Attract More Clients With Highly Targeted

CrossFit Gyms SEO

Written By: Joey Randazzo

Joey Randazzo is the owner and Founder of Portland SEO Growth Partners based in Portland, OR. He’s worked with hundreds of businesses to build growth-centric SEO campaigns.

Updated: January 10th, 2023

This CrossFit Gyms SEO Guide Has Been Comprehensively Updated for 2023

Due to consistent algorithm updates, the relatively recent Helpful Content Update in late 2022, we’ve updated the written content that already existed on the page. We’ve written new content. And we’ve filmed new video content. Everything is up-to-date, fresh, and helpful for your CrossFit Gym business to dominate Google for 2023.

How We Help CrossFit Gyms Grow Their Practice & See A

5.7x ROI on Their Monthly SEO Investment

Increase Google Rankings

Get your CrossFit gym’s website ranking on Google for high-value keywords that CrossFit athletes are searching for.

More High-Quality Web Traffic

Increase website traffic by getting more interested CrossFit athletes to visit your website each month.

Increased Leads & Phone Calls

Get more motivated CrossFit athletes calling your gym to schedule drop-in workouts or sign up for classes or memberships.

You Get Your Time Back

Let the SEO professionals work on digital marketing and writing content for your website and let your CrossFit coaches coach.

Here's What You Want To See With Your Crossfit Gym’s Website & SEO

When Someone Types "CrossFit Gyms Near Me" Into Google, You Show Up Here …

When Someone Types "CrossFit Gyms Near Me" Into Google, You Show Up Here …

Consider how CrossFit athletes are searching for gyms. They’re probably new to the area, visiting on vacation, or interested in starting CrossFit and need to know where to go. 

They pull out their phone, open up Google, and type something like “CrossFit Gyms Near Me”. 

The result? 

The Google Local Pack – the Maps area of Google where the best SEO-focused CrossFit gym websites are sitting. These CrossFit gyms will get the most phone calls and visitors.

When Someone Types "Best CrossFit Gyms in Portland" Into Google, You Show Up Here …

When CrossFit athletes are looking for CrossFit gyms in a specific place, like Portland, they might type “best CrossFit gyms in Portland” into Google. 

Again, the CrossFit gyms that rank in the Maps area for this keyword will get the most website traffic and receive the most phone calls. 

When Someone Types Questions Into Google Like "What Are the Best Art Galleries in [City]?" You Show Up Here …

When Someone Types Questions Into Google Like "Will CrossFit Change My Body Composition?" You Show Up Here …

People interested in fitness and CrossFit ask thousands and thousands of CrossFit-related questions on Google every day, like:

  • “Can pregnant women do CrossFit?”
  • “Will CrossFit make me bulky?”
  • “Who is CrossFit for?”

Ranking for these keywords in Google proves that your website is an “authority” and can be trusted.

People Are Searching Differently For CrossFit Gyms Than They Used To

Just take a look and see the increase in people searching for “CrossFit gyms near me” over the last five years. 

This screenshot above comes from a tool called Google Trends (a tool created by Googlef). You can see the trend in the number of people searching for “CrossFit gyms near me”

See The Common Theme? You Want To Increase Your CrossFit Gyms Digital Presence Online To Be Found By Motivated CrossFit Athletes

The ultimate goal is to let CrossFit athletes local to your city know that your gym exists. Whenever they search online for CrossFit gyms, you want to show up at the top among your competitors.

How Do You Get Tangible Results With CrossFit Gyms SEO Services?

Step 1: Comprehensive SEO Audit

A fully comprehensive SEO audit is the most important step, and it’s also often the most overlooked.

How can you grow if you’re not even sure where there’s room for improvement?

We strongly recommend a comprehensive SEO audit to determine:

  • Your current SEO performance
  • Your current SEO errors
  • What your local competitors are doing
  • Your technical SEO performance
  • And more

Step 2: Local SEO Visibility Audit

The goal for CrossFit gyms SEO is to increase what we like to call your “local visibility”.

We use robust and powerful third-party tools to run an “SEO visibility test” on your business. This allows us to see how visible your business is on Google.

The report looks like this:

Step 3: Create a Roadmap Based on Data

The comprehensive SEO audit and the local SEO visibility audit have given us a lot of data. Now, we can use that data to strategize SEO for CrossFit gyms. This is where many companies fall short — they skip this step and just hope that something will work.

We recommend creating a comprehensive roadmap based on the data. If the data shows that your website is loading slowly (which is negatively impacting performance), that’s something you should probably fix first.

Step 4: Implement Highest Priority Changes First

Here’s where the magic happens:

Not all SEO activities are created equal.

You need to know what will be most impactful for your website. Is updating the content from old blog posts the most important? Or is it improving your home page’s content? 

Based on the data from your roadmap, you need to target the most effective opportunities first. 

For example, if you don’t have a Google Business Profile, you should definitely make one! Also be sure you have Service Pages and Pricing Pages available for potential athletes.

Worry about these things before worrying about revamping 10+-year old blog posts.

Step 5: Local SEO Best Practices & Content Creation at Scale

When talking about local SEO for CrossFit gyms, it comes down to these three things:

  1. Consistent information that Google trusts
  2. Authoritative information; and
  3. Accurate information

Google notices red flags like if your business phone number appears differently on your website and social media pages.

If Google chooses to rank your business, they need to trust that if a user picks up the phone and calls, they’ll actually get through to you.

Having consistent NAPs on high-authority directories across the internet is critical.

Content becomes important when it comes to “authority”. You must create content that answers the questions that your target audience is asking. If you do, Google will see your business as more authoritative than another CrossFit gym that has a website that is lacking content.

Step 6: Meticulously Track Data

The goal of SEO is to have a tangible impact on your CrossFit gym. We want to…

  • Increase website visitors
  • Increase phone calls; and
  • Increase revenue

… based on those leads.

How can you ensure your SEO campaign is performing? By tracking data. Build a comprehensive dashboard that gives insights into your:

  • Keyword rankings
  • Website visitors
  • Phone calls
  • And other important KPIs

Top 4 Common SEO Mistakes Made by CrossFit Gyms

Mistake 1: They Don’t Fill Out Their Google Business Profile in Detail

You want your CrossFit gym’s Google Business Profile to have as much information as possible. It should include:

  • Your CrossFit gym name
  • Phone number
  • Address
  • Hours of operation
  • Link to directions
  • Link to website
  • Services
  • Pricing

Mistake 2: They Don’t List All of Their Services Properly on Their Website

Your CrossFit gyms website should make sense — everything should not live on your website’s homepage. 

Instead, your website should have a separate “services” page where everything available to CrossFit athletes at your gym is listed. Google understands this hierarchy and uses it to learn what your website is all about.

Mistake 3: They Fail to Create Data-Driven Content That Adds Value to Their Target Audience

The content on your CrossFit gym’s website should answer the questions that your targeted audience (CrossFit athletes) is searching for. For example:

If somebody types into Google, “Will doing CrossFit change my body composition?”, you want your CrossFit gym’s website to rank for this question. To do this, you need to have content on your website that thoroughly answers this keyword.

Mistake 4: They Don’t Have a Repeatable Process for SEO

Repeatable processes are important for SEO. By continuously adding valuable content to your CrossFit gym’s website, you’ll continue to increase your SEO. As SEO increases, you’ll receive more website visits and phone calls, and ultimately, CrossFit clients.

CrossFit Gyms SEO Services Shouldn't Be 🍪 Cookie-Cutter — Everything Is 100% Customized To Your Business

SEO for CrossFit Gyms is different from SEO for other businesses, even though many other SEO companies treat them all the same. Instead of treating your business as unique, other SEO companies use the same “tips and tricks” thinking it’ll work the same across the board.

We treat your business independently. We take an individualized approach to:

  • Each industry
  • Your specific location; and
  • Your specific website

CrossFit gyms are different from chiropractors, New York City is different from Dallas, and building a website on WordPress is different than using Webflow. We take all of this into consideration.

5 Tactical Local SEO Strategies for CrossFit Gyms

Strategy 1: Google Business Profile Optimizations

This is an example of a Portland CrossFit gym’s Google Business Profile:

This is what the person searching on Google can see — the front-end of a Google Business Profile.

But first:

Why do Google Business Profiles matter for CrossFit gyms? Google Business Profiles are relevant and important ranking factors to rank in the Google Local Pack. If you forgot what the Google Local Pack is, below is a screenshot:

Optimizing your Google Business Profile helps you get found there.

And when you show up in the Google Local Pack, you get more phone calls and website visitors than your competitors. This means you win.

So, how do you properly optimize your Google Business Profile so you get found in the Google Local Pack?

Comprehensiveness.

There are many sections that you can provide comprehensive information, such as:

  • Your categories
  • Your main description
  • Your services
  • Your products
  • Your photos

Here’s a quick example that explains the difference between being comprehensive and not being comprehensive:

For your main description, you might write something like:

“We are a team of skilled CrossFit coaches eager to help you reach your CrossFit goals.”

You’re limiting yourself to just one sentence when Google allows you to use 750 characters. Why? What else can you tell your target audience about your specific CrossFit gym in your main description?

Answering EVERY possible question is how you can be more comprehensive.

Strategy 2: On-Page SEO for Your Homepage and Location Pages

On-page SEO for CrossFit gyms is just another way to say the content on your website.

It includes things like:

  • Your title tags
  • Your meta description
  • Your header tags (H1, H2, H3)
  • Internal and external links
  • Your images; and
  • Anything that you can put on a website page

Why does on-page SEO for CrossFit gyms matter? Because Google cares about it.

For single-location CrossFit gyms, the most important page on your website, from a local SEO perspective, is the homepage. For multi-location CrossFit gyms, the most important pages on your website are your location pages.

When doing on-page SEO for these pages, you want to implement SEO-friendliness through keywords while also providing as comprehensive information as possible to the user (and Google).

For example, instead of this title tag: CrossFit Portland – 888.514.5114…

… try this one: Trained and Certified CrossFit Coaches in Portland – CrossFit Portland

Strategy 3: Website Architecture Best Practices

Your website architecture and your sitemap are intimately connected.

Google crawls your sitemap to understand your website architecture, which in turn allows Google to understand what your website is about. 

Here’s what a sitemap might look like to Google:

Looks confusing to us, right? But to Google, this is tons of necessary information to help put together what your website is about (which is important for local SEO). 

Your website structure should make sense hierarchically. For example:

Your CrossFit gym offers different services like membership classes and drop-in classes. Where should these live on your CrossFit gym’s website? You should have a specific “services” pages on your website that has a URL structure similar to .com/services/

Any services you offer, like memberships or drop-ins, should be listed UNDER here. Their URL structures might look like this:

  • .com/services/memberships
  • .com/services/drop-ins

Surprisingly, many websites don’t use this hierarchy. Instead, everything lives on the homepage. See below:

  • .com/services/
  • .com/memberships/
  • .com/drop-ins/

With this structure, it’s not clear to Google that “drop-ins” is something that you offer. Instead, it’s just another page on your website.

Strategy 4: Content Creation at Scale

CrossFit athletes are searching for content and asking questions on Google every day. 

Some are very local:

  • Best CrossFit gyms in Portland
  • CrossFit coaches near Portland

Some are generic:

  • Does CrossFit change my body composition?
  • Is CrossFit good for you?
  • How to get started with CrossFit?
  • Who can do CrossFit?

If you answer these types of questions through comprehensive blog articles on your website, it will do two things:

  1. You may rank in Google for these keywords that people are searching and therefore drive traffic (and revenue).
  2. Google will take notice and see your website as an authority over your competitors. Google will think, “Wow, they’re answering all of these CrossFit-related questions that users have. Their website is, therefore, more valuable than local competitors who haven’t answered any questions.”

Strategy 5: User Experience Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think - Stop the Keyword Stuffing!

Google continues to get smarter, so all of the stuff that used to work —like keyword stuffing and PBN link building— doesn’t work anymore.

Google’s starting to understand that a user’s experience on a website is important.

What does this mean for you as a CrossFit gym owner? You want to:

  • Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for. They shouldn’t have to spend 5 minutes figuring out what membership options you offer. 
  • Make it easy for users to contact you. Your phone number should be clickable on a mobile device. You should consider online sign-ups and payments so someone can easily get their membership set up. Anything to make the user’s experience SUPER easy.
  • Actually offer value to the reader when writing content. Gone are the days of outsourcing writers who produce vague, keyword-stuffed articles. Your content should thoroughly answer the user’s questions and add value to them.

On Average, Our CrossFit Gym SEO Services for Cost

31% Less Than Other SEO Companies

Compared to Other SEO Companies That Average Between $1.5k and $3k Per Month.

FAQs About CrossFit Gym SEO Services

Here are the most common questions we’ve heard.

What Is CrossFit Gym SEO?

CrossFit gym SEO is a form of marketing that helps CrossFit gyms increase their visibility in search engines, particularly Google.

The specific SEO strategies that are used for CrossFit gyms vary greatly (which is why all CrossFit gym SEO is NOT created equal). 

Strategies include:

  • Keyword research
  • On-page SEO
  • Off-page SEO
  • Google Maps optimizations
  • Local SEO
  • Content creation
  • Landing page creation
  • PR 
  • And more

Why Is CrossFit Gym SEO Important?

Do you want to get right in front of your target audience? You should. That’s why CrossFit gym SEO is so important. If CrossFit athletes are looking for a CrossFit gym, you want them to find YOU.

Think about how social media marketing for CrossFit gyms work: People are scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and stumble upon an advertisement for a CrossFit gym in their city. They might be actively looking for a CrossFit gym, but probably not.

On the other hand, SEO puts you in front of motivated buyers looking for what you have to offer:

SEO for CrossFit gyms allows you to show up in Google for people actively looking for a CrossFit gym. People searching for “best CrossFit gym near me” or “CrossFit gym in downtown Portland.” The conversion rate from ranking for these keywords is much higher than it is from people randomly scrolling Instagram.

How Long Does SEO for CrossFit Gyms Take to Work?

It could take as little as 1 week or up to 6 months to start seeing results for CrossFit gym SEO, depending on a variety of factors: 

  • How big of a city you’re in
  • How long your website has been around
  • How high your website’s “domain authority” is
  • How your current SEO is performing
  • And much more

Some of our clients have seen 2x-3x the phone calls within a month after starting their SEO campaign. Other clients don’t see noticeable increases in phone calls for 2-3 months.

Think about this, though:

If everyone could make a couple of tweaks on their website and rank overnight for the HIGHEST value keywords out there, like “best CrossFit gym in New York City” then the internet would go crazy.

Things take time. Google built its algorithms that way for a reason. 

What CrossFit Gym SEO KPIs Should We Track?

CrossFit gym SEO should be meticulously tracked.

You want to know, with absolute certainty, that the money you’re investing in SEO is working for your CrossFit gym.

There’s only one way to be sure — tracking metrics to ensure that the campaign is working:

  • Keyword rankings: Are you ranking on page 1 of Google for your most important keywords? How are your keyword rankings changing week over week? Month over month?
  • Organic website traffic: Is your organic website traffic from Google going up or down? Which keywords are driving the most traffic?
  • Online lead submissions: Are you seeing more online leads? How are they changing month over month?
  • Phone calls: Are you getting more phone calls from people searching on Google? How are phone calls changing over time?

What Type of Content Should CrossFit Gym Websites Have?

CrossFit gyms SEO should include content that your target audience is searching for:

How do we know what keywords/content your target audience is searching for? We use advanced software and tools that give us insider information and data and do extensive keyword research to find the topics/questions that CrossFit athletes have. 

Questions like:

  • “What are the best CrossFit gyms in Portland?”
  • “Is CrossFit safe for pregnant women?”
  • “How do I start with CrossFit?”

If you create content that answers these questions, then you can potentially rank in Google when people search for these.

Also, Google will favor your site more than competitors because Google will have more trust in your site. 

What are the Most Valuable CrossFit Gym Keywords for SEO?

How To Work With Us

Well, we don’t just work with any CrossFit gym.

We only work with CrossFit gyms that:

  • Are ambitious about growing their business
  • Have the bandwidth to take the growth that will come from working with us
  • Treat their employees and their customers well

If that sounds like you, then go through the easy process below:

Step 1

Request a 'Free SEO Audit'

This process takes about 2 minutes.

Step 2

Check Your Email

In less than 24 hours, one of our talented SEO specialists will send you a 3-5 minute customized video analysis. It will explain opportunities for you to outperform competitors.

Step 3

Sit Back And Watch Your SEO Skyrocket

Just take a look at our case studies of the success that other U.S. businesses have seen. You can have the same results.

If you’re looking for SEO growth, we can help. Give us a call today to learn more about our pricing and availability. 

Let's Take Your CrossFit Gym From The "Best Kept Secret" To The "Most Sought After Brand"