SEO for Coaches: The Ultimate Guide in 2025

Want to use SEO to get a consistent stream of coaching clients? 

You’re in the right place! SEO can help you…

• Creating a system that delivers consistent clients, without having to constantly be “on”, rely on social media and put yourself out there
• Become the “go-to” in your niche and attract clients who are looking for the solutions you offer
• Rank converting content fast, attract high-paying clients, and build a sustainable and profitable business 

And no, you don’t need advanced technical skills. I don’t have any and I grew SEO into a multiple six-figure marketing channel within a few years. In fact, most people typically start seeing results within 3-6 months using this exact system.

Want to learn how? Read on for the full guide on SEO for coaches. 

Key takeaways: 

• SEO remains largely untapped in the coaching industry. While most competitors rely on social media and paid ads, you can gain a significant advantage by building an automated client attraction system.
• Unlike paid advertising that charges per click, SEO generates free organic traffic once your content ranks. The data shows that search engine leads convert at an impressive 14.6% compared to just 1.7% for paid advertising, making it one of the most profitable marketing channels for coaches.
• Success with SEO doesn’t require technical expertise—the key is creating high-quality content that targets the right keywords. By focusing on medium and long-tail keywords specific to your coaching niche, you can attract highly qualified clients who are actively searching for your services.

Jump straight to…

• What is SEO?
• Why do you need SEO?
• The best coaching keywords
• Rank your content
• Build links to your content
• Convert your content

What is SEO for coaches?

What does SEO stand for? Search engine optimization (SEO) is how you optimize your website to rank higher on search engines like Google. Potential clients find your website through search results, click through, and some of them will end up buying from you. 

SEO is one of the most powerful ways to attract new clients, and the data proves it:

• 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from search engines (this far exceeds any other traffic source)
• 66% of people perform some type of online research before making an online purchase
• 14.6% of leads from search engines buy, versus 1.7% of leads coming from paid advertising or cold calling 

But these days, SEO extends beyond traditional search engines. People now search for businesses across various platforms, including:

• Social media (TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn)
• AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT

In other words, the industry is HUGE. 

And here’s what makes this opportunity especially valuable for coaches: 

SEO remains largely untapped in the coaching industry. Many of your competitors aren’t using it, giving you a distinct advantage to attract ideal clients through this highly profitable channel.

Let’s explore the additional benefits that make SEO such a powerful tool for coaches.

Why is SEO important for coaches?

Search engine optimization can make ALL the difference for your business. Let me share why, starting with my own experience.

When I first invested in SEO, I was skeptical. But within six months, my investment was already paying for itself. Two years in, my business hit multiple six figures and continues to grow.

(To achieve this growth, I used the steps below. However, they weren’t the only steps I used and while they are definitely important elements of a successful SEO strategy, they are just that–parts of a system. More on that system below!)

But beyond revenue growth, SEO offers four specific advantages that make it uniquely powerful for coaches:

1. Unmatched profitability

Unlike paid advertising where you’re charged for every click, SEO generates free, organic traffic once your content ranks. While ads often become less profitable as you scale, SEO’s return on investment typically improves over time.

2. True scalability

Most marketing strategies—whether social media, podcasting, or speaking engagements—require constant effort. Other strategies, like referrals, require less daily work, but they’re limited in reach. SEO, however, builds momentum: once your content ranks, it continues working for you without requiring daily maintenance.

3. Long-term sustainability 

Compare SEO to social media, which requires fresh content every day to maintain visibility. With SEO, every piece of optimized content becomes a permanent asset. 

For example, my article about life coaching marketing consistently attracts ideal clients without any additional effort on my part: 

(In fact, you likely found this article through a search engine yourself.)

4. Competitive advantage 

Your competitors are likely not using SEO to its full extent. That’s because people tend to think that SEO is “too technical” or that it doesn’t work for coaches, therapists, freelancers, consultants, and other service providers–both of which are complete myths. 

You just need to know HOW to use it.

The best part is that with your search engine strategy, you can create an automated sales system. Want to learn how? Get my guide “Automatic Attraction System” to learn the steps.

Now that you understand the benefits, let’s explore how to use SEO to attract your ideal clients.

What are the best SEO keywords for coaching?

Keywords are the foundation of search engine optimization—they’re strategic terms that help search engines understand what your content is about. Think of them as bridges connecting your potential clients’ search queries to your coaching website.

While each page should focus on one primary keyword, successful SEO often leads to ranking for multiple related terms naturally. For example, a page optimized for “how to lose weight” might also rank for “weight loss food” or “lose weight fast.”

Choosing the right keywords is crucial. Some drive more qualified clients than others, and understanding these differences can make all the difference. 

So, next, let’s explore how to select the most effective keywords for your coaching business.

And if you’d rather watch a short video with these same steps, take a look at this SEO guide I put together:

Types of keywords

There are three types of keywords: 

• Informational: To learn (“How do I find a job?”)
• Navigational: To locate pages and websites online “Indeed job search”
• Transactional: To purchase “Career coaching services”
• Local: To find nearby places and services “Career coaches near me”

Note that there’s a difference between traffic-generating and lead-generating keywords. 

Traffic-generating keywords: Informational keywords tend to drive higher traffic volumes. 

Lead-generating keywords: Transactional and local keywords typically generate better-quality leads.

However, this isn’t the only distinction between keywords. There are also “long-tail keywords”, “medium-tail keywords,” and “short-tail keywords.” 

• Long-tail: 4+ words (“best ways to get a job”)
• Medium-tail: 2-3 words (“get a job”)
• Short-tail: Single word (“job”)

For your coaching website, focus on medium and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are too broad to attract your target clients effectively. 

With that, how do you find your keywords? Let’s explore that next. 

Keyword research for coaches

To find keywords you can use for your SEO, there are a few steps you can take. 

These are:

Google Keyword Planner

First up is Google Keyword Planner. This is Google’s keyword tool for researching keywords for Google ads.

But you can also use it to find keywords for your organic (AKA non-paid) SEO. 

Go to Google Keyword Planner and type in a word related to your coaching services (such as “career coaching” or “health coaching”). Scroll through the results to get keyword ideas.

You can also select “Start with website” and see what keywords your competitors rank for.

When you choose keywords, keep an eye on the metrics you get in Google Keywords Planner.

First of all, “average monthly searches” shows the traffic a keyword gets. However, while bigger search volumes are good, don’t stare yourself blind on this metric.

Instead, look at the page bids. These tell you how much people are willing to pay for ads that target this keyword.

And if the bid is on the higher end (at least $1), it’s great news for you because then you know this is a potentially valuable keyword. (Caveat: While this serves as a rule of thumb, there are obviously keywords that have a low bid and are still really valuable.)

Plus, look at how difficult it is to rank for a keyword. 

If the entire first page of search results is made up of really big sites (think: New York Times and Wikipedia), then you might just skip that keyword. 

It’s somewhat hard to rank your website, especially in the beginning, before you have built up your SEO. And that’s why it’s far better to go for a lesser competitive keyword with a high page bid than a keyword with a lot of traffic because you probably won’t rank for that keyword very easily. 

A paid SEO tool

With paid SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, you can get a lot of keyword ideas AND make your keyword search faster. 

For example, Ahrefs’ tool “Keyword Explorer” gives a lot of data on each keyword.

What’s more, paid keyword tools show you how competitive it is to rank for keywords. 

AI tools

You can also use tools like Gemini and ChatGPT to research keywords. 

But use them in combination with other tools–AI tools can help you find keywords faster, but they still require a human in the loop!

Google searches

Finally, Google searches are a great way to find keyword opportunities. 

Go to Google and search for a keyword. You’ll get more ideas thanks to the suggested searches in Google’s results: 

• People also ask
• Suggested searches at the end of the search results

But what are some specific keywords in different coaching niches? Let’s take a look. 

Life coaching keywords

You shouldn’t necessarily look for keywords around “life coaching”. Why? A more specific niche is far better for attracting high-end clients who are willing to pay a premium price for your coaching. 

Like these keywords: 

A few other examples of great life coaching keywords include: 

• Find a mindset coach
• Best mindset coaching services 
• Spiritual life coach near me 
• Relationship coach near me

Health coaching keywords

Search for keywords related to health coaching to find relevant health coaching keywords. Make sure you use relevant keywords, so if you’re a nutrition coach, use those types of keywords rather than the broader “health coaching” keywords. 

For example:

• Find a health coach
• Nutrition coach near me
• Best fitness coaches online

Business coaching keywords

Business coaching also requires you to niche down to attract the right people. There are plenty of keywords in this niche, depending on your area of expertise: 

• Marketing coach
• CEO coaching
• Entrepreneur coach
• Startup coach
• Amazon FBA coach

Career coaching keywords

And the last keyword group we’ll talk about here is career coaching keywords. Here, you can find niche keywords like “career transition coach” or “tech career coach” to name a few. 

For example: 

• Best career coaching services
• Resume coach
• Find a job interview coach

Now you know how to find the right keywords. But how do you use them? Here’s how. 

How do you get your content to rank?

Content is one of the most important parts of your SEO strategy. 

Your content is what ranks on search engines. It’s also the first thing people see when they come to your website, so your content is all about building trust fast. 

On the flip side, if your content is only so-so, people won’t stick around or opt into your email list.

1. Create content that stands out 

My approach to content creation is simple but powerful: Every piece needs to be better than what’s already out there. 

By “better,” I mean more comprehensive, engaging, and actionable.

This strategy helped me grow my SEO traffic into a multiple six-figure income stream in under two years. Even better? Blog posts I published years ago continue bringing in traffic and clients today. 

For example, my guide on becoming a health coach covers everything from niche selection to business growth, and it’s still helping people launch their coaching careers:

While there’s no strict rule for content length, comprehensive pieces typically land around 1,500+ words. But remember: every sentence should add value—without any fluff. 

2. Use on-page optimization

Also, your content needs to be optimized. 

And that’s something you’ll accomplish with SEO titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags. 

You can use the plugin Yoast (for WordPress websites) to optimize your blog posts. 

In that case, add your target keyword (the keyword you’re optimizing your blog post for) to Yoast, as well as your other SEO elements. 

Yoast will then give you a score (green = good, yellow = ok, and red = bad) that helps you determine if you need to further optimize your blog post. You also get helpful tips to improve your blogs. 

If you use a website builder like Squarespace, those builders tend to have an in-built option to add your SEO elements. 

Write clickable SEO titles 

The first thing to add to Yoast is an SEO title that stands out in Google search.

After all, your SEO title is the first thing someone sees in search results: 

And so you need to be able to out-compete all the other SEO titles on Google. Here’s how to make it count:

• Include your target keyword
• Use “how to” or number formats (“21 Ways to…”)
• Add power words (“best,” “top,” “great”)
• Keep it between 50-70 characters
• Highlight the end benefit (e.g., “Start a Successful Side Business”)

Examples:

• “21 Best Public Speaking Tips to Become a Confident Speaker”
• “How to Become a Successful Speaker (Even if You Don’t Enjoy Speaking)

Create compelling meta descriptions 

Your meta description is that short description that pops up under your SEO title in search results.

Use meta descriptions that are 50-160 characters long so that they fit in the search results. 

You don’t need to overthink this. Simply include a description that helps people decide if your post is the right one for them. Make sure you include your keyword in your meta description, though! 

For example:

“What are the best public speaking tips? Here are 21 tips to help you become a more confident speaker people love to listen to.”

Write alt tags  

And finally, your images need alt tags. These are very short descriptions of your images.

For example, let’s say you use an image of a dog. You’d use an alt tag like “puppy playing with a ball” to describe your image. 

If you can, use your keyword in at least one alt tag on your page.  

3. Optimize your images

Large image files can slow down your website significantly, which hurts your SEO rankings. 

Here’s how to optimize your images:

• Compress your images before uploading them using tools like TinyPNG
• Use appropriate image formats (JPG for photographs, PNG for graphics with transparency)
• Size your images appropriately – don’t upload 4000px wide images for a 800px wide space
• Use descriptive file names (for example, ‘health-coaching-consultation.jpg’ instead of ‘IMG_12345.jpg’)
• Always include relevant alt tags as mentioned above

4. Use technical SEO

Next, technical SEO. This might sound complicated, but it’s actually quite straightforward. 

Here are the key elements to focus on:

Website structure and navigation

Website structure and navigation should be clean and intuitive. Make sure your website is organized in a way that both search engines and visitors can easily understand. 

Use clear menu structures and ensure that all important pages are accessible within 3 clicks from your homepage.

For example, here’s what my menu looks like: 

Website speed and mobile-friendliness

Website speed and mobile-friendliness are crucial ranking factors. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your website’s performance and follow their recommendations for improvements. 

Some quick wins include:

• Optimize your images 
• Use a reliable hosting provider (if you have your own WordPress website)
• Ensuring your website is fully responsive on mobile devices (often built into your WordPress theme or website builder)

And that’s it–that’s how you optimize your website and content. 

Now that you’ve figured out how to create content that ranks, how do you improve the rest of your SEO? 

That’s what we’ll look at next. 

How do you use off-page SEO to grow your traffic?

One of the main elements of your SEO strategy is to use off-page SEO.  And one of the most important factors for ranking your website is getting quality backlinks, or external links, pointing to your website.

Now, not all backlinks are equally valuable. The best backlinks are those that are relevant and high-quality links.

So if you’re a health coach and Women’s Health links to your website, you’ve just earned a really valuable backlink. That said, Forbes linking to your site is also a big deal, but so is a backlink from a smaller health blog. 

But how do you get backlinks? 

You can get as creative as you want (as long as you don’t pay for links or swap with others as those are big no-no’s), but here are a few ideas:

Guest posting 

Guest posts are a great way to build links, as long as you focus on high-quality blogs in your industry. In other words, don’t just pitch blog posts for the sake of it but focus on bigger websites in your industry or smaller blogs that publish quality content. 

For instance, my articles have been featured on websites like Business Insider, which has earned me several great backlinks. 

Podcast interviews

You can also pitch podcasts to get backlinks. Podcast hosts typically include your website in the show notes and that’s how you get a backlink from them. 

For example, here’s my own podcast interview on the “So Money” podcast: 

Just note that backlink building tends to take some time and is by far the slowest part of building your SEO. But it’s so worth it because with the right, consistent backlinks, your traffic takes off. 

Once you have that traffic, how do you convert it into paying customers? Let’s take a look. 

How do you convert your website visitors?

Once you’ve built steady website traffic, the next step is turning those visitors into paying clients. This happens in two key stages: building your audience and converting them into buyers.

Attract email subscribers and buyers

First, you need to convert website visitors into subscribers. 

People sometimes ask me, “What about sending my website visitors to my social channels?” 

But email is a more effective tool for converting people than social media. 

In fact, email generates $42 for every $1 spent. And while 60% of consumers have bought something thanks to a marketing email, only 12.5% say they would consider buying something directly on social media.

That’s why I strongly recommend that you build an email list instead. 

Second, you need to convert subscribers into buyers.

Your sales system can include different elements, depending on your offers. A typical sales funnel is to send out an email sequence where you introduce people to your offer. You might also include a webinar and at the end, send your subscribers to a sales page where they can buy your services or products.

Or, you could use an email sequence to get people to hop on a coaching discovery call with you. 

If you don’t have a sales system in place for converting email subscribers into buyers, you need to first set up that system. That’s outside the scope of this blog post, but take a look at the courses I offer – Sold Out Sales Emails, Sell More with Webinars, and Sold Out Sales Pages to build your own system. 

Grow your email list

So with that said, let’s take a look at how you convert visitors into email subscribers.

The first thing you need is a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is typically a PDF that outlines a small step people take on their journey to achieve a goal. It could be an overview of your strategy, a list of foods you recommend, or an exercise that will help them get a specific result. 

Here’s one of my own lead magnets, a PDF that shows my website visitors how to build a 6-figure coaching business. 

Once you have a lead magnet (which you can easily create using a tool like Canva), you need to create opt-in forms to get people to sign up for your offer. 

You can use a tool like PopupAlly or OptinMonster to create your own opt-in forms. Place these opt-in forms in your blog posts.

You also need an email marketing platform to build your list. You can use Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign to build your email list and send out emails. 

And that’s it! That’s how you get people to sign up for your email list so that you can take them through your sales funnel. 

FAQ: SEO for coaches 

Do coaches need SEO? 

Yes, as a coach, you absolutely need SEO if you want to build a sustainable, scalable business. While social media and word-of-mouth can work, SEO provides a consistent stream of qualified leads without requiring constant content creation or paying for ads. It’s particularly valuable for coaches because it helps establish authority in your niche and attracts clients who are actively searching for your services.

What is the best SEO strategy for coaches? 

The best SEO strategy for coaches combines four key elements: 

• Keyword research focused on your specific coaching niche
• High-quality, valuable content that demonstrates your expertise
• Targeted search engine optimization of your content and website
• Consistent link building to build your website’s authority

Should you hire an SEO agency for coaches? 

You don’t need to hire an SEO agency to build traffic. In fact, be very careful when vetting different agencies–many of them focus on vanity metrics (like traffic) instead of the metrics that really matter (sales). However, SEO takes time to learn, so learn from someone who has proven results from building coaching businesses with SEO.  

Create a system that generates consistent clients…every day! 

There you have it. Now you know how to use SEO for coaches.

SEO can help you build a business that’s truly profitable and sustainable – one that works even if you don’t. So that you don’t have to hustle on social media or rely on paid ads.

Now that you understand how to use SEO, let’s talk about turning this knowledge into real results. While this guide gives you a solid foundation, there’s only so much I can include in one blog post. 

My team and I spent years perfecting our approach to sustainable traffic growth. The results speak for themselves – we scaled to multiple six figures within two years. But I’ll be honest: it took significant investment, both in time and money, to get there.

Want faster results, so you don’t have to figure it all out on your own?

We packaged years of experience into a simple, step-by-step growth strategy that doesn’t require hours of your time. It’s the only SEO course for coaches that shows you how to sustainably build your business to six figures and beyond.

Want to get started right away? Grab my FREE 4-step system and I’ll show you exactly how to go from zero traffic to dominating search results, becoming the go-to coach in your niche, and building a steady stream of clients that keeps growing.

Related resources: 

• How to Get Traffic from Pinterest 
• How to Get Coaching Clients Without Social Media
• How to Use SEO for Course Creators