Critical Updates On Getting Your Fitness Business Listed on Google Local

By Chris Fernandez   |  Comments 2

(Read Time: 5 – 10 minutes)

Is your personal training, boot camp or fitness business not showing up the way you think it should be on Google Local?

I’ve uncovered some “dirty” little secrets that you should know about so that you can avoid the same mistakes everyone else is making and ensure that your personal training business gets listed correctly on Google Local, stays in the listings — and more importantly — rises to the top of the listings.

Things change quickly in the real world but change at breakneck speed in the online world.

That being said, I wanted to follow up on some of the latest information that I’ve given to you about promoting and listing your business for free on Google Local and give you my most recent updates and findings about Google Local and why some of you might not be getting the listings that you think you deserve, or are being unfairly punished for your listing.

Critical Google Local Updates

• First: Google’s database and specifically Google Local, has been having massive updates to their online database of local businesses all around the world and when the updates have been processing, some businesses are losing their previous high ranking, sliding lower on the food chain — or even worse  — their business is being delisted entirely!

Have you noticed this lately with your fitness business listing?

Odds are if you haven’t updated your listing for quite some time or not at all, there might not be any changes to your positioning, but you better check right now and do some common local searches for your desired keywords that include your local area.

See, the way things work, Google either will reward you or punish you if your business hasn’t been updated for quite some time, and more often than not, it’s the latter that will happen.

Google likes clean, fresh information. Almost to a fault…

They run their new algorithms and process new search criteria in the hopes of improving results and always delivering an amazing search response for their customers.

Sometimes as a benign fitness business, we get caught in the crossfire.

Bottom line: If you’ve noticed your listing going away, dropping significantly or even rising higher (as mine have done) then this is exactly why. If you’ve noticed something weird with your listing, make sure you look at the Google Local forums where actual real life Google employees OCASSIONALY (and I mean OCCASIONALY!) check the boards and will respond to you and help you out, and it’s worth doing to get your listing back up if it is gone.

A word to the wise however: Don’t waste Google’s time with whining, complaining or bickering about your listing falling! It will make them less likely to even respond to you, and besides, they’re not in the business of telling you or helping you raise your ranking, merely fixing problems when they arise (such as your listing simply disappearing for no reason!)

• Second: It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks for your business to show up!

What I have noticed recently in my tests, is that Google Local can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to not just list your business (which usually happens within 24 hours) but to actually index your listing so that it shows up with natural search results and terms for your local area.

There is nothing you can do if you are caught in this “update cycle” and have to just  remain patient and calm about it.

Bottom Line: It can take a lot longer than you think for your listing to actually be USEFUL and visible to the rest of the world, even though Google Local may say that the listing is “Active” but in reality it’s not showing up.

Work on getting content on your website, incoming links (more on that later!) and doing other things with your listing to keep it “fresh” and in the collective mind of the robots and algorithms that Google is using.

• Third: Did you know that your Google Local fitness business listing ties in to your website, email address, domain name, etc?

These are some of the most overlooked and never talked about factors to getting your personal training business listed properly on Google Local!

You need to make sure that a few things are done correctly in order for your listing to rank higher, and actually show up and not be penalized. For instance:

** Your domain name that you use in your listing SHOULD be a real domain name and not a redirection to another domain name, a “masked” domain name or any other “suspicious” linkings, or else you WILL be penalized!

** Next make sure that you use an email address, yes that’s right an email address, that matches your domain name!

So for instance if your domain name is www.RedondoBeachBootCamp.com then your email address that is listed in Google better be: YourName@RedondoBeachBootCamp.com NOT some cheesy Gmail or Yahoo! address!

** Make sure that your website is live has Meta tags, keywords and is a real website that contains your valid search terms for your local area and service type.

The way Google works is that Google spiders your website (yep, even for your Google Local listing!) and if it finds that your website talks about pottery but you listed your business for health and fitness or working out, guess what’s going to happen to your Google Local listing?

Create your website and make sure you follow all the techniques that I have laid our in my posts and on this website so that you can create a website that closes for you, and then turn your Google Local listing into a powerhouse lead generator for getting personal training clients.

** Finally your domain name also factors into the search results (but not as heavily as the above) at least in the beginning before you establish your incoming links and reputation.

So, for instance, if your domain name has the area and type of service that you offer in it such as: OaklandPersonalTraining.com that will help your rankings.

However, that being said, if your name doesn’t have any of those elements in it don’t worry because over time it won’t matter as much because you’ll be getting inbound links that will help you rise for your local search terms.

On the flip side, don’t think that having a domain name that is perfect will keep you ranked highly, because it won’t!

If your content or website are crappy, and don’t pertain to anything you put in your Google Local listing that you wanted to be ranked for, then you will fall, so be honest and always provide solid and accurate information and then try to build on that.

Bottom Line: Make sure your listing shines with the proper infrastructure backing it all up such as a congruent domain name, email address and content on your site.

• Fourth: As with anything in Google, your incoming links to your website also affect your ranking and quality score, yes, even for local searches!

Be patient if you just started a personal training business and have your Google Local listing up and aren’t getting any traffic, or it is isn’t coming up high in any of the searches.

Just work on doing what you do: create great quality content for other websites to get incoming links to your site, make sure that your website is keyword rich for all of your local terms, keep things fresh and updated on your local listing, and increase your traffic.

The rest should take care of itself!

Share Your Google Local Success Story/Frustration

Do you have any “Tips or Tricks” that you’ve discovered while listing your personal training, boot camp or fitness business on Google Local? Have you “figured something out” playing around with your listing?

How about a frustration that’s driving you nuts about your listing that I didn’t address in this post?

I’d love to hear what has and hasn’t been working for you.

Tell me your story in the comments section below!

February 2, 2010