After all, a San Francisco trainer isn’t getting much out of web traffic that comes out of Chicago. Someone in Chicago is never going to become your client.
That means most of your blog posts need to be written in a way that captures as much local traffic as possible.
Fortunately, there are several great ways to do just that.
1. Blog about events that you create.
Event marketing is its own topic, but it’s a powerful way to create local keywords.
Let’s say that you decide to rent some space at your local community centers, where you will offer free fitness evaluations and starter plans for everyone who attends. This will give you the chance to meet people face to face and to sell them on the benefits of having an actual trainer as well as a personalized fitness plan.
It also creates perfect local fodder for your blog, since you can create a title like this:
Free Fitness Evaluation in San Francisco, CA – March 10th
Then you’d blog about the fact that as a personal trainer you find that most people just don’t understand the most effective way to exercise or where they can get started, so you’ve put together a free, short class where people can get that information.
At this point, the words “personal trainer” and “San Francisco” are close enough for Google to understand that you are, indeed, a personal trainer in San Francisco. (You do not have to type out San Francisco personal trainer every time. It’s tedious, and it makes Google suspicious, too). And, of course, you’d leave that blog post in place even after you finish the event.
Perhaps next time you reach out to the local Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts to give them free nutrition information that they need to earn one of their badges. Now you can meet parents, some of whom become clients, while picking up another event-based keyword-packed title for a blog post (San Francisco Girl Scouts: Earn Your Nutrition Badge on April 31st).
All of this takes a little research and a little creativity to create events that really target those keywords, but it’s well worth it. These type of posts really convert well and can get you a ton of new business if you keep adding to them over time.
2. Weave city names into normal blog posts.
You definitely want to populate your blog with a steady stream of evergreen content that could appeal to anyone. But how can you make your protein powder review post or your “5 Minute Morning Exercises” post more locally focused?
There are a couple of ways. First, you can just mention the local area if it makes sense to do so. You might write: “Here in San Francisco it’s often too hot to run around outside, so here’s a few tips on choosing the right treadmill.”
The second method would be to add a bio at the end, usually with your photograph attached to it and usually in italics. You might just say, “I’m a personal trainer in the San Francisco area who is ready to help you meet your fitness and weight loss goals. Call me today for your initial consultation.”
I prefer doing both, since this means that you get the city name in place 1-2 times every time you post.
If you go out to client’s homes to work with them and you have a service area in, say, different suburbs in the metro area then you can rotate them a bit so that you’re hitting the names of those suburbs on your blog as well.
3. Cover community events.
Community event posts can be a great way to target your local area, so long as you keep them relevant to personal fitness in some way.
For example, if you find someone is holding a healthy cooking class in your local area then that relates to what you’re doing and you can safely share it with your audience.
However, you still need to utilize your bio when you do this, and you need to do it carefully. Otherwise, you are going to start getting calls from people who think you’re the contact person for the cooking class.
You can do this by saying something like this: “As a personal trainer I’m always excited to see classes like this in the San Francisco area. I think learning how to cook healthy foods can be an outstanding supplement to a focused exercise program. Not exercising yet? Once you’ve learned to cook some great new meals why not call me to see how you can add a personalized exercise program to your quest to meet your weight loss and fitness goals?”
That kind of a bio helps visitors understand that you are not the person who is running the cooking class, and that you are, in fact, a personal trainer who is merely offering the information because you care about your customers.
Consistent effort is important.
It’s important to make some sort of reference to your local area in each and every blog post. This will prevent confusion and maximize your chances of getting local traffic from your blog.
Note that adding local keywords to your blog is just one way that you can start generating local traffic. Future blog posts will address other tricks that you can use to ensure that you are visible to the people in your area.