SEO For Personal Trainers

by Venchito Tampon Jr | Last Updated on July 10, 2023

Personal training is a growing industry, with a 24% increase in personal training and fitness instruction jobs between 2010 and 2020.

It’s no wonder why it’s becoming an in-demand and popular industry. It’s also becoming more competitive as personal trainers market themselves online.

Search engine optimization for personal trainers is vital in the process. Content creation and link building require effective tools and techniques to maneuver rankings for personal training-related keywords.

This post focuses on effective content creation techniques for the personal training industry.

 

Create “Anything That Counts” Content

If you are handling a personal training client, you’ll find all sorts of articles about fitness. One theme of topics that gains traction in terms of links is how to count/calculate topics specific to personal training.

People want to know their current physical standing – in one part or part of their body. If you can provide rough estimate counts, your content would help suffice their needs.

Here are some examples of count-related keywords in the personal training space:

How to count macros

How to calculate lean gains macros

 

Make it comprehensive, but more so, add meaningful content formats such as charts, infographics, and even a simple calculator. It would require investment, but it’s worth it if you can dominate the search result for a target keyword with substantial search volume.

The next question is, where can you find these “how to count” or “how to calculate keywords”?

There are two approaches that you can choose from.

The first method is checking personal training competitors for keywords they rank. It will quickly reveal keyphrases where published content assets served those queries.

Plug in one of your competitors’ domains. Go to Ahrefs’ Organic Keywords data. Filter the results by including keywords like “how to count” or “how to calculate”, so you would only have keyphrases with those exact words.

 

Sift through the list and get industry terms to create content confidently.

The second approach to getting counting ideas is to discover gold mine topics on Reddit. The way to do this is either directly searching it on Google (see the first image below) or plugging Fitness sub-reddit in your link building tools (for this example, I use Ahrefs).

 

Pop in the same words (how to count or how to calculate) in the inclusion filter of Ahrefs.

 

From here, you discover content ideas that the Fitness subreddit ranks for.

Publish Guides for Unfamiliar Terms

Jargon and industry technical terms may not be familiar to your target audience. So, publishing content assets on your blog dedicated to elaborating on those terms and giving more specific information about them is a big plus to your content marketing campaign.

Some examples of guides define and discuss some personal training niche terms.

Intermittent Fasting

Leangains

 

Show off your expertise by publishing technical guides. By being at the forefront of content creators who craft expertly-written online assets on subjects only specialists can best write, you’ll have a better advantage in ranking for some of the most competitive keywords.

Here is a recent useful slide deck by Lily Ray of Path Interactive on leveraging E-E-A-T for SEO success. The “E” in E-E-A-T stands for Expertise.

Content Republishing 

Content republishing works perfectly for personal training websites. The idea is to find content assets published years ago. Still, it has been recently re-published given the topic relevance to its current date – its potential traction to gain new traffic and links and mentions from new people who might need the topic information.

The process of content republishing goes like this:

• Start by identifying topics being republished using Ahrefs Content Explorer’s new features (publishing and republishing dates).
• You can add more filters to the search results to only discover linkable topics – i.e. add a referring domains filter with 100<.
• Go through each topic and find the ones you or your team can produce.

 

Find ways to leverage content formats for your chosen topic to make it more comprehensive than what’s already been published. For example, you can integrate data charts to appeal to visual consumers.

There are two subreddits that you would find very helpful in getting inspiration for data visualization:

• Infographics Sub-reddit
• Data Is Beautiful Sub-reddit

Determine Historical Hot Topics

Aside from digging into evergreen topics that often get republished using Ahrefs’ Content Explorer, you also want to look out for historical hot topics. These are topics that seem to come back year after year.

In almost every industry, you’ll find these topics that don’t change over time but are updated only with new tools, strategies, and techniques. Historically hot topics may be issues, pain points, and problems that are often experienced in daily human lives.

For personal trainers, one evergreen topic is procrastination. Whether in 1962 or 2025, this topic keeps coming back every year for sure. The only thing that varies is the verbs accompanying the topic, so phrases like the following are getting searched at the highest level:

• how to overcome procrastination
• how to avoid procrastination
• how to beat procrastination
• how to fix procrastination
• how to get rid procrastination

 

Join subreddits, slack groups, and niche forums to understand what your community often discusses. You can identify historical hot topics if you are heavily involved in community engagement.

Content Generation Matters in Personal Training

Among verticals, the personal training industry is heavily producing content and introducing new content types and formats. A niche, you’d get inspiration for content ideas if you look at them regularly.

 

SEO for Personal Trainers Frequently Asked Questions

What is SEO in fitness?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is important in the fitness industry to ensure that your gym’s website appears in search engine results when potential customers search for keywords like “gyms near me” or “fitness center”. By optimizing your website with relevant keywords and content, you can increase visibility and attract more potential customers to your fitness business.

How do I promote my PT business?

One effective way to promote your personal training business is to leverage social media platforms. Create engaging content, share client success stories, and offer helpful fitness tips to attract potential clients. Additionally, collaborate with local businesses to cross-promote services and consider offering special promotions or discounts to drive more traffic to your business.

How do I market myself as a personal trainer?

One effective way to market yourself as a personal trainer is by utilizing social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook. Create engaging content that showcases your expertise, provides valuable fitness tips, and posts success stories from your clients. Additionally, consider offering a free consultation or hosting workshops to attract potential clients. Use appropriate hashtags and engage with your audience to build a strong online presence.

How do personal trainers get leads?

Personal trainers can get leads by leveraging bring-a-friend sessions, as this tactic relies on existing clients to spread the word and generate new leads. This highly effective approach allows trainers to expand their client base without relying solely on traditional marketing methods.