Suppose you are a gym owner and want to advertise your gym services so your clients can see. You ask different gym owners about the advertisement process, and the answer you get from them is to make a page on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and run your gym ads there. Running ads on these platforms is helpful for fitness businesses and helps you reach new potential clients. 

But, like most gym owners, the one factor you are going to miss is to make a profile on Google My Business (GMB). This powerful listing tool of Google gives a dynamic snapshot of your business by highlighting the essential features. Thus, the gym’s Google My Business (GMB) profile allows your client to reach out about your fitness business and learn about it. So, it is essential for you to create a GMB profile so your clients can understand and engage with you all from the SERP. Here, we will discuss why GMB profiles are essential for business and learn ways to optimize GMB profiles. 

Why is Google My Business important? 

As a gym owner, having a profile on Google My Business is essential for your gym marketing, as it ranks a business based on people’s reviews nearby. This profile is extremely helpful in marketing your local or word-of-mouth businesses such as gyms, cycling studios, or gyms. Moreover, GMB profiles also support your gym website ranking on Google. Also, it helps potential customers read your business reviews and provides essential information about your business. However, this profile also ensures that your business appears in the searches with the keyword “nearby” whenever a client searches for the best gym near me or some other keyword. 

For example, you operate a fitness center named EFG in an ABC town. People in ABC town are fitness freaks and are always curious to learn new techniques. To attract all these fitness enthusiasts to your gym, you create your profile on GMB. Whenever a potential client from the town searches for the best gyms near me, Google my business profile shows your gym as a snippet and provides essential details about your business to your clients and enables you to convert that lead into a loyal client. 

Why do you need to optimize your GMB profile?

As per BrightLocal’s research,  around 167 billion searches are carried out on Google each month. However, the number of searches on the GMB profile is around 1,260, which is quite a vast difference. This means you can quickly grow your local business by using the Google My Business profile and taking full advantage of its impressive features. Moreover, some other factors explain why you need Gym GMB profile SEO. 

Improve engagement

You can use the gym’s Google My Business profile to improve engagement. When people query on Google, Google opens an interface with different websites that answer them. They have to scroll down and read information to get their answer. However, in the case of business profiles, clients who make a query about the gym business quickly get all the information through the snippet and answer the question with zero-click searches. 

Your clients can read about your business reviews and get all the essential information related to your gym. If they have any query related to your business, they can simply add a question on the profile and get their answer. Thus, it enables you to improve your business engagement and contributes to effective gym marketing. 

Boost your business’s local ranking 

Having a profile on GMB also helps you to improve your business’s local ranking. This means whenever clients in your area search for the best gym near me, GMB always shows your business at the top of the list. Google’s algorithm for ranking business profiles also considers the quality of information and activity alongside relevance and proximity. 

So, effective gym GMB SEO signals Google to rank your business in the local market. This boost gives your business more visibility among the clients and improves engagement. 

Convert more clients

If you want to convert more leads from Google, you have to optimize your business profile. SEO of business profiles helps your clients explore you during keyword searches. Also, your top-per-ranking profile enables your lead to call you, research your services or products, and read reviews about your business. Thus, it allows you to convert a lead into a potential and loyal client. 

How to optimize your business profile 

If you want your business to grow, you need to optimize your GMB profile. But you might have a question about how you can optimize your gym business profile. Here are 10 ways to do so and turn it into a 24/7 lead generation tool for your gym. 

Create a Google My Business account 

The first step in optimizing your business profile is to create a Google My Business account. Your business profile and Google My Business are two separate entities. To optimize your Google business profile, you have to create a Business account and ask Google to connect it with your business profile. 

 To create your gym business account, you have to move to Google.com/business and sign in with the Gmail that your business has.  After creating your business account, you have to provide complete information about your business profile. It helps your business rank higher in local business and increases the chances of your clients reaching you by search. The following aspects of your profile you need to fill are: 

  • Name 
  • Address
  • Contact number 
  • Website 
  • Directions
  • Visiting hours
  • Category and attributes
  • Product or services

After completing this essential information, your GMB account is created, and you must now follow the other steps to optimize your business. 

Be meticulous with your contact information 

While providing information about your business, it is essential that you ensure that all the information is up-to-date and matches exactly with your website. Here are the steps to take in optimizing your business contact information. 

  • You must make sure that the name of your business in the profile is identical to the name you use on your store signage. 
  • You also have to make sure that your business name and the address you provide on your GMB profile match exactly with your website 
  • When filling out the hour section of the profile, you must add the accurate time for visits on weekdays and weekends. 

Write your “from the business” description

While searching on Google for a business profile, the first thing a client encounters is the description of your business. Your clients read about the services or products you are offering and make up their minds. This description briefly details your business, and optimizing the “from the business” description is important. To optimize your business description, you have to follow the following steps: 

  • Google My Business description is to be written in 750 characters. You have to use all these characters while providing the most essential information about business in the first 250 characters. 
  • The description that you added has to be different from the “About Us” page
  • Add keywords in the contact that your audience can use to learn about gym businesses. 
  • In the description section, don’t use links or HTML. 

Choose a category

Upon completion of the GMB account, choosing a category is essential, as it allows you to reach the customer looking against the specific category. Mentioning the category during profile creation is also essential. As per Brightlocal’s research, 84% of business profile views appear from discovery searches. Meanwhile, 16% of the views on the profile are made directly. So, it is important for you to add the specific category and also make sure that you highlight the category-specific features. 

For example, if you want to enter the category fitness, you can use specific features to describe the fitness services you offer, such as yoga, HIIT, etc.  To optimize your business against the category,  you have to follow the following points. 

  • You have to be specific about the category you are choosing while completing the GMB account. 
  • If your business falls in the secondary category, choose the secondary category wisely. 

Select attribute 

After choosing the category, Google will allow you to select the applicable attribute for your business. This enables Google to understand your business better and show it in queries when clients search for the best gym in town or the best gym near me. 

Google asks for attributes after the category is completed, which are specific features that you can provide to your clients, like “ free wi-fi,” etc. For example, you can add “24/7 gym access,” “ diet plan,” or “personal trainer.” These attributes allow your potential client to search for you and can lead to a loyal customer. 

Add photos 

You also have to make that business profile contain photos of your business. Adding pictures of your business allows you to send a signal to Google that your profile is up-to-date and active, which adds a point in increasing your business ranking in the local market. Moreover, it also allows you to attract clients, as  42% of the clients request the driving direction if the profile has photos, while 35% of the clients are likely to click through the website, as per Google. Thus, to optimize your photos in the profile, you have to take the following steps: 

  • You have to add one photo of your business to the profile every seven days
  • As a thumbnail of your profile, you have to add the logo of your business 
  • You have to focus on quality images that define your brand’s clear image. 
  • You must avoid using a picture that adds special effects. Google wants to show your business’s image in the real world, so add real pictures about your business. 

Get Google reviews

After adding your business photos to the Gym’s Google My Business (GMB) account, you have to make sure to get reviews about your product or services. Google considers reviews the number one influential factor that leads a client to purchase a product or service. So, it is essential for you to get reviews about your business on your profile, which allows you to attract new clients.  For the SEO of your business reviews, you must follow the following steps to stand out among your competition. 

  • Whenever a client enters your gym and buys a membership, ask them to leave a review on your business profile. 
  • Also, add a review of your website with a CTA to leave one so clients leave their honest reviews. 
  • When your clients make a review, it is crucial for you to respond to it. Responding to your reviews enables your other clients to add their reviews and improves your local SEO. 

Post to your business profile

Like different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, you can post about your business’s updates, offers, events, and products. Creating posts about your business helps you increase the number of actions your client takes to find your GMB profile. Moreover, posting daily about your business in the profile sends Google a positive ranking signal that the profile is active and keeps their profile up-to-date.  Here are the following steps you can take to optimize your business post that contributes to boosting the GMB profile: 

  • You have to post about your business regularly. 
  • You can use the post feature to run marketing campaigns about events and discount offers. Furthermore, you can select a date range until then, and the post about the discount or event will remain live. 
  • Moreover, you can also include CTAs and links in the posts. 

Add Q&A section 

To encourage your clients to participate in boosting your GMB profile and increasing their trust, you can also add a Q&A about your product and services. This helps you answer the majority of the questions that your clients have in their minds, and they get a clear image of gym services. Moreover, adding a question-and-answer section to your profile helps you increase your business’s local ranking and give Google a signal about your business’s worth. Here are the tips that you can use for your business’s gym GMB SEO. 

  • You have to collect all the questions people ask about your business and answer them in the Q&A section. After answering the question, you can upvote your answer. 
  • When answering the client’s question on the profile, always consider keywords. Keyword strategy can improve your business’s ranking. 

Set up messaging 

The messaging feature of the GMB profile allows your clients to quickly contact you by sending text messages. Thus, it allows your clients to ask about your products or services. 

According to Statista, around 82% of internet users use their mobile phones to make local searches. Thus, enabling the messaging option for your clients enables you to gain their trust and send a positive ranking signal about your business. 

Final Takeaway

If you want your gym business to grow in the local SEO market, you need to create a gym’s Google My Business (GMB) profile. This profile enables your clients to reach you when they search for local businesses with the keyword “near me.” 

Moreover, having a business profile sends signals that the business is active and valuable. Optimizing your Google My Business profile enables you to attract new leads and convert them to potential clients.