Promoting your martial arts school in local online directories provides two major benefits.The first of these is the number of direct visitors that they can bring to your business. Local directories are great because everyone who sees your listing will be in your area and so is a potential student for your school.
By: Darij & Ana
There is another important advantage to local directories as well. Google and other search engines will be able to see that you have links from multiple directories back to your own website. This will help to increase its page ranking for local search results. It helps to reinforce in the search engines eyes, that you are local and active member of the community where your business is located.
Where to focus your energies with online directories
There are a lot of different online directories that you can list your martial arts school in, so where should you focus your energies? The best place to get started is the top ranking directory for your targeted keyword.
To find your top ranking directory, choose the keyword that you would most like to rank for. For example a San Francisco Aikido dojo might want to rank for “San Francisco Aikido”. Type that into Google and look through the search results. You are looking for a local directory, like Yelp, City Search or Yellow Pages (see below for more types of directories). When you find the first directory, click through on the link and make sure that you list your school in that directory.
Focus your energies on making sure that you rank your school well in that particular directory. You may even want to pay for a premium listing within that one directory.
It’s a sneaky way, to take up another spot on the first page results for your main keywords in Google.
Alternative online directories
Yahoo Local Listings
Yahoo local listings allow you to post a free listing which includes the location of your school, phone number and address. You can also include one photo and some information about the lessons and other services that you offer.
Alternatively you can choose to upgrade to a paid listing. This allows you to include up to 10 photos as well as more detailed information about your business.
Craigslist
By: 0Jo NuD0
Craigslist gets a huge amount of searches. Each day over 50 billion craigslist pages are viewed, making it one of the most searched sites on the internet. Of course among these are plenty of potential students for your school. There is both paid and free advertising options on craigslist.
Local.com
Local.com offers both free listings and pay per click options. They also offer an all inclusive marketing package for $249 which can be running in 7 – 10 working days
Bing Local
You can choose to list your martial arts school on Bing Local for free. If your business is already listed on there, then you should claim it in the same way that you would for a Google Places listing. You can also choose to add in extras to enhance your listing including photos, logos, class times, and a description of your school.
Use any one or combination of the above online directories to promote and lift your martial arts school into the public eye. Test and measure the results from the directory you choose, be prepared to act on the results. Look at the costs verses the number of new student applicants to ensure your martial arts school listing is receiving a maximum return on the investment resulting in the growth of your martial art business.
