Search Engine Optimization For Coaching: 2024 SEO Guide For Coaches
Table of Contents (quick links)
Do you need search engine optimization for your coaching business?
In this post, I am going cover the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and why you need SEO for your business.
When you started your coaching business did you dream of working less? Where you surprised to find that marketing occupied so much time as a coach? Have yo tried different marketing channels, such as social media, or paid ads?
Well, let me introduce you to SEO and why it is important for your coaching business.
SEO can effectively promote and safeguard your coaching business. You own the traffic that comes to your website. You can convince people coming to your website to invest in your coaching packages.
Social media on the other hand is fleeting and algorithm-driven. Selling services on social media is more challenging than on websites. Social media's focus on social interaction and entertainment makes it less conducive to direct sales.
Paid ads are expensive. In fact paid ads are so expensive that most business cannot afford the expense.
SEO on the other hand is free. SEO helps websites appear at the top of search results, making them easier for people to find and buy from.
SEO is a proven long-term strategy for online success. This can be extremely helpful to coaches looking to grow. Successful SEO sets business owners free to focus on what they do best.
You need SEO for the long term growth of your business. When ideal clients are looking for information and doing research they type questions into Google or Bing.
You can leverage SEO as a tool to show your website when people are searching.
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
Writing for the search engines is different than writing for life and in general.
SEO writing is different than term paper writing.
You need to write for humans.
Search engines like content created by humans for humans.
Search engine optimization or SEO is writing and content designed specifically for getting traffic to your coaching website.
When you do SEO or follow an SEO strategy, you write, post images, make videos, and create findable content. And how do people find the content? By searching.
A coach working on search engine optimization for her coaching website in a cafe on a laptop
As a coach why do you need search engine optimization?
This is the easy part. You need search engine optimization so people find your business and are interested in working with you as a coach.
But there is more.
SEO is about having content that is available at the right time and the right place. When your ideal client asks a question, you are the answer.
Learning to use SEO in your coaching business, is a great way to help people when they need help.
Once you learn the principals of SEO it is free. You can implement the framework daily. And the results you get from writing to your client will pay off.
SEO writing is also a long term strategy.
The more you do it the better it gets!
A coach sitting in bed blogging for SEO while building the sustainable coaching business she dreamed of when she started her coaching business.
Why is search engine optimization the single best way to market your coaching business?
Imagine if you could walk into a room and talk to 500+ people about your coaching business?
Now, to counter that vision…
How are you marketing your coaching services right now? Are you posting every single day on social media? Are you using hashtags galore and hoping people find your coaching services?
Social media can be effective, but it relies on pushing out your content.
SEO is different in that your ideal client is actively looking for answers.
Do you want your perfect coaching client to follow you and be interested enough in your content to buy from you?
Here is an image of another happy coach who used SEO to build a business that she loves. Her mug says ‘like a boss’ because she blogged like a boss for a year straight.
SEO for your coaching business vs social media and 1 on 1 marketing.
I think what many new coaches don’t understand is you need all your marketing to work together. SEO, social media and 1 on 1 conversations all work together as part of an overarching strategy.
Imagine that building your coaching business is like planting a garden. Each marketing tactic, like SEO, social media, and 1 on 1 conversations symbolizes a different plant. Each plant needs slightly different care. Marketing is similar to this garden.
This of SEO as the foundation of your garden. You want to make your website attractive and visible. You also want to build a strong root system that helps your website reach the right people. This is just like a tall plant reaching for the sun to see the daylight.
You want your website to reach he top of the search results and see the light of day.
Social media on the other hand is like a flower. Your social media needs to be engaging to potential clients. When you are on social media you are creating a vibrant presence online. You need to look good and cohesive and trustworthy.
1 on 1 conversations whether in person or online are like the fruits and vegetables of your garden. They are a culmination of all your hard work. These are where you connect with your potential clients on a deeper level and convert them into paying customers.
Each every marketing tactic serves a purpose. These elements just like a garden will help your coaching business grow.
Search engine optimization for growing your coaching business:
Search engine optimization is great for reputation building.
A blog article is the chance to break down topics that are complex so your clients or potential clients can learn and understand.
Also important for scale. In the paragraph above I asked an important question. Would you rather discuss your coaching business to a room of +500 people at once or have daily 1 on 1 conversations?
Hopefully you said +500 (I know, I know crowd nerves aside)
When you first start you business or if you are in a growth stage you need to be talking and reaching out to people. You are actively building brand awareness.
To use this marketing method, you need to reach out to people who may not be interested in your services yet. The goal is to form connections with them.
You are also constantly in a position of 1 to 1 conversations. When you look at this from a ratio standpoint effectively you can spend all day reaching out to the wrong people.
SEO means having the right content available when people search for answers or information.
How does social media work perfectly with SEO for truly building the coaching business of your dreams?
Well, you know how I explained that SEO, social media and 1 on 1 conversations all work well together? Social media continues conversations and keeps your audience engaged. It helps create a community for your business and allows you to talk to your clients more easily.
I can talk a lot about the great advantages of SEO, but social media is also important. You start staying top of mind with your audience.
Social media helps you create a large community, just like SEO helps you educate a large audience.
😊 I hope this blog resonates with you and helps you level up your SEO marketing and grow your coaching business. ✨
Follow me on social for more 👀💗
👇👇👇
So how do you do SEO for your coaching business growth strategy in 2024?
Keyword research
Keyword research is one of the most important steps of SEO. This is where you learn what your potential customers are searching and the terms they use to find information.
A great place to start is by simply writing about the most frequent questions that come up in coaching sessions. If you break these questions in to topics it helps you learn where to start when researching keyword.
After you have a list of questions and broad topics you need to think of phrases that your clients might use.
Some good keywords for life coaching might be: life coach, career coach, relationship coach, etc...
Finding the best SEO keywords for coaching takes practice. Once you find a list of life coaching keywords you should use these keywords on your website.
A few places to use your life coach SEO keywords would be in the meta description and on an internal link. You can optimize your website, while writing high quality content for these specific keywords. Over time, your rankings and traffic will start to grow.
You can leverage social media marketing platforms for keyword research as well. Find your target audience on social media and look at the captions and hashtags in popular posts.
You can also analyze the first page of Google to see what other coaches are writing about on their blogs and websites.
For example: you might think ‘growth minded mindset’ is a great phrase. But a potential client may be googling ‘what do I do when I am feeling frustrated at work’.
This is a slight shift in thinking that will help you generate titles for your blog posts.
Create a content strategy
Once you have done your keyword research. The next step is to start developing a strategy around the topics you will cover.
Searches fall under 3 main categories.
Transactional - ‘buy tickets to baseball game’ or ‘tickets to barbie movie’
Navigational - ‘directions to 123 main ave’
Research - ‘how to knit a sweater’, ‘which eye shadow colors are best for wedding photos’
Other times people will simply type in what they are feeling which is a great opportunity for coaching content. For example someone might type in ‘i hate my boss’ or 'i hate my job’.
This is a good example of using context and discussing content related to ideas. It includes specific phrases in the article.
Start writing
Start writing. I always tell my clients to just write.
Getting overwhelmed when starting a business, let alone working on SEO, is normal.
But writing content should not be hard. At a certain point you just need to start with hands to keyboard.
A short story about how ‘just writing’ helped me. I started a blog about home improvement a few years ago. I wasn’t worried about following best practices. I simply used the blog as my diary of sorts to store my day to day.
I wrote about painting furniture using Ann Sloan Chalk Paint and started ranking for those terms.
Just write daily as a habit.
Monitor performance
Monitoring SEO performance data will help you understand the flow of your website for your visitors.
What content is bringing people to your website? What content do people read the step before signing up?
What content is driving people to follow you on social media? Monitoring SEO performance could be an entire post. At the beginning the best advice I have is to put your head down, read the data and try not to get too focused on the details.
When you first start deliberately working on SEO, it can feel overwhelming. It also takes a long time to see results. But the more you write and the more you apply SEO tactic the more your website traffic will grow.
This coach is obviously happy because she build a sustainable coaching business with SEO. She is also on a call with a coaching client.
Using SEO as a foundational strategy for your coaching business future proofs your business
Do you remember when I said SEO is the best strategy? This is the biggest point of all. SEO is protecting the future of your business.
The internet needs content right now. Everyone is on social media and spinning their wheels there.
Others think ChatGPT is the answer.
I strongly disagree on both points here. Optimizing your coaching website for humans does not fit in well with ChatGPT. Human use trust and emotions to build relationships. The emotional side is completely lacking in this framework.
Building something takes time. You can create a coaching business where you only work 4 hours a day and choose how many clients you want. It will take work.
SEO is all you.
It is your website, your traffic and your content is your blood sweat and tears.
This is why I will encourage you to focus in here and do the best thing for your business. One word at a time.
But SEO is dead! No one reads blogs. How will my coaching business grow with SEO?
When you think of the internet trends emerge and fade quickly. It is easy to wonder if SEO has reached the end.
With the rise of social media, paid ads and influencer marketing some people have questioned the relevance of SEO. However, SEO still remains the cornerstone of today's marketing.
Repurpose blog posts for email marketing. If you are a business coach you can used blog posts on LinkedIn.
SEO meets a fundamental need for information. As long as humans have questions there will be a need for SEO. Consumers and your ideal clients turn to the search engines for questions and information.
Here are some stats to counter this myth:
15% Of Search Queries On Google Are Still New
Social media is not enough - Marketing Insider
Do you want help with your SEO?
Are you looking to fall back in love with your coaching business? Are you thinking of starting a blog and looking for guidance? I would love to help you. I specialize in SEO for coaches.
Writing articles and blogs that aren't findable can be frustrating. Getting SEO consulting before starting will save you hours of time. Set up a call today and let me help you get control of your business before it controls you.
