Integrated Websites Q&A: Marketing Your Zen Planner Website

You have probably heard by now that Zen Planner builds beautiful websites for our customers that are fully integrated with our software. We get a lot of questions around which search engine marketing (SEM) services we offer with these websites. Here’s a quick look at what we offer, as well as what we recommend you implement to ensure you’re getting the most out of your brand new website.

Are these websites optimized?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is crucial for ensuring your website shows up in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Simply having a website and taking the “set it and forget it” approach will not yield the results you’re hoping for. Websites require both onsite and offsite optimization in order to achieve strong positioning on the web.

Zen Planner’s Integrated Websites come SEO-ready, with key components such as metadata and alt tags that are ready to be optimized. We’ll provide basic title tags for each page, but we highly recommend that you take time to perform keyword research and write optimized metadata based on the keywords you would like to show up for. We also recommend working these keywords into the copy of each page. Once you have your optimized metadata and copy updates, simply send them over to our team and we’ll get it added to your website.

Beyond metadata, how else can I optimize my site?

Blogging frequently, especially around the keywords you’re hoping to show up for, is another critical component of onsite SEO that we hope you will take advantage of. If you have the time, we highly recommend writing one to three blog posts per week. With our websites, you have the ability to write and upload blogs on your own.

Offsite optimization is another critical component of a successful SEO strategy. Offsite optimization is the practice of getting quality websites to link back to your site. While we don’t offer offsite optimization, we have partnerships with SEO companies that can provide this service. We also provide helpful resources to all website customers who are looking to save money and take offsite optimization in-house.

It’s important to note that it takes time to see the results of your SEO efforts. Google crawls, indexes and updates results on it’s own time, so in full transparency, it could take months before you start to see results. As an SEO specialist, trust me when I say that SEO takes time, so please be patient because I can assure you that all of your work is 100% worthwhile.

Does Zen Planner run ads for these websites?

Zen Planner does not manage advertising for these websites, however, we highly recommend that you run ads in order to send qualified traffic to your site while you’re waiting for your SEO efforts to take effect. We recommend starting with PPC and social ads.

PPC, or pay-per-click advertising through AdWords Express, is an excellent way to immediately start sending qualified traffic to your website. Essentially, you create a list of keywords that are relevant to the offerings at your fitness business, similar to the keyword list you created for SEO. You then create campaigns for these keywords complete with ad copy within Google AdWords, and determine how much you’re willing to pay for a click from someone searching on these terms. How much you spend is completely up to you, but we recommend starting with a budget of at least $15-25 per day to start, as this will help you start getting traffic to your site.

Facebook advertising is another excellent way to send relevant people living in your area to your website. Facebook offers great targeting capabilities, allowing your ads to reach very specific prospective members in your neighborhood.

Will Zen Planner create local listings for my website?

Similar to SEO and PPC, you will be responsible for setting up local listings for your website. Setting up local listings is an excellent offsite SEO tactic that will help you get more visibility on the web, as well as provide valuable links back to your website. We highly recommend setting up listings on the following websites:

• Google My Business
• Bing Places
• Yelp

So there you have it, with Zen Planner you’ll receive a beautiful website that is ready for your signature marketing touch to help it gain exposure, and ultimately drive more leads. We have a team of digital marketing experts in-house who have developed marketing resources for all of our website customers to help them get the most out of their investment.

Thinking about purchasing a new website for your fitness business? Get your copy of our free checklist, 10 Things Your Fitness Business Website Must Have to help guide your research.