In the previous installment of this series, I talked about the importance of listing your personal training or fitness business in all of the major directories, and why even though you might not ever use them anymore, Google and other search engines sure do. Click here to read Part 1.

 How to List Your Fitness Business in Directories

Getting listed in the major directories is not hard, but it can be a little time consuming, frustrating and expensive, not to mention take forever for your fitness business to actually show up in the results and propagate to other websites across the web.

This is where a real lag can develop as the actual time it takes from when you submit your website to when the search engine rankings increase can be a very long time.

Some directories are free, but very difficult to be listed in (humans are slow and picky!), while others like Yahoo! require a fee to review your listing but do not guarantee that you will be accepted!

In the case of the paid directories, if your website is reviewed -- but not accepted -- your money is gone and you do not get a refund. Pretty sneaky, huh?

So here’s the breakdown (in order of importance) of all of the major directories that you should be concerned with right now, how to submit your site to them and how much it will cost you if anything.

There are many more directories if you want to find them and spend time submitting to them, but the list below should be a great way to start and yield the best results for the time and money invested.

• Yahoo Directory: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro Yahoo is at the top of the list because it is probably one of the most influential directories for Google. (Cost: $299 to submit your website, then $299 per year recurring if it is accepted.)

• Google Directory/DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html The open directory project located at DMOZ.com is heavily used by Google for its own directory and search results. This directory might take 2-3 months for you to get listed in, but it is well worth it! (Cost: FREE)

• Best Of The Web (BOTW): http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcommercial.aspx Use this directory if you have a website and NOT a blog (see next listing for blogs). It is one of the most trusted directories out there and has been around for a long time. (Cost: $149.95 to submit your website, then $149.95 per year recurring if it is accepted OR $299.95 one-time fee.)

• Best Of The Web Blog Directory: http://blogs.botw.org/helpcenter/submitblog.aspx This is the Best Of The Web directory for blog style websites. Please note that your site must have at least 6 months of content on it before it will be approved by this directory! Don’t lose your money because you didn’t read all the fine print! (Cost: $75 to submit your website, then $75 per year recurring if it is accepted.)

• Joe Ant: http://www.joeant.com/suggest.html Joe Ant is lower on the list but still worth your time and energy since it is cheaper than other directories because they subsidize their revenue with advertising. (Cost: One-time fee of $39.99)

• Gimpsy: http://www.gimpsy.com/gimpsy/searcher/suggest.php Gimpsy has a few options for submission, but to nobody’s surprise, the best option is the most expensive! (Cost: 3 options ==> A: Free, can take up to 6 months; B: Standard, $29 one-time, no refund, limited promotion; C: Premium, $49, one-time, partial refund ($20) if site is declined; strongest promotion within Gimpsy)

Important Guidelines for Submitting Your Personal Training Website

REALLY IMPORTANT: There are a few critical elements that you should know before you submit your website to any of these online directories:

• Make sure your personal training or fitness website is finished and has a decent amount of good to great content on it: Directories absolutely hate when websites are under construction, have broken links or are otherwise substandard. Make sure that your website has at least 25-30 pages of unique content on it and has no broken links and pages that are not working properly. Remember, humans are reviewing it, so make them love your site and they are more likely to include it in their directory!

• The fees that you pay are for your site to be considered, not accepted: Your money is non-refundable in most cases, so if you pay the fee and they don’t like your site, that money is gone forever. Buyer beware!

• It might take awhile: It might take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for your fitness website to start showing up either within that directory (usually a few days for the paid ones), or across the Internet. Be patient, and don’t resubmit your site to the free directories for at least 2-3 months or else you can be knocked down and delisted, or penalized.

• Read all instructions carefully and follow orders: The directories all have their own way of doing things. Take a few minutes to read their instructions in detail so that you don’t mess up your submission. This includes making sure that your description of your website isn’t overly promotional (they hate that!), that it is submitted to the correct category (they hate when it isn’t) and that you’ve done everything they have asked. Failure to do so could greatly delay your listing, or have it be denied entirely and lose your non-refundable submission payment!

A Final Word on Directories

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, directories are a necessary evil when it comes to getting higher search engine rankings for our personal training websites and ensuring that your fitness business gets the highest possible quality scores from Google and the other major players for proper SEO.

You can submit your personal training or fitness website to all the directories that I suggested in a few hours and to all of these directories at the same time (better have your credit card handy, and please read the fine print!), but it is something that you should do and the sooner the better because it might take months before you get noticeable traffic and measurable search engine ranking improvements from these efforts.

But your time will pay off as your business grows because you’ll start to rise in the search engine rankings automatically, receive higher organic placement for your content, and ultimately be rewarded with a more solid and successful web presence that will help you get new personal training or boot camp clients and add one more spoke to your fitness marketing wheel.

About the Author

Chris Fernandez, B.S., CPT, has been a cutting edge author, speaker and celebrity personal trainer for over 12 years, as well as a natural for life bodybuilder, athlete and cross-trainer devoted to helping other personal trainers achieve lasting financial independence through his fitness marketing blog, System 5 and other products. View his full profile here.

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