Case Study: The Gym Group Shapes Up its Online Presence with Yext

The Gym Group, renowned as one of the UK's most affordable 24/7 gyms, achieved 23% year-over-year growth in clicks and amassed thousands of five-star ratings, thanks to their partnership with Yext.

As the old saying goes, "No pain, no gain" — and in the early days of The Gym Group's expansion, that certainly felt true. The fast-growing fitness organization, now with over 240 locations across the U.K., faced its share of growing pains. But while its footprint grew rapidly, the gains in online visibility and customer engagement were slower to come. Just ask Beatriz Santamaria, SEO manager for The Gym Group, who tackled these challenges head-on.

As The Gym Group continued to expand its footprint, it created a lot of pain for Santamaria, who was tasked with coordinating, organising, and managing the organisation's online presence. Unfortunately, it was tough for her to make any significant gains when it came to customer reviews or online listings. She had very limited resources, resulting in a fragmented online marketing program run by gym owners, customer service representatives, and others.

Outdated gym listings and 40,000 unanswered reviews impacted visibility and engagement. To build a stronger connection with members and streamline operations, The Gym Group needed a centralized solution. That's where Yext came in, helping the team manage online reviews and listings efficiently at scale.

Upon partnering with Yext in 2021, The Gym Group immediately began using Yext Reviews to engage with members. In just five weeks, a four-person team responded to 44,000 reviews—1,600 per day. "We challenged the team to respond to the reviews as quickly as possible," Santamaria said. "We made it a contest. Can we do 5,000 this week? 10,000 next? 20,000 the following? That wouldn't have been possible without Yext."

With Yext Listings, The Gym Group now automatically updates 50+ digital endpoints, ensuring consistency and eliminating the need for manual updates across scattered accounts. "We looked at other platforms, but at the end of the day, we were really impressed with the exceptional integration Yext has with Google," said Santamaria. "It's just made managing our Google profiles so much easier."

Previously, updating business listings was a fragmented, manual process spread across multiple teams, leading to outdated or inconsistent information. Now, with Yext's centralized platform, the team can instantly publish accurate details, including attributes, keywords, and directions, while also monitoring third-party suggested updates to prevent misinformation. This level of control ensures members always have access to the most up-to-date gym information.

The Gym Group also leverages Google Posts through Yext to share gym updates, improving discoverability and engagement in the organic search results. As AI-driven search evolves, structured data and customer engagement have become essential to boost visibility and trust.

Since partnering with Yext, The Gym Group has seen a 374% increase in five-star reviews, growing from 7,870 in 2021 to 37,266 in 2024. Five-star reviews now make up 86% of total reviews, up from 66% in 2021, contributing to a 262% total increase in reviews.

Listings management has also been transformed, with 28,547 updates made since 2021, saving 2,379 hours. Additionally, overall Listing Clicks (driving directions, tap to call, website) have grown 53%. Clicks to directions alone have risen 104% since 2021, including an 11% increase from 2023 to 2024.

The Gym Group's share of traffic from unbranded keywords has grown 53.9%, rising from 45% in 2021 to 69.5% in 2024, significantly improving discoverability. Since The Gym Group has over 240 gym locations, Yext enables bulk updates that would have required a dedicated four-person team if done manually through Google.

"It's rare to find a company that provides the combination of solutions and support that Yext gives," Santamaria said. "The idea that I can have all this information and automatically push it across our entire platform and have a single source of truth for our content is absolutely amazing."

To learn more about Yext's offerings, book a demo today.