Getting High Search Rankings In Google

Posted by Mike Massie on January 23, 2010

Why It Pays To Hire A Professional SEO

All this stuff may be confusing to you, but you still need to get a high search ranking in Google for your business.

So, Gary is one of our Fighting Fit and Self Defense program instructors who is starting a school right now. He’s hired me to do some additional online marketing for him, first to create a custom blog, and now most recently he took me up on the SEO offer I sent out yesterday…

So, yesterday afternoon I went to work on his SEO campaign.

As of this morning, he has 4 of the top ten listings in Google for two of his most important keyword phrases in Google. Not only that, but the main site we’re driving traffic to went up about 2 – 3 spots in the rankings for those keywords as well.

Of course, there’s a lot more work to do… I won’t be satisfied until he has three of the top five spots for his keywords.

The Importance of Having A High Search Ranking In Google

Why is this so important?

Because, here’s the breakdown of the average clickthrough rates for the top ten listings for any search engine results page in Google:

Spot #1: 42.3% of clicks…
Spot #2: 11.92% of clicks…
Spot #3: 8.44% of clicks…
Spot #4: 6.03% of clicks…
Spot #5: 4.86% of clicks…
Spot #6: 3.99% of clicks…
Spot #7: 3.37% of clicks…
Spot #8: 2.98% of clicks…
Spot #9: 2.83% of clicks…
Spot #10: 2.97% of clicks (not a typo)

Obviously, it pays to have the higher search ranking spots in Google for the most important keywords in your local market.

And, the results schools get when they do bear this out. In a mid-size market (a town of about 100,000 in the Midwest) one school owner I know of gets 60 leads a month from his website…

And wouldn’t you know it, he has the number one spot in Google for “(his town) martial arts”. I know this because one of his close friends is thinking of hiring me to do the same thing for him in his own town.

So, imagine what it could do for your business to dominate the top five spots in Google for “(your city) martial arts” in a large metropolitan area?

Or, even in a smaller town – even ten leads a month (actually, I was getting 5 – 10 leads a week in a town of 10,000) could make a huge difference in your bottom line.

If You Want To Dominate The Search Engines In Your Area…

I still have one spot left for a school who wants to achieve multiple top ten rankings for their school in the next 90 days. Call me at 512-535-6858 if you’d like to get started (leave a message on my voice mail if it’s over the weekend). Remember, I guarantee my work – packages start at $399 per month, and if you don’t get results in 90 days I keep working for free until you do.

- Mike Massie

P.S. - No lie, that’s a deep discount off my “real” rates because I know the martial arts market so well. It makes it easier for me because there’s less research involved. So I can charge martial arts school owners less for the same results. But the downside is, I have to limit how many packages I sell at that rate. Sorry, but I can only take so many clients at that deep of a discount.

P.S.S. – If you want to know more about my internet marketing firm, check out http://moderndigitalmarketing.com.

Results From Last Week’s Opinion Survey On The UFC and MMA…

Posted by Mike Massie on January 20, 2010

Results Show Overwhelmingly: MMA Is No Great Or Welcome Savior For The Martial Arts Industry

Is MMA helping or hurting the industry? Here's what our readers and subscribers had to say...

As you know, last week I posted a survey here and on my Facebook page asking martial arts instructors this simple question:

“Are the UFC and MMA helping or hurting the martial arts industry?”

The response and support for the survey was phenomenal (considering the relatively small number of professional martial arts instructors and school owners in our industry).

Of course, there’s no way to determine if the answers were posted by actual instructors or wanna-bes; however, the survey was only announced to my own email list of instructors and school owners, so we can assume the results are relatively limited to that demographic.

Now, as for the results… they were surprisingly stilted against the UFC and MMA. In fact, most of the early respondents were against the UFC and MMA – almost 70%. Then, as the week progressed and more and more surveys came in, we saw the numbers start to list toward a more favorable showing for those in favor of the MMA craze.

However, it bears mentioning that the majority of comments on the blog were negative with regards to any benefit that the UFC and MMA may have had thus far on the health of the martial arts industry. In fact, I’ve never seen such an interest or such extensive participation for any topic I’ve posted on this blog. So, I encourage you to read through them, and post your own comments as well…

The Actual Results

The following are the actual results from the survey questions. Before I go on with this, let me say again that I am split with regards to my opinion on the relative benefits and disadvantages that the MMA boom has brought with it.

However, I hope these results will spark some debate and discussion among certain influential entities and individuals regarding the impact that MMA has had on the industry… and perhaps encourage them to clean up MMA’s image in the process.

So, without further ado – here are the results from the survey.

Question #1: “Are The UFC And MMA Helping Or Hurting The Martial Arts Industry?”

Although it was close in the end, most survey participants seem to believe that MMA has hurt the martial arts industry.

Out of approximately 200 complete responses, 55.5 percent felt that the UFC and MMA have hurt the martial arts industry (620 people started the survey, but most abandoned the survey before completing it, so their results were thrown out).

I don’t find this surprising at all; every single week I hear from martial arts instructors and school owners who feel they have been left out in the cold by the big players in the industry who have jumped on the MMA bandwagon.

And I don’t blame them. However, martial arts instructors need to realize once and for all that the big interests in this industry don’t really think much about the little guy before they make decisions. All they really care about is how they can make more money.

And, can you blame them? They’re capitalists, just like you and me. Sure, they may be out of touch with their core customer base, but they know a good opportunity when they see it. The public is infatuated with MMA right now, so that’s where the big interests are focused. In a few years, I’m sure it’ll be something else.

Question #2: “If you think the UFC and MMA are HELPING the martial arts industry, for what reasons do you believe this to be true?”

Of these responses, the most interesting are the relatively low number of respondents who say their business has increased since the UFC and MMA became popular.

There were some really interesting responses here. The most predictable is the fact that half the responses were in the negative… no surprises, here.

Next we find the nearly equal percentage of positive responses with regards to increased public interest and bringing realism back into the martial arts (personally, I think doing back flips and split kicks is cool, but it has nothing to do with fighting applications, so I’m right there with those folks).

But then we get down to the last response. Now wait a minute here… what the heck is this? Only 14% of respondents said they had experienced an increase in business since the UFC became popular? Really?

Hmmm… so that begs the question: What ever happened to MMA being the great savior of the martial arts industry?

Apparently, we’ve been listening to a bunch of hype all this time, because according to these results, instructors and school owners just aren’t seeing it.

And if you’re going to say it’s because the only ones seeing an increase are mixed martial arts instructors, you’d be wrong. In a minute we’ll get to the breakdown of what type of martial artists responded, and you’ll see that’s just not the case.

Question #3: If you think the UFC and MMA are HURTING the industry, for what reasons do you believe this to be true?

Most respondents are concerned that the martial arts industry is moving away from positive values.

Once again, the responses are surprising. Rather than seeing a large majority of respondents say that MMA has hurt their business (what we’d expect considering all the trash-talking we’ve heard about how traditional martial arts is dead) instead we see that most respondents are more concerned with the industry losing it’s moral compass.

However, we also can construe that at least there is the perception among martial arts instructors that the public interest in traditional program has declined. I disagree with this perception entirely. Instead, what I believe has happened is that a formerly difficult to reach demographic has been cracked open by MMA’s popularity; namely, the 16 – 24 year old male demographic.

Does that help traditional schools? Not much, unless they integrate Brazilian jiu jitsu programs into their class offerings (BJJ being the most tradition-friendly MMA-type class one could integrate). However, apparently it hasn’t hurt schools much, either, as only 10% of respondents claim to have experienced a decrease in business since MMA came to popularity.

Question #4: “Do you consider yourself to be…”

Most of the survey participants identify themselves as being somewhere in between mixed martial artists and traditionalists.

I think this one speaks for itself. You see that the majority of martial artists identify themselves as neither traditionalists nor mixed martial artists, but somewhere in between.

So, there can be little arguing that the results of this survey were stilted in favor of either MMA or TMA due to the majority of the respondents belonging to neither side.

Further, I think this speaks to the validity of the data. Why? Well, despite only 8.4% of respondents identifying themselves as mixed martial artists, there was a surprisingly strong showing for MMA. So, you can’t really blame the results on a lack of participation from MMA instructors.

What’s The Significance Of This?

So, what’s the takeaway from all this?

Two things:

1. First, there is an overwhelming majority of instructors in our industry that want to preserve the traditional values in the martial arts.
2. Second, that it’s not going to be up to anyone but us, the instructors, to ensure that we preserve that legacy.

And realistically speaking, the only way that is going to happen is if like-minded instructors band together to do just that.

More on that topic tomorrow…

- Michael D. Massie

Expect Better Things To Come In 2010

Posted by Mike Massie on December 31, 2009

Expect bigger and better things for your school in 2010...

Let’s be honest… 2009 was a difficult year for many martial art school owners and instructors.

For many school owners, it was a year when you saw less interest in your programs than in any previous year in the last decade.

And, for many part-time instructors, it was a year when many of you began looking at teaching as a possible means of income to fall back on should you lose your job.

I certainly hope none of you reading this had to go through that, but the from the emails I’ve been getting I know many of you have. And, quite frankly, I believe that many of you were ill prepared to face an economy that is as bleak as ours has been over the last year… and I want to ensure that never happens to you again.

So, I’m working hard to make the new MASAI website vastly better than anything I’ve provided for you previously. I’m working to get you more content each month, and also to provide you with more articles and lessons that are relevant to your situation.

Of course, with more content and improved services, our prices will be going up for our new members in January 2010.

But as a reader of my blog, I’d like to allow you the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of MASAI membership at our current 2009 prices. Click here to visit the site and take our $1.00 test drive to lock in your membership at our extremely low 2009 rates.

Working hard so you can expect better thing in 2010 -

Mike Massie, still your Martial Arts Business anti-Guru

Chasing Lions – Jay Peroni

Posted by Mike Massie on June 30, 2009

In those days, there were warriors...

It’s not often that I mix in religious messages with my business messages (although, in the martial arts world religious messages are as ubiquitous as wet in water – you just don’t realize it because it’s culturally based).

However, I think this blog post by Faith-Based Millionaire author Jay Peroni is a great message for anyone who is facing challenges as they pursue their business with passion and fervor.

http://www.jayperoni.com/2009/06/what-lion-is-god-calling-you-t.php

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did… the quote in the beginning (describing the deeds of Benaiah, one of King David’s three mighty men) reads like an action sequence from Gladiator.

C’mon… Seriously?

Posted by Mike Massie on June 26, 2009

We had quite a few people jump in early and grab the bulk of the seats for my free seminar August 14th – 16th in Austin, TX.

All the guys are looking to learn a lot about running a profitable school, training hard, and eating some good Texas BBQ.

(And, knocking back a few Shiners after the seminar while we all share ideas on what’s working for school owners right now, too… cause that’s how we do it in Texas.)

Now, I know some of you are going, “That’s great, but I don’t own the SDBP book and I’m not a site member.”

Yep, I know you’re concerned about every penny right now…

But seriously, the site is only $18 a month, and worth 5x that, easily.

Not only that, but the material I am going to cover in this seminar was responsible for adding thousands monthly to my bottom line.

Seriously…

If you can’t add 2 grand a month to your net within a month of coming home from Texas on the 16th, you’re either brain dead or the laziest school owner I know (and to date, I officially hold that distinction).

Why not join the site and get the $500 seminar for free to boot?

(Yes, this seminar is going to be $500 a person the next time I hold one… and the last group that came through paid $400 a person – for less training!)

What the flip!?!?

Go register now and get that last spot!

Join the SAMAS business info site first:
http://www.starting-a-martial-arts-school.com/join.html

Then get that last spot in the seminar here:
http://martialartsbusinessdaily.com/event-registration/

Until next time,

Michael D. Massie
Blog: http://martialartsbusinessdaily.com/
Social Network: http://www.masainetwork.com/
Business Manual: http://www.small-dojo-big-profits.com/
Resources: http://www.starting-a-martial-arts-school.com/
Summer Camp Manual: http://startingasummerdaycamp.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michael.massie1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mabizdaily
Performance Nutrition: http://truth.mymaxsystem.com/athletes.php

P.S.: Here’s some recent feedback on our business materials…

“I think your stuff is great, it is almost to good to share
but I am going to anyway. Thanks.”

Sensei Robert Taylor
Sidekick Karate
China Grove, NC