Top 5 Ways To Get Website Traffic

As a trainer, hopefully you have a website. If you don’t you need a website because they are powerful tools that can help you not only get clients, but also help spread your name and reputation to people you might never meet! I’ve made many good contacts BECAUSE of my website –and you can too.

That being said, I gotta say that the websites of most personal trainers I see are pretty bad when it comes to getting website traffic. So, to help, here are 5 tips to help you make your website better and get more traffic.

Tip #1 Give Something Back.

The websites I see are often just about the personal trainer, the service they offer etc. How many websites offer free help? For example why not let visitors download a “free report” on some issue you have expertise? Suppose you are knowledgeable about kids fitness (which generates 90,000 global searches each month according to Google). You could write a report on “Top 5 Myths About Weight Lifting and Kids”. It can be as simple as a 2 page pdf file that people can open from your site. Of course, the document will have your website and a description of your services, so this is another opportunity you have to let people to get to know you. I use the magazine articles that I’ve written in the past as some of my free stuff. One of my ebooks is The Personal Trainer Practice Test which lets people see how well they might do on a certification test.

Free reports can also help establish you as an authority on a topic. Reporters are always looking for experts to help them with stories. Giving something back to the visitors of your website is probably the #1 reason why people come to your site.

Tip #2 Not Updating Regularly.

People sometimes ask how to get people to keep coming back to their websites. I think the best way is to put new information or incentives on your website regularly. For example, on my blog I have a page called Personal Trainer Jobs . This is a free service to gyms that are looking for staff. My Jobs page is one of the most popular pages on my website. By adding new material you get people to return often. Another popular page is Ask Joe where I answer popular questions.

Tip #3 Add a Blog.

A blog (also called a web blog) is a website where you post information. Blogs are an easy way to add new material to your website. There are many blogging platforms (programs) out there. Two of the most popular blogging programs are Blogger and WordPress. Both are free and easy to use and look almost like a word processor so it’s easy to write the blog in Microsoft Word and copy the blog to your blog software. You can then format the blog to make it look pretty, add a few pictures and publish it to the web. The blog you are reading now is a WordPress blog. I downloaded the WordPress.org software onto my existing Joe-Cannon.com website so you can read the blog right from my main website. Blogger is owned by Google and is housed on Google web servers so you don’t have to download it. You can post a link to a Blogger blog on your website to make it easy for people to find it. For example, here is my blog called Rational Thought which I created with Blogger.

Another blog I run, Supplement-Geek.com I created with WordPress.

Tip #4 Review Before Publishing.

Before you add a new blog, check it for typos! I admit, I am the worst typo catcher in the world and nobody is perfect but it’s in your best interest to minimize typos before you publish your blog to the web. Typos make websites or blogs look unprofessional. You never know who will see your website or blog so make it look as good as you can!

Tip #5 Make a Newsletter.

You may have discovered my blog because of the email newsletter I send out each month (Joe Cannon’s Personal Trainer Newsletter). It’s a free newsletter I send to health conscious people all over the world. This is another way you can generate traffic to your website. You could start by sending the newsletter to your existing clients. They in turn, may be forwarded to others who may want to join the list. That’s how your newsletter grows. I’ve heard that “Craigslist” started out as a newsletter. Back then, Craig sent his newsletter to about a dozen or so friends! There are many programs you can subscribe to but to do your newsletter but if you are just starting out, make it in Microsoft Word and copy it to your email program. That’s actually how I still do it and it works well for me.