seo for fitness bloggers matt frazier, nomeatathlete.com @nomeatathlete

SEO for Fitness Bloggers

Matt Frazier, NoMeatAthlete.com@NoMeatAthlete

Matt Frazier, NoMeatAthlete.com

Why Focus on Search?

• Steady, no-cost traffic• Unique visitors who are brand new to your

site• Ranking high signals authority• Ranking high is self-reinforcing• Remember: Most people don’t read blogs


How Google Works• Wants to provide searchers with the most

useful webpages• How do they decide?

o Relevance (keywords, tags)o Authority and Trust (links, age of domain)

• Google is constantly improving their algorithm


Google is Changing• Google doesn’t want to be gamed

o Keyword stuffingo Content farms o Paid links

• SEO “ninja” tactics are starting to become less effective as Google evolves

• Google has said they now value social media links

Part 1: The New SEO“Search engines follow people.”

– Aaron Wall, SEObook.com


Links, Links, Links

• Nothing is more important for SEO than quality links from trusted sites


Not All Links Are Created Equal

• Anchor text is extremely important

• Keywords = phrase typed into Google

• Bad: “Matt’s post about running songs”

• Good: “Matt’s post about running songs”

• “nofollowed” links don’t count (e.g., blog comments)


How to Get Links?• #1 best way: Guest Posting• Many benefits beyond SEO

o Relationships with popular bloggerso Direct traffic and trust

• Often easier than getting a big blogger to link to you on his/her own

• Content links are ideal• You control the anchor text


Trick: Write Your Own Bio

• Write your own bio (byline) for your guest posts

• Instead of using your blog name as anchor text, use keywords

• Example:Matt Frazier writes the vegetarian running blog No Meat Athlete, where he aims to help you discover the potential of a plant-based diet for endurance sports.

• Bonus: To increase clickthroughs, link to something useful in your bio

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/


Relationships Lead to Links

• Guest blogging opportunities come from relationships

• What else can you do with relationships?o Have a circle of friends you can ask for links,

shares, or tweetso Nurture your social media followingso People who use social media are people with

the ability to link

• Social media and SEO are becoming two sides of the same coin


The Power of Headlines

• Write strong headlines to explode traffic• People will often retweet or share without

even reading the post!• Visit copyblogger.com for their headline

tutorial• Cosmopolitan trick• Let’s see how this works…


Writing Linkable Content

• Starting with the headline leads to posts that get links

• Other ideas to shake things upo Listso How-to’so Resource posts (“The Ultimate Guide to ____”)o Interviewso Compilations involving popular bloggers

• Stick to one topic with each post• Try this stuff once every few posts if you’re

worried about how your readers will react


Other SEO Tricks• Google has stated that they value brands• When people type your blog name into

Google, it signals that you are a trusted brand

• As you strengthen your domain’s brand, you strengthen the ranking of all your posts

• So…


How Can You Get People to Search for

Your Blog?• Highly-visible offline

presence• Advertising• YouTube• Purposely failing to

link to your site• Inventing a phrase• Anything that builds buzz

Part 2: Technical SEO Basics

(or ‘How to Write for Robots’)


Is Your Code Clean?• Without clean code, Google robots won’t

know where your content is• Look for “SEO-friendly” themes• Premium Themes

o Genesiso Headwayo Thesis

• Clean code is a minimum requirement


Custom Tags• You must be able to edit the title and description

of your posts that Google sees• Often your post title is not the ideal one for

Google because it doesn’t contain keywords that people use to search

• Plugins and premium themes allow you to easily edit these tagso Wordpress SEOo All-in-One SEO Pack


Custom tags for a post titled “10 Best Running Songs Ever”


Link Juice


Linking Practices• Internal links matter, but not as much as links

from other siteso Linkwithin vs nRelate

• Place a link every 75 words or so, on average• Links near the beginning of your content matter

the most• Remember to use good anchor text for all

content links• Sidebar and navigation links don’t matter much

o Don’t overdo themo Don’t worry about anchor text for these


Content Practices• Don’t keyword-stuff!

o Choose your primary keyword phrase and use it in the title and first paragraph, and then only as needed

• Stick to one topic in your post• Please the recipe search engines: Use

hRecipe• Again, make your content awesome, so

people share it and link to it• Rule of Thumb: Write for humans, tweak for

robots

Part 3:What to Do With All that Traffic


Search Traffic is Easy to Monetize!

• When you write a popular search post, you can target readers’ interests specifically

• Compare to Foodbuzz or other ads• Searchers are often trying to solve a

problem, so sell them a solution!• Great if you’re worried about selling to

your everyday readers


Alternatives to Ads• Creating your own products

o Takes timeo Builds brando You keep 100% of sales

• Affiliate marketingo Takes very little timeo Can be looked down ono You get around 50% for information products,

5-20% for physical products


Affiliate Marketing

• Running songs posto iPod affiliate links (through Amazon)o Waterproof headphones affiliate linkso “Running Audio” training programo iTunes affiliate links

CPM = $8


How to Start Affiliate Marketing

• Where to get startedo Browse Clickbank for related productso Amazon Associates program o Commission Junctiono Direct programs through companies/bloggerso Vitamix/Blendtec

• Get special link code that tracks your sales• Don’t set up a store, just solve problems• Disclosure!


Product Creation• More money in creating your own products• Tarahumara example• Last month:

o Post viewed 11,003 timeso $1544.60 in net sales

CPM = $140


If your blog, your posts, and your products are a tree, then what is the soil?


If your blog is a business, the soilshouldn’t be you.

It should be your readers.


Questions?

Contact: [email protected] @nomeatathlete

Get my free e-course at HealthBlogHelper.com

mailto:[email protected]

seo for fitness bloggers matt frazier, nomeatathlete.com @nomeatathlete

Documents