Since most Yoga teachers are focused on body-based healing practices like meditation and asana, they might wonder starting a Yoga blog is really a good use of time.
If you already promote your Yoga classes on social media, do you need to learn how to write a Yoga blog too?
Yes. Yes, you do. If you really want to grow your Yoga business, starting a Yoga blog is one of the smartest moves you can make for lots of reasons. Blogs:
- Bring high traffic to your website
- Establish niche credibility fast
- Provide content for all your other marketing
- Attract communities (not just students)
- Entice conference and retreat organizers
- Widen your pool of potential students globally.
Not sure what to blog about? Download my Free Yoga Marketing Plan, and the ideas will flow.
Blogs Bring the People to Your Yoga Website
When people search online for a Yoga class, your website needs to appear in the top 10 – the first 10 suggestions from Google. Most people never even scroll to the second page, much less the 5th.
How do you rank as one of Google’s top 10? By regularly publishing fresh content, i.e. writing a Yoga blog.
The Google Algorithm loves a website with fresh content and rewards it by bringing it higher up the search ranking.
You’ll climb even higher if you’re blogging answers to common search terms. For example, “Yoga for back pain” will rank higher than “The weird thought I had while teaching Yoga Yesterday”
Blogs Establish Your Credibility in a Yoga Niche
I doubt I’m bursting your bubble when I say that there is a glut of basic Hatha Yoga teachers on the market. In my city (Vancouver), they’re as common as real estate agents. (The property market is also ridiculous here.)
So if you want to stand out – and charge more than your standard $30/Hatha class – you’ve got to be known for a particular specialty or Yoga niche. Blogging is a great way to get the ball rolling, and establish authority in your niche quickly.
As above, blogging about using Sanskrit in your Yoga classes will help you rank higher up the list when potential students go searching for Sanskrit Yoga classes. (They may be rare, but they’ll be all yours!)
Ready-to-Go Yoga Content for Newsletters and Social Media
When people on a limited budget ask me to write Yoga content for them, I always recommend investing in blog posts. Blogs pay for themselves again and again, because you can repurpose them in all your other content including Instagram, Pinterest, and your newsletters.
Yoga Content for Instagram or TikTok
Burnt out of cute/funny/shocking ideas for social media? Quote yourself.
You’ll be able to pull four to eight great lines from a blog post.
Pop each one into a Canva quotation template and spread these over the month. You can write fresh content in each caption or just copy the full paragraph straight from your blog.
Be sure to direct folks back to your blog to read the full article.
Yoga Content for Facebook and Pinterest
Facebook can be really tough these days, if you aren’t willing to pay for ads. (And I’m not.)
Posting notices of upcoming classes tends to generate crickets. (Not a single click).
Since memes are popular on Facebook, you could just make a cute share-able out of a short quote from your blog. This will increase your Facebook stats, but not necessarily bring people to your website where you can sign them up for classes.
Linking directly to your blog post is a better option. I find that links to longer articles tend to do well on Facebook and Pinterest.
This is easier because you get to skip the Canva step. Your blog article already has a featured image that will appear automatically when you post the link.
It’s also an advantage because clicking on the link will bring people to your website. Hopefully, they’ll click around after reading your amazing article and land on your amazing offerings page.
Yoga Newsletter Content
Not a clue what to write in your Yoga newsletter? Just steal from your already-done blog.
Again, I’d recommend including an excerpt from the blog in the newsletter with a link to the rest. Your goal should always be to bring people to your amazing website where you can tempt folks with upcoming workshops and classes.
Blogs are a community gathering space
Imagine your Yoga website as a bricks-and-mortar business. The services and events pages are the studio spaces where people roll out their mats. Nice to have those filled, of course.
But wouldn’t you also like to have a tea and juice lounge? Somewhere for folks to hang out on comfortable seats, meeting like-minded friends, talking about their favourite meditation method, or just quietly browsing through books and magazines on the shelves.
Your blog is the lounge where folks hang out before or after class, gathering those community vibes we all crave as human beings.
Sharing a blog creates a space for folks to gather and discuss the seven limbs of Yoga that aren’t asana. (Or maybe you discuss asana here too; it’s your party).
Your Yoga blog is a special offering for the vast majority of folks who don’t have access to Yoga outside of an asana-based class. Not everyone can go to India, or take a Yoga Teacher Training to fulfill that need for more. Thus, many, many people are searching “Yoga Blog” to find that deeper connection.
Networking Tool for Partnerships, Employers, Conferences and Retreats
Nowadays, we all look each other up online before deciding to work together. Employers check online profiles before hiring anyone. And applicants research the company website and linkedIn profiles of potential bosses before every interview.
Your blog goes five steps further beyond the basics of a home page and linkedIn profile. It shows off your depth of knowledge, your thoughtfulness, even your unique personality and voice.
Are you passionate? Quirky? Intellectual? Silly? Do your asana classes come with a dose of the Sutras, or a dose of humour? Do you see Yoga as an opportunity for social justice? Do you fight for the needs of a particular community? Are you someone who shares resources generously?
The Yoga non-profit I work for regularly searches online for Yoga facilitators for specific topics, such as Yoga and Accessibility, or Body Positive Yoga. If you’ve got a blog full of articles on that topic, you may get an offer to facilitate a workshop – another feather in your cap.
Even better, you could approach Yoga Teacher Trainings and Yoga Conferences with offers to teach on your specialized topic. Your blog demonstrates depth of knowledge on your Yoga Niche.
Global Reach
As many Yoga teachers discovered throughout the pandemic, in person teaching isn’t secure. And though teaching online over Zoom can lack personal connection, it has one important advantage.
You can teach anyone, anywhere.
You’re not limited to the people in your neighbourhood or city. People can log in from the other side of the world.
Or they can log in from a remote community three hours away with no Yoga studio in town.
Suddenly your potential market is SO. MUCH. BIGGER.
Blogs are one of the best ways to help these potential students find you.
Is Starting a Yoga Blog a good use of time?
Yes! Yoga teachers who are serious about growing their business need to jump into blogging.
As I mentioned above, fresh blog content helps you rank higher on searches, driving traffic to your Yoga website. If you are trying to specialize, blogging shows folks that you have knowledge and experience with a particular type of Yoga or demographic of people.
Commit to writing one or two longer (1000 words) articles per month. Then use this blog as your social media theme for the month, and pull sections for captions on Instagram and Facebook.
Over time, your blog will become a hub for your Yoga community where people regularly check in for resources on a specific Yoga topic.
Become known as a resource and you’ll start receiving invitations to speak on podcasts, at retreats or other valuable partnerships.
Blogging broadens your reach. You’re no longer confined to neighbourhoods in driving distance. Your blog could provide community for people thousands of miles away, in the loneliest of locations.
In short: Yes. Yoga Teachers definitely need to be blogging.
Not sure what to focus on in your Yoga Blog? Download my free Yoga Marketing template to figure out in advance your best topics for your ideal audience.
Great article. Very convincing…. Makes me want to write a blog! I love the emphasis on re-purposing the blog for social media.
Yes, it saves you all the pain of racking your brain for new ideas. And time too!