Get Traffic from Search Engines – 7 Keyword Sources for Coaches

Getting traffic from search engines is fantabulous for coaches because those searchers are “actively seeking help.”

These people did not stumble on an ad, run across an article in their feed, or get spammed by email — but rather made the effort and are seeking specific information/help.

They are “qualified leads” in marketing lingo. Motivated buyers.

And if they find your website, which has good information and builds your credibility, they’ll be like, Wow! This is awesome! Who is this coach? I should get in touch with her.

When people are coming to you, instead of you chasing after them, the whole posture is the initial call is much better for getting them signed up.

To get traffic from search engines like Google, start with keywords.

I wrote about SEO (search engine optimization) for coaches in The Coaching Website Guide. My top 3 tips are here, Best SEO Tips for Traffic from Google to Your Coaching Website.

At the heart of SEO is finding good keywords — the terms and phrases people use when searching. Choose keywords that potential clients would likely type in which relate to what you do as a coach.

There are many tools to help find such keywords, but I love using Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to quickly find highly searched-on phrases.

In this article, you’ll get my trade secret sources of keywords for a coaching business. I’ve used these to help coaches get traffic from search engines and fill their practices with clients.

Keyword Source #1 – Service Phrases

As the coaching profession became known, searches on the terms “life coach” “life coaching” and “business coaching” grew and stays busy today. It’s good to get those phrases into your copy.

Here are more related service phrases examples:

• business planning
• career counseling
• fitness boot camp
• dating advice
• online training

You don’t always have to use the word “coaching” in your content or offer, as you can see from the list above.

Keyword Source #2 – Your Coaching Title

The number of searches for phrases such as life coach, health coach, and relationship coach has also grown.

Use them throughout your website content, especially when referring to yourself, like on your About Me page.

Also, consider similar terms that people use like executive coach, business mentor, nutritionist, and career advisor.

Keyword Source #3 – Pain Points

My favorite keywords are about the challenges, frustrations, and problems that clients face.

They are great because people who use them actively seeking help to a specific problem. They are eager information beavers.

Some examples:

• how do I quit smoking
• how do I lose weight fast
• should I divorce my wife
• common causes of fatigue in men
• finding a new career at 50
• how to lead a team meeting

Get these words in your website copy. Dedicate entire pages (articles, blogs, services) to them.

Speaking of pain points, let me digress into a quick little strategy I’ve used tirelessly to get traffic from search engines — Pain-Point Blogs.

My Fave Way to Get Traffic from Search Engines – “Pain-Point Blogs”

Please allow me to interrupt your joyful learning and share one simple approach for using good keywords to boost traffic from search engines.

The strategy is to write blogs around specific pain-points your clients face. It’s magnificent because …

• People love info to help deal with problems/pains
• Search engines love sending traffic to blogs
• Blogs build your credibility as a talented coach
• Writing content is easy if you approach it this way

For example, Mitzi, a student of one of my website building courses, focused on blogging and keywords to grow her business.

Shown below, she injected the keyword phrase healthy relationship into her title as well as throughout the article.

It’s clearly a subject that lots of women would be interested in — females and relationships were in her target market.

Also, here’s one of Rachel Hill’s blog posts nailing the keywords on how to write a cv, which is a highly searched-on phrase. She also tied in “getting a job” (as I teach with the MV technique) which makes this article irresistible.

Pain-point blogging is a smart strategy for a marketing coaching business.

But, let’s get back to those keywords …

Keyword Source #4 – Desired Outcomes

Phrases like, become profitable, or find love after divorce, or retire happy, are also great to use.

Desires-based keywords are a second favorite to pain-point keywords because I’ve found pains to be more motivating – they get people to take action.

To really engage and excite readers, I often mix both pain and their opposite desire keyword phrases on the same page, like lose weight and get a six-pack.

Keyword Source #5 – Your Name

People will often search for your name, especially if they can’t recall your website address. Your About Me page is the perfect page to optimize for this.

Specifically, do these:

• get your name into the top heading
• put your name in the caption under your photo
• add it to the bottom somewhere like a sign-off or signature
• write it into the alt tag of your image
• make sure it’s in the title tag as well

Keyword Source #6. Jargon, Skills, Industry Terms, Techniques, and Buzz Words

These would include NLP, emotional intelligence, act, imago therapy, tapping, the law of attraction, Whole 30 coach, and dream coaching.

People often search using those phrases to find a specifically skilled practitioner.

Such words work well on pages like Services, Coaching, How I Work, which explain how your coaching services work.

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A word of caution if you’re getting excited …

If you read this article, you may get excited and start adding your new words to your website.

Just be careful not to over-do it and “stuff keywords” everywhere because:

• it will make content clumsier to read for your visitors and cause people to leave faster
• get you penalized by search engines and actually lower your rankings because abusers can be easily spotted

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Keyword Source #7 – Your Location (Power Move for Traffic from Search Engines)

The name of your immediate city, region, or area is great because people search for a coach in their vicinity.

Even if you only do phone coaching, knowing that you nearby bring trust to clients. And you could meet in person the first time and take it to video/calls thereafter.

I’ve seen coaches build their entire business by getting traffic from search engines using keywords based on their locality, like “life coach new york.”

In fact, a friend and life/business coach Caron Proctor from Nelson, New Zealand, does this with the term life coach Nelson, shown here:

She gets lots of people to her website that way.

If you’re interested in SEO for your coaching website and want to get traffic from search engines like Google, then you’ll enjoy lucky chapter 13 in The Coaching Website Guide.

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In summary, remember that the key to getting traffic from search engines is …

Remember, if you want to get traffic from search engines like Google, you need to think about the specific words people will actually use in their searches.

It’s all about great keyword phrases. For coaches, the seven sources I recommend are:

1. service phrases
2. your coaching title
3. pain points
4. desired outcomes
5. your name
6. jargon & buzz words
7. your location

After I wrote this article, I remembered another 8th keyword source for traffic to your coaching website as well as this bigger picture content-strategy to get coaching clients online using your newfound keywords.

If you’re struggling with keywords, traffic, and finding clients via the web, then jumping on a call with me could be what you need to give your business a boost.

If this article is handy, then throw me a Scoobie Snack like this …

A little email notification comes to me when someone posts comments — and I LOVE getting them! They are like giving a dog a treat when it sits on command.

Yes, I’m an eager pup. When I hear from readers, my ears perk up, tail wags wildly, and I write more great articles.

So please post some keyword ideas that are coming up for you. Or just hit me with a big old, “Thanks, Kenn!”

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