In today’s world, it seems like it’s harder to place credibility and notoriety on what is quality. If we use Instagram for example, it seems like every good looking, fit college/post college girl (and boy) has used this platform as a self indulging, narcissistic magnet to feed their egos. They categorize themselves as either fashion blogger, model, fitness blogger, entrepreneurs, or all of the above. If it were to tell the truth, it would read: “lazy, goes to the gym STRICTLY for photo shoots, rips off workout routines and brands them as their own and takes way too many selfies. Don’t get me wrong, I know you have to start somewhere and respect their hustle, as long as it is a hustle somewhere in there and not just a flaunting platform. But it’s those that do not put in the necessary hours, take the necessary steps and put in the “hustle” part of the grind that have turned the fitness blog industry into a dime-a-dozen, sand to the beach, egomaniac crap shoot.

I recently started SEO work with a client about boosting traffic to her newly created fitness blog. She has been a fitness icon in the local San Diego area for the past 10 years, offering personal training sessions and teaching at various workout studios. Prior to pursuing her career as a female fitness icon, she attended USC and graduated with a masters degree in sports medicine. Regardless of her stellar qualifications and great experience in the fitness industry, she was still losing clients to a few young ambitious female fitness bloggers/entrepreneurs who were dominating the local and national markets search engines. Diving deeper into the website, they were running robust SEO campaigns with an established firm. These younger, less experienced entrepreneurs were scooping up all the business from other more experienced and credible female fitness bloggers like my client, all because they were running an active SEO.

This post will discuss the top 3 reasons why your fitness blog, or any blog needs a search engine optimization specialist to differentiate yourself and gain an edge over your competition.

• Use your credibility as a specialist to blog and grow search engine optimization

My client had one thing that these young entrepreneurs did not, credibility! Her experience in the industry caused her to touch lots of people’s lives, meet industry executives and represent products that she sold out of her house strictly through word of mouth. She actually was approached to start her blog by the brand representative she was working for. As we continue the process of building links and finding guest posting gigs on strong industry specific websites, her placement in Google will continue to climb. So far, the strongest links we have built to her site have come from her certifications and previous received awards that were up until recently doing little work for her besides taking up space on her office wall.

• “Fitness and Business during the day… Blog at night”

Let’s face it, as a fitness blogger, you spend most of your time away from your desk. Most of my other lifestyle blogger clients need to learn to “put the keys down” during regular business hours because your  writing can be done at night. This is where the true entrepreneurs separate themselves from the “wantrepreneurs.” To be a successful blogger, it is a 24-7, 365 job. There are no days off. Your days should be filled with contacting brands to work with, scheduling meetings, reading/researching topics to explore and write about, and specific niche research. I bring this up because there is little time to stay current with the ever changing trends of Google algorithms to improve your SEO while managing your blog. It can be done, however working with a search engine optimization specialist takes the optimization weight off your shoulders. We will do what we do best, while you do what you do best.

• Blog Traffic and content are top SEO priorities

The most important reason why a fitness blogger or fashion blogger needs a search engine optimization specialist is to drive the most traffic to their posts to expose their message to as many readers as possible.  Your SEO specialist takes care of linking your blog posts, represented products, and optimizing your website. All of this work, however, may not get you to the top of Google. You need to remember that creating well written, unique content is just as important as the links tying the traffic together. If nobody is able to find or see your posts, your blog is essentially a diary, rather than a billboard on a freeway.