This week, I analyze a 13-year-old fitness equipment eCommerce site, FitnessSuperstore.com. The site receives 54,000 organic traffic per month (Ahrefs estimate).
This site specializes in professional quality fitness equipment that is typically found in commercial gyms. The business sells new and used fitness equipment which can cost thousands of dollars.
Selling to gyms can be very lucrative as an average-sized professional gym can require about $75,000 in exercise equipment. There is also strong growth in interest in home gyms with a global market size of exercise equipment expected to grow to $59 billion by 2028.
This is what I cover in this report:
- Website overview
- Major highlights
- Competitor overview
- Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic
- Actionable takeaways you can apply
Let’s get into it!
✅ Website Overview & Highlights
Organic traffic to the website has been on a steady upward trend with no major declines from Google algorithm updates.
Ahrefs shows a strong number of referring domains at 2,300, although the quality of links does not look great on close inspection.
The website’s domain has been active since 2011 according to Archive.org.
The Benicia, California company was founded in 2010 by Timothy French. He is also the founder of French Fitness, a manufacturer of professional gym equipment. FitnessSuperstore sells the top brands as well as their own products.
The business has a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and a 500-square-foot showroom in Benicia.
They differentiate from other fitness equipment eCommerce sites by selling refurbished equipment that can save buyers up to 70% off the MSRP.
Built on the Volusion eCommerce platform, the website design feels outdated and could benefit from a design refresh.
Highlights
- 2,300 referring domains
- Links from Livestrong.com and The Sun
- YouTube channel with 1k subscribers
Why is this site winning?
- The website has a long history of over a decade online
- Google Business Profile with 187 reviews and a 4.8 rating
- Large selection of products with 5,200 pages in Google’s index
Top 3 Competitors
Here are similar competitors targeting many of the same keywords.
- ProGymSupply.com – An eCommerce site selling new and used commercial gym equipment with 16.4k organic traffic (Ahrefs).
- GymPros.com – A similar eCommerce site that also sells new and used commercial gym equipment with 6.4k organic traffic (Ahrefs).
- BuyandSellFitness.com – A Florida company that sells a wide range of new and used gym equipment with 5.6k organic traffic (Ahrefs).
Let’s get into the easy wins to grow this specific website.
🔥 5 Easy Wins To Grow This Website
There are opportunities to significantly grow this brand. I break down the following easy wins:
- Add more content to category pages
- Add upsells to shopping cart
- Add popup for email collection
- Publish more informational guides
- Improve link profile with link building
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Add More Content to Category Pages
The category pages have very little content, sometimes just a couple of sentences. However, some category pages still rank highly in Google for competitive keywords. For example, they rank #2 for “rowing machines for sale” according to Ahrefs which has 2,000 searches per month.
Adding a sufficient amount of unique content to category pages is an SEO best practice that can improve Google rankings across multiple pages. For example, they could add a section of text about what to look for when buying a specific type of exercise equipment.
Additionally, a frequently asked question (FAQ) section can answer common questions about the category of products while adding some important keywords to the page.
➡️ Win #2: Add Upsells to Shopping Cart
The shopping cart currently shows just the products that have been added to the cart. A proven way to increase sales is to add upsells or product recommendations to the shopping cart to suggest additional products that the customer can add to their order.
They could suggest add-on products like exercise mats or other accessories that would go with gym equipment.
They could also add an upsell for their extended warranty which can add as much as $999 to the price of the product. They currently only offer the warranty on the product page.
➡️ Win #3: Add Popup for Email Collection
It is a best practice for eCommerce stores to use a popup to encourage new visitors to provide their email, often in exchange for a discount.
With the long sales cycle for exercise equipment which can cost thousands of dollars, it would make sense to promote the email newsletter to build a relationship with potential customers.
Currently, the email form is hidden at the bottom of the site so a popup will significantly increase the email signup conversion rate.
➡️ Win #4: Publish More Educational Guides
The website has a small library of about 27 informational guides about fitness equipment on its “Fitness Articles” page.
With a strong domain authority for an eCommerce store of 41 according to Ahrefs, this site is well-positioned to use content marketing to increase traffic from people who are interested in buying commercial gym equipment.
Some of the existing articles are too short and the formatting is broken, making it very difficult to read.
Adding more in-depth and helpful articles that educate people about the different types of exercise equipment can help increase organic traffic from the type of person that could spend thousands of dollars on building a home gym or starting a gym business.
Additionally, helpful guides can be repurposed to create videos for their YouTube channel. Their top video has 100k views so there is good potential to attract more potential customers from educational guides in the video format.
➡️ Win #5: Improve Backlink Profile
Although the site has 2,300 referring domains, a closer review of the current backlinks shows that the site has a small number of quality links from media sites and relevant fitness sites.
There are a small handful of quality links with a DR of over 80 like LiveStrong.com and The Sun.
A focused link building campaign can help the site build a stronger link profile by adding more high quality links to the homepage or specific product pages which should help improve rankings for important pages.
One good source of new links is building relationships with fitness blogs and fitness influencers via email. Paying them money via advertisements or sponsorships will usually lead to do-follow links.
Another good strategy is to build useful informational assets that have a good potential to attract links. An example would be expert guides on specific types of exercise equipment and how to use them effectively to reach fitness goals.
They could also use tools like Prowly or Muckrack to find journalists who cover fitness equipment topics regularly and introduce the founder as a resource for expert quotes or insights.
👉 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your eCommerce website today:
- Ensure important landing pages have enough content to avoid looking too “thin” to Google.
- Add upsells for complimentary products during and after the checkout process to increase sales quickly.
- Improve email lead form conversion rate by adding a popup instead of an easy to miss form in the website footer.
- Launch a proactive link building campaign to improve the link profile compared to competitors who don’t build links.
