By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.
BrightCite researched dozens of fitness center related keywords and two-word key-phrases that consumers typed into Google. Each search represents a person who is interested in finding information related to what they typed. In other words, the keywords used in our research have a very high probability of representing a consumer who is in the market for a health club membership.
BrightCite then filtered the results using three year Google Search Keyword trend data. This data was filtered three times to produce the top five performing keyword/keyphrase terms.
The Data Filters
The first filter employed was geographic. Our study only involves searches conducted in the United States. The second filter involved the keyword’s appearance on the Google Trends report. Key phrases and words like "HealthClub" (as one word), "Workout Club", "Fitness facility", etc… did not even appear on the report indicating a very low search volume. The third filter allowed us to compare the level of traffic for each remaining keyword/phrase. This data was used to create our top 5 "must have keyword list" for health clubs.
Note: Google Trend data does not show the exact amount of search inquiries per keyword.
The Results
Here are the most popular general keywords people are using to find health clubs:
"Athletic Club", "Gyms", Fitness Center", "Health Club", "Recreation Center",
Here’s how the terms ranked over 3 years:
What The Data Shows
You can see that the keyphrase "Athletic Club" has the highest search volume. But all the keywords receive strong volume as compared to the dozens of keyword alternatives tested.
This trend data not only shows you a comparative analysis of the keywords but also clearly shows what anyone in the health club industry knows - interest in joining a health club spikes in January. The number of searches with these keywords increases dramatically and proportionately across the profiled keywords in the first two weeks of January. Do you have a seasonal keyword optimization strategy to take advantage of this?
Now for the Granddaddy of them all!
I held a keyword back from the above display. Its performance somewhat surprised me. And while this keyword does have several contexts, it’s most significant relates to fitness facilities. You simply can’t ignore its search volume. So bottom line - if you don’t optimize your site for this keyword you are really missing out!
And the keyword is… "GYM". Take a look at how it blew away the other keywords in total volume. Also noticed how it bumped off "health club" from the top 5 list.
From Macro Keyword Trend Research To Your Micro Keyword Strategy
Use This Information To Make Your Website Work Harder For You 24 / 7 / 365
You can use the above macro research trends to develop a micro-strategy for driving local qualified leads to your website. For instance if your club is in Cincinnati, you want to optimize your website to attract local residents by including "Cincinnati" in the search string. (Note search terms are not case sensitive)
So based on our macro research, our micro strategy would be optimizing your site for the following key-phrases" "Cincinnati Athletic Club", "Cincinnati Gym", "Cincinnati Gyms", "Cincinnati Health Club" and "Cincinnati Recreation Center". The research indicates ranking high in organic search engine results for these key-phrases will increase the flow of qualified prospects to your club.
Powerful Keyword Sub-Strategies to Boost Qualified Leads and Outrank your competitors
It’s estimated that 15 - 20% of searches include misspelled words. So optimizing your main keywords further by including common mis-spellings, abbreviations and plurals is a way for you to bring more qualified leads to your site. For instance, many people misspell Cincinnati by using only one "n". So including the misspelling (Cincinati health club) is a smart move.
Also, use common abbreviations - in this case "cinci" and "cinti" should be used. (cinti health club) and finally including plurals never hurts. (Though plurals of the top keywords did not rank high in our keyword trend research) So (Cincinnati health clubs) is something you would want to optimize for as well.
Based on my review of many health club websites - I can safely say that practically none are optimized with the keywords and strategies listed above. That spells a significant online marketing opportunity for you.
But wait there’s a kicker…
Those of you who have heard me speak know I live and breathe strategy. At BrightCite, strategy is at the heart of all our services.
Part of creating winning strategy involves lateral thinking - seeing patterns and opportunities from different perspectives and vectors. That’s why BrightCite web development strategy goes far beyond the obvious. So I’ll leave you with this last little tidbit of online marketing intelligence related to health clubs and two keywords whose search volume indicates huge demand.
The picture below says a thousand words (notice how far above "Gym" these words rank) about how you can use your website to get even more qualified leads into your clubs. (How can you apply the keyword power of "diet" and "yoga" to your local strategy?) Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions. curt.conrad@brightcite.com
