The first time I heard about SEO was in 2020—from the king of SEO himself, Neil Patel—when I was a newbie writer.
I’d binge-read different articles on his website for hours until I got splitting headaches. SEO sounded promising, but it was confusing to know how to get all its moving parts to work for me.
Today, it’s a different story. Not only am I ranking for my target terms, but I also get inquiries from people finding me on Google.
It took me 4 years, a hundred plus blog posts for software as a service (SaaS) companies, and a lot of testing to get to this level where I’d write one post and it would rank for more than 10 keywords on the first freakin’ page of Google.
I’ve been in your shoes. And I wish the articles I read earlier were stupid-easy. It’d have saved me countless headaches and maybe some years.
So, if you’re non-tech savvy or completely clueless about SEO (like I was), this guide is for you.
Table of Contents
What is SEO for coaches?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website discoverable when your target client enters a query that relates to your business.
Basically, you optimize your site in a way that search bots can crawl, index, and add your web pages to their databases. It’s like tickling Google’s fancy because if you do it right, you’ll keep showing up for your target terms on the search results page.
For example, if you search the query “copywriter for creatives,” I rank number one for that term.
- Number #3 for “copywriter for coaches.”
- Number #2 for “launch copywriting”
- And number #3 for “launch copywriter”
Quick note: Optimize your website content to show up on page 1 of Google. It’s the only page that matters when it comes to ranking on the SERP. People barely ever check the other pages. I call them “Search Neverland.”
Benefits of SEO for coaches
You might be thinking, “Do coaches need SEO?”
YES. If there’s anything you’ll invest in that will give your business a high ROI in months and years to come, it’s SEO.
Here are five reasons why you need to start taking SEO seriously.
Increased visibility & brand awareness
If you can rank in position 1 or anywhere else on Google’s page 1, you stand a chance of blowing up your visibility. Your ideal clients can search your target term and become aware of your business.
If you search the term, “business coach for coaches,” Luisa Zhou ranks for that term.
And that is what she is. A business coach who specializes in helping other coaches build multiple six-, and seven-figure businesses.
That means every time a coach searches about business coaching experts, they’re likely to come across her.
And, ultimately, that means they’re only one click away from knowing about her coaching solution.
Authority building
The higher your SEO power, the higher your chances of ranking for multiple terms related to your business. And when this happens, you become an authority—in the eyes of both your readers and search bots—on the subject matter.
Let’s say you’re a course creation expert and someone is looking for tips on how to create their first course, which includes the how-to, the tools, the hosting, and the marketing.
SEO is a great way to establish your authority as someone they can trust to help them, such that you show up whenever people search queries related to course creation.
And if your website shows up every time with quality content as answers to their queries, they will eventually see you as the go-to on the topic. They’ll start going straight to your website content instead of first searching on Google.
Organic traffic & leads
The more you show up on the SERP, the higher the number of: (1.) organic traffic you can potentially drive to your website pages, and (2.) qualified leads you can drive down your sales funnel.
You can see from the screenshot above that HubSpot ranks in the #1 position for the term “content strategy.”
This term alone is estimated to bring in over 15,400 search traffic monthly. Since the average website conversion rate is between 2-5%, this means HubSpot can hypothetically add 308 people (at a 2% conversion rate) to their funnel from that one blog post every month.
More sales and revenue
Generating leads for your business is good, but turning these leads into paying customers? That’s the real deal.
Here are two ways that this can go:
Scenario 1: You show up on the SERP for your target keyword, with transaction-focused search intent. The searcher lands on your page, adds to their cart, and makes payment.
Scenario 2: Or, the user searches for a more information-type keyword that takes them to your blog post. They read through your content, love it, and sign up for your list. Two weeks down the line, after bingeing your content here and there, they’re convinced they want to work with you. Then they proceed to make payment.
Digital assets
I spoke with a blogger friend recently, and she disclosed that she’s got a couple of websites worth over $75,000. I’ve also read a case study of an 18-month-old website sold for $400,000.
Dear Lawd! That’s almost half a milli. It’s crazy good.
Increasing your website’s SEO power improves your traffic and, ultimately, your website’s value. You can build not only a bingeworthy website for your business but a digital asset as well.
There are different types of SEO you can focus on. However, you need to be intentional about setting it up from the get-go so you don’t miss out on visibility, organic traffic, and sales.
How to do SEO for your coaching business
Now that you know the benefits of SEO for your business, here’s a step-by-step guide to SEO for coaches.
1. Research your ideal client
Before you get caught up in keywords and technical stuff, start with the most important part of the process.
Knowing who you want to show up for, aka your ideal client.
Because having a thorough understanding of your target client ensures you don’t create content amiss.
- What problems are they facing right now and why?
- What goals matter to them the most?
- How can you solve their problems so they can achieve their goals?
For instance, if you’re a career coach, your ideal client might be an employee feeling stuck in their career, considering a career change, or wanting to step into a higher position. LinkedIn might be their main social platform, and they might be scoring websites like Glassdoor and Indeed.
When you know exactly who they are and what they want, this makes it easy to create content they can relate to.
If you’re looking for a straightforward guide that’ll help you develop your perfect-fit client avatar, check out this resource.
2. Perform keyword research
Once you know who you’re trying to reach, it’s time to find out the questions they are asking and the problems they want solutions to.
“Keyword research” is not as complex as it seems. Think of it as listening to your ideal client conversations. Essentially, you want to find phrases that are:
- Relevant to your coaching niche
- Have decent to large search volume (but aren’t too competitive)
- Show clear intent to seek coaching or related solutions
Some great SEO tools you can start with include the following:
- Google’s autocomplete feature (free)
- AnswerThePublic (free)
- Ubersuggest (free & paid)
As a career coach, you might find search queries and keywords like “how to get a remote job,” “how to get promoted at work,” or “switch careers at 40.”
Pro tip: Look for long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific phrases that might have less search volume but often convert better. For instance, “career coach” might be too competitive for your small business website, but “career coach for healthcare professionals” could be more favorable.
3. Organize your ideas & findings
The next thing is to organize and compile your findings and ideas.
As busy professionals, it’s easy for content ideas to get lost in the shuffle if you have no proper organization system.
Do this by creating a content calendar.
Instead of just listing random ideas in your calendar, group them into themes and assign search terms that align with your coaching expertise. Then, make a schedule for your posting frequency and style.
Looking for a simple content calendar to streamline your SEO content process? Grab this Google Spreadsheet template.
4. Write valuable SEO content
Starting an SEO blog for your business is one of the most results-driven ways to grow your business.
But start small and stay consistent. You can increase your pace as you go.
Here are some tips for writing your website content:
- Give actionable and fresh advice
- Address the search intent behind the keyword. Is the searcher looking to learn more, get recommendations, or buy?
- Include the keyword multiple times in your content, naturally
- Share your unique perspective and experiences
- Use your tone of voice
For example, if you’re writing a post on “how to build confidence at work,” don’t just list generic tips.
Share a client case study, your unique coaching approach, and specific exercises you use to help clients build confidence. This not only helps with SEO but also shows you know your stuff.
5. Create a system to convert visitors
Something many coaches miss is a funnel system.
All the SEO traffic in the world won’t help if you can’t convert the traffic and leads you get.
You need to create a funnel to capture and turn website visitors into actual clients.
To create a simple funnel you can implement right away:
- Create a valuable free resource (like a worksheet or mini-course)
- Place it in attention-grabbing places on your website
- Build an email sequence to nurture subscribers to paying clients
You can download this email funnel template to do this right.
When you do all this, it’s not just SEO. You’re building a sustainable way to grow your coaching business.
How long before you start seeing results from SEO?
According to Ahrefs, it takes between 3-6 months on average to start seeing results for your SEO efforts.
But this is only an average estimation. It can take a shorter or longer time, depending on the factors that affect SEO and ranking.
Some of these factors include:
- Difficulty of the search term (keyword difficulty)
- How optimized your content is (content optimization)
- How many posts you have around the topic (topical authority)
- The quality of link juice your site has (backlinks)
- The structure of your post (page formatting)
- How relevant the content is (search intent)
For example, my MOZ post started ranking on day 3. That’s because the platform has a very high domain authority. So, when search bots saw that MOZ had a comprehensive guide on the topic, they picked it up and ranked it above others.
However, if I wrote the same exact post on another blog with low or average domain authority, it might not rank as quickly as it did.
Overall, SEO is a long game with long-term gains. So, stay consistent and put out quality content.
Is SEO for coaches worth it?
Yes, it is!
As you’ve seen in the guide above, SEO is all shades of good for your business.
SEO does require conscious and strategic efforts—and a lot of patience—but it isn’t hard. Feel free to use all or a mix of some of these SEO types to position your brand for increased visibility, authority, and revenue.
Looking to step up your ranking game and drive more organic traffic to your site?
Or if you’d like to map out a profitable SEO strategy for your business, book a strategy session with me—and let’s get you a surefire plan.
