A Helpful Guide to Backlinks for Yoga & Pilates Teachers/Studios
Backlinks are an important part of your SEO strategy — but don’t worry if you haven’t heard of this term before!
Search Engine Optimisation is all about helping you be discovered by prospective customers on Google. On this blog we’ve spoken about lots of ways to help with your SEO. Backlinks have not yet been given the red carpet treatment so let’s rectify that!
In a nutshell, backlinks are other websites linking to you. Having reputable trustworthy sites that link to your site is important for increasing your domain authority which makes Google think you can be trusted, and therefore it’s more likely to show you to prospective customers. As with all things SEO, there is no single “fix” - it’s healthy habit stacking which is the best strategy.
Why are backlinks a good strategy?
Authority and Trust: Search engines view backlinks as votes of confidence from other websites. When a website receives many quality backlinks from reputable sources, search engines infer that the site is credible and trustworthy. This enhances the website's authority, which is a significant ranking factor in search engine algorithms.
Improved Visibility: Backlinks contribute to a website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines prioritise websites with a higher number of quality backlinks, as they are perceived to be more relevant and valuable to users. Thus driving more organic traffic to your website.
Referral Traffic: Beyond their impact on search engine rankings, backlinks also serve as pathways for referral traffic. When users click on a backlink from another website, they are directed to your linked website, potentially increasing your traffic. If these people like your site and what you do they could become customers.
Indexing and Crawling: Backlinks play a crucial role in search engine crawling and indexing processes. When search engine crawlers encounter backlinks on external websites, they follow these links to discover new pages and content. This helps search engines index the linked pages more quickly and effectively, ensuring they appear in search results when relevant queries are made.
Long-Term Growth: Backlinks contribute to long-term growth and sustainability. Quality backlinks continue to benefit a website's SEO efforts over time, even as search engine algorithms evolve. This makes backlink acquisition a valuable investment in the future success of your website.
Okay so they are good for you. Let’s talk about how you can build your backlinks.
Firstly identify your target audience and the niche market you operate in. Understanding your audience's interests, preferences, and pain points will help you create content that resonates with them and attracts backlinks from relevant websites.
Next, think about developing valuable, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, case studies, or whitepapers. High-quality content is more likely to attract backlinks naturally as other websites reference and share it with their audiences.
Understand where you are at currently, tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush can help you analyse your backlinks and others within your space and identify potential link-building opportunities.
Build Relationships with Industry Influencers and Bloggers: Engage with influencers, bloggers, journalists, and industry experts in your niche. Offer to contribute guest posts, provide expert insights, or collaborate on content projects. Building genuine relationships with influencers can lead to valuable backlink opportunities and increased exposure for your business. Consider leveraging platforms like HARO (Help a Reporter Out - you can sign up to this and receive their alerts) to connect with journalists and reporters seeking expert insights for their articles.
Think about directory opportunities: If your small business serves a local market (like most of you do), focus on local SEO tactics to attract backlinks from local directories, community websites, and news outlets. Ensure your business listings are accurate and consistent across online directories, and actively participate in local events and sponsorships to build local brand visibility and attract backlinks.
In addition to sites like:
Yell, Yelp, Next Door, Local Services…. think about yoga/pilates specific ones. Do a local search like Yoga in Hogsmead and see which directory sites appear. It’s a bit of trial and error.
Here are the main ones I see (in no particular order):
https://www.localyogaclasses.co.uk
https://www.yogaalliance.org/Directory
https://www.yogaclassnearyou.co.uk
https://www.pilatesnearyou.co.uk
Plus Happity if you do Mum and Baby/Postnatal/Pregnancy classes.
There might also be council or local authority pages that you can feature on which focus on health and wellbeing.
I’m not going to lie, this is a bit of a boring job, but one to do in front of the TV!
When it comes to your profile, think about making sure it’s engaging and not super generic, who are your classes for? Use the best pictures you can and be yourself. Personality is important! Make sure you populate all the information you can. It’s a boring job but super worthwhile.
So, hopefully that’s got you thinking about your backlink strategy, an important and relatively easy (and free) way to build your business. Let me know what you think!
Other SEO Blogs:
Glossary of SEO terms for yoga instructors, pilates teachers and wellness professionals
Mastering Keyword Research to Attract More Customers to Your Yoga Studio
5 Things That Need To Go On Your Yoga or Pilates Website
