because not only am I a master of SEO, I am also a life-long yogi.
When an SEO expert is working on the SEO strategy for a yoga website, they should always focus on the customers’ interests and pain points (the problems your business solves). This will enable them to create SEO content on the business blog that actually helps your customers, which in turn increases lead generation and customer loyalty.
Every time you create SEO content for a business blog for lead generation, make sure you’re creating content that solves customers’ problems.
Other questions to ask when creating buyer personas are:
- Background
- Demographics
- Goals
- Challenges
- Common objections
- Fears
- Motivations
When I’m hired as a yoga or spiritual SEO expert, I create buyer personas, and then create SEO content for the business blog around those buyer personas. This increases online lead generation and helps improve conversion rate.
Take-away: The best SEO strategies for yoga studios are focused on solving problems for customers and speaking their language. When you realise this, you can ascertain the types of keywords to write around the theme of your blog posts. You will be able to create content for customers that addresses their problems, making them want to work with you. If you’re working with an SEO expert, make sure they understand your buyer personas.
3. Find The Best SEO Yoga Keywords
Once you have a good grasp of your buyer personas from step 3, you can use that knowledge to do your SEO yoga keyword research.
WordStream defines keywords as, “the keywords and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines.”
Keywords research is the stage at which we determine the main keywords to create content around.
For instance, let’s say you run an Ashtanga yoga studio in New York, a very obvious keyword would be “Ashtanga yoga studio in New York.” You would then organise your content and write blog articles specifically to target that keyword, among others.
Your SEO expert (me, hopefully) can help you to find the perfect keywords for your website. This is done via a combination of tools, of which the most popular is Adwords Keyword Planner.
Adwords Keyword Planner enables you to enter a search phrase and find the best keywords for your idea.
Here are the results for “restaurant in Hamilton”.
For some blogs, it will be immediately obvious what the right keywords are. For others, not so much.
4. Now it’s time to create the actual yoga SEO content
Now it’s time for the single most important part of yoga SEO: writing good content.
The world’s best SEO experts will not achieve much if you don’t have high quality SEO content for your yoga website.
In order to create SEO content for a yoga studio, create content that both Google and your readers understand.
To make content on a yoga studio website rank highly on Google search, make sure to work your keyword into your content without “keyword spamming”.
Here is the best way to use your keyword in your post from an SEO strategy standpoint.
- Use the keyword in the title
- Use the keyword in at least one H2
- Use the keyword in the URL
- Make the keyword represent 0.5% to 1% of the total text
- Include the keyword in the ALT tag of one of your images
- Use the keyword in the meta description
- Bold type one of the instances of the keyword
- Italicise one of the instances of the keyword
- Do not spam the keyword or you will receive a Google penalty.
- Use variations of the keyword in the anchor text of internal links that point to the page in question (more on this in just a sec).
5. Internral Linking SEO For Yoga Websites
Internal linking is the art and science of optimising the way your blog posts and other pages link together in your site.
This is one of the key ways in which as SEO expert improves Google ranking position for your business’ site.
Studies have shown that a site’s internal link structure can have a profound impact on a site’s ranking in Google.
This is an in-depth topic, and something I have extensive knowledge about, so I have created a separate guide to optimising content structure.
6. Inbound Link Building
Inbound Link Building is both the most challenging and the most rewarding part of an SEO expert’s work. This is all about earning backlinks from external websites.
Essentially, internal link building is the process through which the SEO professional gets other webmasters to link from their blog to ours.
As a yoga SEO expert, this is one of the main benefits I bring to clients: I have a “special sauce” for acquiring inbound links.
Inbound links are one of the most important of Google’s ranking factors. By earning good quality backlinks you will dramatically improve search results position.
There are many ways in which to do this:
- Create amazing content
- Write testimonials for other businesses
- Use Help A Reporter Out
- Create a newsworthy event and talk about it on your blog
- Conduct extensive research on a topic in your niche (research-heavy content is a magnet for backlinks)
- Meet other business owners in person to create a real relationship. Fostering relationships will naturally earn backlinks.
This is an art unto itself.
Let’s take a look at an example of a link-building scheme for local SEO for a yoga studio in Hamilton Ontario.
Let’s say we are a new yoga studio just looking to get started in Hamilton. We understand the value of local SEO for the yoga school. The more traffic we earn through Google, the more our business will grow. And to make that happen we need to earn backlinks.
So, how to get backlinks for a local site.
Here are a few strategies a Hamilton SEO expert might use to generate backlinks for SEO for a yoga studio blog:
- Guest post on blogs in related niches
- Create a local event in Hamilton to get the press talking, and then tell them about the website
- Create absolutely stunning, highly-researched articles that people will love
- Write content about yoga in Hamilton (this will attract local links)
- Give testimonials to related businesses in Hamilton ON
- Outreach with other businesses in Hamilton for local SEO
These are just a handful of ways to earn backlinks for local SEO for a yoga studio..
7. Hyper Local SEO For Yoga Studios
Hyper local SEO refers to SEO for a highly-targeted area. [here’s a great guide]
There are usually two ways of doing this:
- Creating hyper local SEO so your webpage comes up when a searcher is near to your place of business (e.g. they’re walking through downtown Hamilton when they search for “nearby pizza place”)
- Creating hyper local SEO for when people search for a business within a specific location even if they’re not there right now (e.g. they want to visit a gym near Lime Ridge mall)
Hyper-local SEO is valuable for businesses that want to target a specific area.
For instance, let’s say you’re doing local SEO in Stoney Creek for a church. You want to come up top for search results for church nearby or for when your potential customers search for church near Devil’s Punchbowl. That way you can target potential customers who are either nearby your church right now or who are planning to visit a church when they’re in your area.
Either way, you want to come up top of Google for search results related to your business and in your area. How?
Here are the basics on how to do hyper local SEO for mindfulness teachers and yoga instructors:
- Include Schema markup on your site, listing your address
- Create a Google My Business profile
- Include address info on your company’s social media profiles
- Include references to your location in your webpages (e.g. “We’re a mindfulness studio located in downtown Stoney Creek”).
- Embed a Google map on your site
- Earn backlinks from local businesses in your are
Take-Away: To get the most out of hyper-local SEO, experts should look for opportunities to integrate your location into your content marketing plan.
8. Page Load Speed
One of the most important parts of an expert SEO’s work is making sure your page loads fast enough, although this will often be offloaded to a web developer.
To test how fast your site loads, I recommend using Google’s PageSpeedTest. You should get the green all-clear signs for desktop and mobile. If not, you will need to improve your page load speed.
Page load speed is an important Google ranking factor. A slow page load speed will affect every part of your site. And not just in Google. Studies show that as little as a 2 second delay will cause a 4.3% drop in revenue from a website.
Good news for yoga SEO experts is that it is relatively easy to achieve a good page load speed. Follow these basic tips for achieving a good page load speed
- Go with a good web hosting company
- Reduce the number and file size of images
- Optimise code
- Remove unnecessary plugins
- Use caching plugin
- Use G-Zip compression
- Add security to reduce spam hits, which can slow your site
9. Mobile Optimisation
29 percent of online traffic in Canada is on mobile (Statista). And Google considers mobile optimisation one of the most important ranking factors in 20121.
Simply put: It’s imperative that your business’ website be optimised for mobile search.
Is it?
Test it in Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
As a mindfulness SEO expert, I’m still slightly surprised when a site has not been mobile optimised. It is 2018, after all.
Mobile optimisation includes making sure the page loads quickly enough when on mobile, and ensuring that links and clickable elements are large enough to be used on mobile.
With 28 million Canadians using mobile to access the internet, your business will be leaving money on the table if your site is not mobile optimised. This is especially true for businesses of an immediate nature (such as services people need quickly while out of the house).
This is something a professional web designer or developer will be able to help with.
10. Google Penalties
All SEO experts know full well how badly a Google Penalty can hurt a website and a business. That’s why, as well as practicing good SEO, it’s important to avoid bad SEO too.
Black-hat SEO practices like using link farms and clever redirecting of links will all get you punished in Google, as will spammy content, low-quality content, low-quality backlinks, and any effort to “unnaturally” influence the search algorithm.
There are some dodgy SEO experts who still use these techniques for clients even though it is firmly established that these strategies in 2021 will lead to a Google penalty.
Best practice is to avoid such SEO strategies like the plague. They will only harm your site.
11. Optimizing Above The Fold Content
Optimising above the fold content is important for both SEO and conversions. The Above The Fold section of the website is the portion that is visible without scrolling. It’s the section of the website that visitors see first. And because of this it is the single most important part of your website landscape.
Optimising Above The Fold content for UX design is important because your site visitors need to immediately understand how to use your site. Otherwise they will bounce. Optimising Above The Fold content for conversions is one of the best ways to improve your conversion rate strategy. And optimising Above The Fold content for SEO is one of the best ways to improve your SEO strategy.
Take a look at your GA scroll depth tacking and you’ll notice most people don’t scroll to the bottom. So it’s vital to place important page elements high up.
Obviously your readers need to immediately know that the article they’ve clicked through to from the SERPS (search engine results page) is relevant to their query. In other words: you need to immediately show visitors that your page will satisfy their needs. That’s why you should put your blog post title above the fold.
If your title is not above the fold your bounce rate increases exponentially. Put your title above the fold. And make sure you have written a good headline.
As well as the headline of the blog post, you should include a killer first paragraph in your above the fold content. This will get people reading before they have to scroll. And this is essential. Readers will not scroll unless they are interested (though you can achieve the same thing with excellent branding and a killer website design).
Google assigns higher value to links high-up the page. That’s why the first few internal links in your article are so important. Wordpress, however, places all kinds of pointless Meta tags (and links) above the fold. Author links, date links, blah, blah, blah. When it comes to optimising Above The Fold for SEO, you need to move those links. Besides, they usually do not get all that many clicks. Why allow those links to take up some of the most valuable real estate on your blog?
Move those Meta links out of your Above The Fold content and down below the article.
In the place of those links, put a link to a pillar post (one of the most important, content-rich articles on your site).
This will:
- Reduce bounce rate (because visitors are more likely to click on your interesting pillar post headline than Meta links)
- Increase dwell time (because people will read your pillar post, which is interesting and long)
- Improve Above The Fold SEO because you’re linking to one single important page rather than your author page / date page blah, blah… all that pointless stuff WordPress creates.
As well as optimizing Above The Fold content for SEO, you will want to optimize Above The Fold for conversions, too.
Your Above The Fold content is incredibly important for conversions. So important, in fact, that some experts (Neil Patel, for instance), put one single line of text and a call-to-action in the Above The Fold content.
Best practice is to make sure your articles start in the Above The Fold content, while also including a Call-To-Action in the Above The Fold content.
With smart design you can accomplish both these things.
For instance, one option is to write your Above The Fold content in this fashion:
- Blog Post Title
- CALL TO ACTION
- Beginning of Post
You will also want to include a sign-up form in the Above The Fold content of your sidebar.
12. Optimising Above The Fold For UX Design
To optimize Above The Fold content for UX design, make sure your users can immediately find what they are looking for.
Take a look at your site and ask yourself: If I’d never seen this site before, would it be immediately obvious where to look?
To make it easier for visitors to find important information, follow conventions.
- Put your logo in the top left
- Menu in the top right
- CTA above or below the blog post title
- Important navigation elements in your sidebar Above the Fold content (or links and thumbs for your most important pages)
- Start the blog post content immediately after the title (or below the features image)
- And don’t clutter it.
- Possible include a sign-up form. Read my guide to email marketing.
This is important because when people have too many options they don’t make a choice. You can read more about this in this great article by Mike Arsenault.
When you divide your visitor’ s attention, you’re less likely to get them to make the choice you want to make. But when you make it all seem like one choice, you start improving your conversion rate.
13. Content
Obviously we will need to create content around the theme of yoga, possible incorporating local SEO to attract people nearby. So the next step is to write that content for the yoga website. To do this successfully you will want to follow the rules of good writing, and then edit your blog posts.
However, simply having good writing it not enough. We now have to do on-page SEO for that yoga content.
This is about injecting the keyword into the right places in your content. I won’t cover how this is done in this guide. The SEO guide I linked to in the beginning of this article covers this subject in depth.
Simply put: having produced on content we now perform the on-page SEO that gets it ranked higher in Google.
14. Local Links and Citations
When you’re marketing a yoga studio with SEO, you want to focus on bringing people to your yoga site who actually live nearby. To bring local people to your yoga studio, we need to do local SEO for the yoga website.
Local SEO is the process through which we make Google rank our site highly for people searching from nearby locations For instance, I’m an SEO expert in Hamilton. So naturally I am particularly interested in bringing people to this site who live in Hamilton. And to do that, we do local SEO.
Local SEO has three factors:
- Technical aspects like Schema (read my SEO guide via the link at the top)
- Including local keywords in the content by including a) your city name, b) names of local neighbourhoods, and c) local landmarks in your writing
- Getting links from other websites in the area
We know we want to rank our yoga website in Google for local searches. And the key to local SEO for yoga studios and yoga teacher is to get local links.
This is where the fun begins.
The very best way to market a yoga studio on Google is to do local SEO by earning high quality backlinks and particularly from local websites.
SEO experts like myself have many strategies for acquiring backlinks.
Some of the best ways to get local backlinks for a yoga site include:
- Putting on media-worthy events and telling local publications about it
- Sponsoring local events for backlinks
- Collaborating with local bloggers
And the best way to acquire high quality backlinks in general, for a yoga studio’s SEO, is to create very high-quality images of your yoga practice / classes and allow other sites to use them in exchange for a backlink.
While you’re earning backlinks, ranking in Google, and boosting traffic for the yoga website, always remember: the only point in all this is to actually get people to sign up for your yoga lessons.
I highly recommend installing Google Analytics on your site and using goal tracking to track your sales funnel so you know how people come to your site, which keywords lead to conversions, and, with all that data, you are able to improve your sales funnel so your yoga studio’s SEO actually brings people to your yoga studio.
And that’s the essentials of yoga studio SEO for yoga teachers
As an SEO expert and yoga lover, nothing makes me happier than helping yoga teachers to market their website and business online.
I would to hear about you and your yoga studio, and to help your yoga studio succeed online.
Contact me today.
