As a Martial Arts Academy owner, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. The digital age has taken over and the way in which we generate leads is based on how your academy is perceived on the internet.
With Search Engine Optimization (SEO) you can differentiate your martial arts academy from your competitors and build a relationship with prospective clients before they walk into your gym. In order to drive relevant traffic to your dojo’s website, you must first master the Zero Gravity Marketing SEO White Belt list.
Website design is of vital importance for your martial arts academy website. If your website is not built or structured correctly search engines will have problems crawling or indexing your content. This means that because the design of your website, your martial arts school website may not be found. Without a proper website design, further SEO efforts can become troublesome and potentially ineffective. Think of a website as the foundation of a house. If the foundation is flawed, then further building efforts can only be as effective as the foundation.
Conversely, if your website is designed properly it will be indexed by the search engines and your prospective clients will be able to find your website. With a proper foundation in place, your martial arts school website can have various pages (“rooms” and “hallways”) for users to visit.
Ideally, your martial arts dojo wants to attract a client base that is located near you. This can be accomplished by registering your martial arts school on Google My Business, using Geo-targeted keywords such as “martial arts academy near me,” and implementing schema markup.
Google my business: When users are looking for a service, such as finding a martial arts academy, they will “Google it.” If your martial arts school has an optimized Google My Business page then Google Maps will populate the search engine results page and display where your dojo is in relation to the user.
Geo-Targeted Keywords: Use keyword phrases that will engage mobile and local searchers who are looking for martial arts expertise near their location. Using keywords such as “near me,” the town and state where your business is located, and answering frequently asked questions about your martial arts business will help drive local organic traffic to your dojo’s website!
Schema Markup: By adding schema coding to your martial arts school website you are clearly identifying to Google the useful information that can be pulled out to generate multimedia answers about your business. Aside from the possibility of maintaining a Google Rich Snippet, implementing a schema markup will increase your search results.
Within the Digital Marketing realm, the phrase, “Content is King/Queen” is said quite often, but what exactly does that mean in regard to SEO? By creating content based upon what users are looking for, you are giving your martial arts academy a fighting chance to rank for more keywords, engage with your gyms audience via relevant content, and please the search engines that index your site.
Let’s be honest, martial arts can be off-putting to some. The idea of physical combat and fighting quite literally causes the sympathetic nervous system to kick into fight or flight mode. Using social media will not only help boost SEO efforts but will allow you to showcase the culture of your gym. From an SEO standpoint, having links to your martial arts academy website in your social media bio allows for a reference point. To further your geolocation efforts, be sure to geotag all of your social media posts as well. This way, prospective martial artists can see your website, your location, and the general vibe of your gym.
Aside from SEO, social media has the unique ability for businesses of all levels to authentically communicate their brand. In the words of Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
By using social media as an avenue to boost your SEO efforts and your brand, martial artists will be kicking in your dojo doors to join in no time!
Need help getting started? Visit Zero Gravity Marketing’s Free SEO Audit for a comprehensive website analysis.