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.
Time To Update Your Website? Let’s Do It Properly…
Effective web marketing caters to the right audience and resonates with the buyer. Your martial arts website's purpose is to get leads, so focus it exclusively on that goal.
There is simply no excuse for having a lackluster website in the information age.
Almost everyone uses the internet these days to research purchases before they buy. That’s why it’s imperative that you keep your site updated and fresh, much like rotating the inventory in your school store.
With it being the New Year, right now is the best time to update your website with new information on your business, especially to announce new hours, specials, and programs. So, rather than doing it halfway, look at your entire site and overhaul your content to maximize your martial arts website’s effectiveness.
And I’m going to tell you how…
Catering To Two Types Of Site Visitors
There are two types of people who will visit your site:
People that want to find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible (for simplicity, we’ll call them “surfers”) -
And people who want as much information as possible so they can make an informed decision (we’ll call them “researchers”) -
Remember, there’s a reason people research goods and services on the internet before they make a purchase (actually, two reasons).
They are generally time-strapped and need information fast,
And they want to get the most up-to-date information possible.
Your job is to provide them with exactly what they are looking for – no more, no less. So, you need to have something for both…
How To Make Sure They Contact You
For the site surfers, your contact info needs to be front and center at the top of your site. Also, you must have a lead capture form on every page possible, as well as an easily located “Contact Us” page.
Be aware that this type of website visitor will skim your information. So, use section headlines to summarize your most important information, and bullet points to provide short, concise benefits for your “surfing” prospects.
Your site also needs to load fast, so cut back on the flash and graphics and keep your site files down as much as possible.
Hint: Multiple videos embedded on the same page can cause a page to load slowly. So, at most embed one or two videos to a page. But by all means – DO have video on your site! YouTube has made it easy for anyone to use video as an online marketing tool, and any school owner would be foolish not to take full advantage of it.
For people who are “researchers”, you should have plenty of information on each of your programs. And, it should be written in such a manner that it caters to the target audience.
And, no matter what the type of site visitor, you must have a call to action on every single page of your site.
Don’t over-complicate this – just tell them what to do and give them a darn good reason to do it. “Call today for more information on classes and to take advantage of our FREE registration special!”
You Need To Have A Clear And Unified Marketing Message
Finally, your website content needs to have a unified tone and theme. Tone is the attitude of the writer conveyed by their choice of vocabulary and sentence structure. Your tone can be light, friendly, serious, upbeat… but above all it must resonate with your target audience!
The mistake most school owners make in writing the content for their martial arts websites is too much variation in tone across the site. When you write one section of your site content in one tone or theme, and another on the opposite end of the spectrum, it can create confusion or skepticism in your prospect’s mind.
Your marketing message is the second half of this equation. This relates to the tone of your site, but it has more to do with what you’re saying than with how you’re saying it. Your overall marketing message should be summed up in 17 words or less, and it should convey your U.S.P. (unique selling proposition).
Once you can do this, your entire site’s content should revolve around your marketing message.
Why is this important? For starters, sending mixed signals to your prospects will create confusion, and a confused mind does not buy.
Second, it’s easiest to sell what you believe in. So, your marketing message should be in complete harmony with your own personality and values.
Wrapping Up Today’s Article On Martial Arts Websites
Look, I know this sounds like a lot to think about, but all you really have to remember are a few key points:
Update your site regularly. If your site doesn’t currently allow you to do this, get a new site that allows you to edit and update it at will.
Make it easy for people to contact you, and give them a good reason to do so.
Provide enough information to satisfy the researchers, and put your most important information in section headings and bullets for surfers.
Be consistent in your tone and marketing message across your entire site.
Make sure your marketing message is in line with your core values.
That’s it! All that’s left is to take action on what you’ve learned from this article. Doing so will leverage your martial art school website as a valuable tool to grow your school.
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Need help with your web marketing? I’ve helped dozens of martial arts school owners to improve their Google rankings and to get more leads from their web marketing. If you’d like to find out more about how your school can get more leads and enrollments through better web marketing, click here to contact me.
Q&A On Finding a Good Location for a Martial Arts School
Jason wrote in recently to ask the following:
Q:“What factors should I consider with location? Do I need to be in the most perfect retail space out there, or could I consider 3rd place and if marketed correctly, can I get students? I don’t have the luxury of being the only guy in town. So, my other question would be what do I need to be concerned about with my competition?”
Finding a good location for your martial arts school can be a confusing process
A: Competition is a fact of life. I once ran a martial art school in a town where there was virtually no competition for the first few years I was in business. Then, I had 3 schools open in a very short period of time.
What I found was that it actually improved my business, because of the increased awareness their marketing created, as well as the fact that it forced me to improve my game. Suddenly, I had to be better than someone else, and it forced me to step things up.
Just make sure you don’t open right around the corner from a competitor. Those situations never turn out well for either party.
Factors that are important to consider when choosing a location include
How much money there is in the area,
And how many people there are in that are willing to spend it.
Look for locations within a few miles of at least 2 or 3 elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school, and that are very close to heavily populated residential areas with a higher median income than is typical for your area.
Remember that you want your martial arts school to be located in an area where people have discretionary income, and where there are a lot of kids and families.
You don’t necessarily need to be in the best location, but if you can find a good deal on a prime storefront location that has a lot of foot traffic or a good anchor tenant that brings in a lot of cars and customers, take it.
Bottom line… finding a location is always a process of weighing pros and cons, and then finding the optimum compromise between the two.
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