Is your class listing currently SEO friendly? How are you currently making you business stand out from the crowd?
Baby and toddler classes are a thriving industry: as of February 2023, there are 24,400 active schedules on Happity alone! Making your activity stand above the rest can be incredibly tricky. But with a bit of learning and figuring out how SEO works, as well as knowing the best ways to list your details online, you can see some long-term results.
We’ve got some tips, and a little bit of basic info, to help your figure out what you can do to improve your listing.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) explained for your class listing
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is a way of making your website show up higher on search engines like Google when people look for specific things online. By making your website easy for search engines to understand, you can help it appear at the top of search results, making it more likely that people will find it and visit your website.
The goal of SEO is to increase the visibility and ranking of your website or directory listing in the search engine results pages (SERP) when people search for keywords related to your business. By using various techniques such as keyword research, content optimisation, link building and more, you can improve the ranking and attract more organic traffic to your website or directory listing.
Write thoughtful and insightful descriptions
Writing thoughtful and insightful descriptions for a listing can help you stand out from the competition and attract more customers. Here are some tips to write effective descriptions:
- Know your target audience: Identify the type of customers you are trying to reach and tailor your descriptions to their interests and needs.
- Highlight unique features: Focus on what sets your listing apart from others and highlight unique features or benefits.
- Be descriptive: Use descriptive language to paint a picture of your listing and give potential customers a clear idea of what they can expect if they attend your class.
- Be concise: Keep your descriptions short and to the point, while still conveying all the important information.
- Include a ‘Call To Action’: Encourage customers to take action by including a call to action in your description. Even if it’s simply directing them to where they can book your class (I.e. “the button below”). Something as simple as that will surprisingly make a difference!
Find effective keywords
Finding effective keywords for a webpage is crucial for SEO success. Here are some steps to find the best keywords for your webpage:
- Identify your target audience: Know your target audience and what they might be searching for when looking for your products or services. Likelihood is the keywords for your target audience would include “toddler”, “parent”, “baby”, and similar.
- Take time to research your keywords: Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc. to find relevant and high-traffic keywords related to your business.
- Analyze your competition: See what keywords your competitors are using and what kind of content they are ranking for.
- Consider location-based keywords: It’s a great idea to include location-based keywords in your content to increase your visibility in local search results. If you’re a franchise owner, avoid copying and pasting from other listings, and try to include some keywords that would appeal to those in your area.
- Use keywords that relate to what you do: If you run a baby massage class, make sure to say as much! We have a list of categories that you’ve likely listed your class under. Check to make sure that you’re using them!
Select key Categories on your class listing
Categories may seem like a way to further describe your listing. But categories aren’t just for organising your page -they’re a crucial marketing tool too!
For parents who are looking for a particular type of activity, these are clever pages that display all the classes in the category – personalised for the user showing their closest classes first.
Category pages rank highly on Google, but you need to use category tags on activities to appear on these pages. You can choose up to 5 relevant categories on a Happity listing, so make the most of this tool!
Find out more about Category pages on Happity here
Check For Broken Links
Broken links creates a negative experience for your potential customers. When your page links to somewhere that no longer exists (or that has been typed in incorrectly) then you’re potentially losing a customer who was otherwise a step closer to booking your classes.
If you’re linking to an external source for bookings, make sure that the links are valid and active -e.g. if it’s a link to your own booking system, then make sure it’s an active link and not for a previous term.
There’s a few useful tools out there made specifically for checking broken links. Dead Link Checker, W3C Link Checker, and Ahrefs Site Explorer can be a massive help when it comes to checking your links..
Use the Happity Venue Finder to expand your business and improve your class listing’s SEO
If your business is reaching the point where you would like to grow and start visiting a new location, then this is a great tool to find a location that:
- Already is running other baby and toddler classes, and therefore will be an ideal location for your classes.
- Will help to improve clicks on your listing for parents looking for classes on Happity.
Our venue finder is a members-exclusive tool, but it’s incredibly useful for those who are always looking to grow and improve their business.
Find out more about the Happity Venue finder here
Give your activity a boost with Promoted Listings
If you’ve clicked on a Google ad or two in your desperate 3am searches of “how to baby get sleep please”, then you’ll be familiar with this concept. Turning on Promoted Listings will improve the SEO for your class listing as Happity bumps your activity to the top of our search results and highlights you as the first pick for our users.
We’ve found that Happity members who use Promoted Listings get 6x more clicks than those who don’t. That’s a lot more views for only 1p a time.
Here’s some details:
- You will only ever appear as a featured activity to parents whose preferences match your classes, meaning that you will never waste money appearing in irrelevant searches.
- You can set the budget as high or low as you want to and even change it mid-month.
- We include Promoted Listings activities in our ‘What’s on’ newsletter and ‘Also Nearby’ boxes for no extra cost!
- Every time you appear as a featured activity it costs just 1p. That means £10 credit will make you appear for an extra 1,000 parents searching for activities.
Find out more about Promoted Listings here
Social media and the power of Instagram
Social media is a powerful tool when it comes to SEO and getting more people clicking on your class listing. Not only does it help to increase your brand awareness across the web, but it also helps to generate backlinks to your original listing or website. Done right, you can use Facebook, Instagram, or any social network you’re on to build a relationship with your followers and help them to see you as a person. You are your business, and you are your USP -so if people love you then they’re bound to love your business.
If you’re a Happity member, then we make sure that your social media efforts are maximised. Not only will you have access to our handy Facebook Feed tool (and Facebook messenger widget), but we’ll also give you an extra boost on Instagram, shouting about your classes to our 14.4k followers!
Find out more about the different perks of a Happity membership here!
Happity: Created with baby class providers in mind!
If you are looking for ease and a listing/booking service that’s catered specifically to you (busy parents and small business owners) then you are on the right blog page.
It’s free to list with Happity, and you can offer all sorts of ticket options through our site. Though we also offer cost-effective membership for when your baby class needs an extra boost in its marketing or if you would like access to our provider-catered booking system.
Get your classes seen by thousands of parents today
Do you have a question you want to ask those running a baby and toddler classes?
The perfect place to get in touch with like-minded individuals in the same field as you would be the Happity activity provider Facebook group. Find/offer support and network with other providers easily.
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