SEO for coaches: How to create content that ranks

Ever wonder why some coaching websites pop up first on Google while others are hidden on page ten? That’s the magic of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

For an online business, your online presence is your biggest asset, and SEO is the most cost-effective way to make sure your brand is visible to the right audience.

In this article, I’ll explain how to learning SEO for coaches is important to increase the number of potential clients.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the practice of optimizing your website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to attract attention and drive prospective and existing customers to your business.

Imagine you’re a life coach with a website. If someone searches “life coach near me” or “how to set life goals,” good SEO helps ensure your site appears at the top of those search results.

How does SEO Rank your Content?

When a user enters a search query, the search engine pulls out the best results from its index. Several factors influence how these results are ranked, including relevance, content quality, and user experience.

Let’s say you’ve written a blog post on “setting achievable goals.” The search engine will look for signals that your content is detailed, accurate, and helpful before deciding where to rank it.

Why is SEO for coaches so Important?

Quick question: Have you ever clicked past the second page of search results? Probably not often, right? 

According to statistics collected by Backlinko, organic search results account for 45.1% of all clicks, while 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.

That’s why it’s important to be on the first page!

• Visibility and Traffic

The first few results you see are likely to be the ones you click on. That’s because appearing at the top of search results grabs attention first. 

If your site ranks highly, more people will see it. Higher visibility directly translates to more visitors to your website.

Once these hot leads land on your website, you can either turn them into clients or easily add them to your email list and nurture them. 

I like to include lead magnets with CTAs in between my articles to get clients to opt in for incoming traffic. 

This particular CTA is from my article on business coaching. People interested in reading about business coaching get their free guide, and I get to add potential clients to my email list. It’s a win-win!

• More Cost Effective than Paid Ads

Organic search is great for businesses like your coaching business because you don’t have to pay anything to have more people visit your website. You just need to make your website better with SEO.

• Credibility and Trust

Websites that rank highly on Google are often seen as more trustworthy. High rankings give the impression that your site is a reliable source of information.

Reflect on your own search habits. Do you trust top search results more? This is how your potential clients think too.

Keyword Research

Keywords are the terms and phrases people type into search engines. These are the “search queries.” 

Identifying the right keywords is very important in SEO. These are keywords related to the niche that you want to rank for. Ranking higher for these keywords means more traffic.

How will you find the right keywords?

Use paid tools like Ahrefs and Semrush or free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to find keywords related to your coaching services. 

My tip: look for keywords with high search volume but low competition. Such keywords are easy to rank for.

Not all keywords are equal. Some might be too competitive, meaning many other websites are also trying to rank for them. Look for a balance between high search volume and low competition.

Instead of targeting a very competitive keyword like “life coach,” try something more specific, like “life coach for millennials.”

Keyword research is the bedrock of your SEO strategy. Find out what keywords fit your niche.

Invest in tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush once you have a better understanding of how to navigate SEO. These tools make keyword research significantly easier.

How to Make your Content SEO-friendly

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing the best articles, only good practices. Optimizing your content according to these best practices is the best way to ensure your content ranks.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimizing individual pages on your website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic from search engines.

Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, has said, “Content is the backbone of SEO. It’s not just about creating content, but creating content that people actually want to read and engage with.”^[1]

1. Optimize your Content according to search intent

Ensure your content is valuable, relevant, and answers the search query. Understanding user intent is crucial for effective keyword research and content creation.

Do not forget to add E-E-A-T to your content. Adding your expertise, experience, authority in the field and trustworthiness is crucial. 

Provide actionable tips, real-life examples, and perhaps a downloadable planner.

In my content, I like to add my own experience and opinions from other experts as well.

2. Write Inviting Meta Tags and Descriptions

Meta tags and descriptions help search engines understand your content. They appear in search results, influencing whether users click on your link. 

Meta tags are titles that show up in search results. This meta title is different from the article title.

This is the meta tag for my article on starting an online coaching business.

While this is my actual article title:

You find the option to add these when you create or edit an article.

A good meta title is under 80 characters and includes the main keyword for the article.

A meta description is the brief description that shows up in the search results along with your meta tag.

The best meta description is under 160 characters, include the main keyword and should summarise what’s covered in the article.

This title and description form the first perception of your article when they stumble upon it in the search results.

3. Structure your URL Descriptively

SEO-friendly URLs are clean and descriptive. They should include relevant keywords and be easy to read.

Instead of URLs like “www.coachfoundation.com/p=123,” use “www.coachfoundation.com/start-a-coaching-bussiness-from-scratch”

4. Add relevant internal and external links

Internal links are links that connect different pages on your website. They help search engines understand the structure of your site and keep visitors engaged by directing them to other relevant content.

External links are links to other reputable websites. These add value to your content and can improve your site’s credibility and relevance.

Another one of my tips: is to use descriptive keywords to link your pages. This allows Google, as well as your readers, to understand the purpose and relevancy of that link.

5. Structure your content using headings and subheadings

Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) structure your content and make it easier for search engines to understand the hierarchy of your information.

Use H1 for the main title of your page. There should only be one H1 tag per page.

Use H2 and H3 for subheadings. These break down your content into sections and make it easier to read.

6. Optimize your images

• Alt Text: Use descriptive alt text for images to help search engines understand what the image is about.
• File Names: Name your image files with relevant keywords before uploading them.
• Image Size and Quality: Ensure images are high-quality but optimized for fast loading times. Large, uncompressed images can slow down your site.

Too much to take note of? I have gathered all the on-page SEO best practices in a downloadable checklist. You can get yours below. (See what I did here?)

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the optimization of a website’s infrastructure to improve its ability to be crawled and indexed by search engines effectively.

Fery Kaszoni, CEO of Search Intelligence, believes “technical SEO lays the foundation for your SEO strategy. Without a technically sound website, all other SEO efforts may fall short.”^[2]

Proper technical SEO not only enhances search engine rankings but also significantly improves user experience, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates

1. Website Speed and Performance

A fast website enhances the user experience and can boost your rankings. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check and improve your site’s speed.

Compress images, enable browser caching, and minify CSS and JavaScript files to make your site load faster.

You don’t have to worry too much about it. You can hire a freelancer from Upwork or Fiverr and get them to set it up for you.

2. Mobile Responsiveness

Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Nowadays, more people are using mobile devices to browse the web.

As per Ahrefs, a leading tool in the SEO industry, mobile devices account for 58.67% of all global website traffic. You cannot disavow the importance of mobile responsiveness in modern marketing.

3. Security

Ensure your website uses HTTPS. It’s a secure version of HTTP and is essential for protecting your visitors’ data. Search engines also prefer secure sites.

I use plug-ins like Sucuri to secure my website against malware. Trust me, you need to secure your website. I learned it the hard way last year when I found myself under threat of being hacked.

There is more to technical SEO than this. You can read about it in more detail here. But you don’t need to delve into it deeply in the beginning. 

Off-page SEO or Link Building

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. They signal to search engines that your site is authoritative and trustworthy. Apart from increasing your E-E-A-T, they also bring in referral traffic.

According to Matt Diggity, “building links is a long-term strategy for better rankings. You won’t see the SERP needle move overnight, but there’s more longevity if you do manage to rank.”^[3]

Link building is a very popular technique to improve your SEO. Because of it, it is becoming really difficult to attract good quality links.

In my experience, these strategies work best for acquiring quality backlinks:

1. Digital PR

Digital PR revolves around creating outstanding content, or “linkable assets,” that journalists find worth linking to because it adds depth and value to their articles. 

Digital PR tells compelling stories that resonate and captivate journalists, prompting them to feature and link to them.

With digital PR, you can secure links from prestigious publications like Forbes, bolstering your reputation.

I’ve found it to be a bit tricky to start collecting links using this, but it still remains the best technique in the industry. There are a lot of agencies to help you out with digital PR. They charge an exceptionally high fee. I would recommend starting with it in-house.

2. HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO connects journalists seeking expertise to include in their content with sources who have that expertise. 

You can earn backlinks from reputable news sites and blogs by providing your valuable insights.

How are both of these approaches different from each other?

HARO is a platform that connects journalists looking for sources to include in their stories with experts who can provide insights and information. It’s a reactive PR strategy where you respond to queries rather than proactively pitching your stories.

While digital PR is a broader, proactive strategy that involves creating and distributing content, pitching stories, and building relationships with journalists and influencers to secure media coverage. It’s more strategic and long-term compared to HARO.

Remember: Never choose to buy links. Paid links influence your rankings negatively. It can also get your site penalized as it violates Google’s spam policy.

In my opinion, these two are the most effective backlinking strategies in the SEO trade. If you want to delve deeper into link building, check out Backlinko’s article on it.

SEO For Coaches Tips – to Convert Visitors into Clients

Now that you have your SEO successfully implemented, it’s time to focus on your end goal: converting website visitors into paying clients.

1. Landing Pages: Creating dedicated landing pages for your key offerings is essential for capturing visitor information. 

Each landing page should be designed with a single objective, whether it’s to collect emails, sign up for a webinar, or download a free resource.

Here’s how I’ve structured the landing page for my program.

2. Lead Magnets: Lead magnets are free resources offered in exchange for contact information.

Provide high-value incentives such as eBooks, free trials, or webinars. Make sure that the lead magnet is highly relevant to the needs and interests of your target audience. 

This increases the likelihood of them finding it valuable enough to exchange their contact information for it. I’ve already shown you how to add lead magnets effectively in the Visibility and Traffic section.

3. Retargeting Ads: Retargeting ads are a powerful way to re-engage visitors who have shown interest but did not convert on their initial visit.

Tailor your ads based on the visitor’s behavior on your site. 

For example, if someone visited your “career coaching services” page but didn’t sign up, show them ads highlighting testimonials from successful clients.

4. Email Marketing: Email marketing allows for direct communication with your leads and can nurture them through the sales funnel.

Set up automated email workflows to nurture leads. For example, after someone downloads an eBook, they could receive a series of emails providing additional valuable content and gradually introducing your services.

For all these strategies, make sure you have clear, actionable CTAs. A good CTA guides the recipient towards the next step, whether it’s scheduling a call or signing up for a webinar.

Measuring and Tracking SEO Success

Remember these key metrics to monitor:

• Organic Traffic: The number of visitors coming to your site from search engines.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, like signing up for a newsletter or booking a session.
• Keyword Rankings: Tracking how well your pages rank for target keywords.

Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your SEO performance. They provide insights into how visitors find and interact with your site.

My Top SEO Tips for You

1. Adjust your strategies according to the results: SEO isn’t a one-time task. Regularly audit your site, analyze performance data, and adjust your strategies to ensure continuous improvement.

If you notice that your blog post isn’t performing well, revisit the content. Maybe it needs more examples, updated information, or better keyword targeting.

2. More keywords don’t mean better rankings: Keyword stuffing can harm your rankings. Focus on quality and relevance.
3. Make sure your pages are indexed: Indexing is like creating a massive library catalog. When someone searches for something, the search engine looks through this index to find the most relevant pages.

Use tools like Google Search Console. This free tool lets you see how Google views your site and alerts you to any problems.

Conclusion

SEO may seem complex, but with the right approach, you can significantly improve your website’s visibility and attract more clients. 

Start with the basics, use the right tools, and continually refine your strategies based on performance data. 

As you become more comfortable with SEO, you’ll find it’s an invaluable part of your online presence, helping you reach and impact more people with your coaching services.

Resources

Diggity Marketing’s SEO Crash Course: A 5-minute crash course by Diggity Marketing. Known for actionable insights and hands-on strategies, this course is a solid choice for those aiming for rapid growth.

Google’s Guide to SEO: Google’s strategies on what SEO is, how it works, and the parameters it uses for deciding the top ranking articles.