Marketing

The hidden cost of not fixing your studio’s Google Business Profile (GBP)

17 December 2025

TL;DR Your future members are already searching for Pilates studios like yours on Google. If your Google Business Profile isn’t updated or active, they don’t see you — and quietly book somewhere else. The problem is simple: you’re invisible at the moment of decision. A healthy GBP helps the right people find you, brings in consistent first visits without ads, and reduces the pressure on your time and marketing budget — so growth feels sustainable, not exhausting.

Here’s the truth that’s hardest for studio owners to realize: your next 50 members are already looking for you — and most studios never meet them.

They search, they don’t see you, and they quietly choose someone else.

This is the hidden cost of an unfixed Google Business Profile: the people who should have become “your people” quietly end up somewhere else.

The reality is: people are searching for you right now — today, this hour, this minute.
Across the US, there are ~3 million monthly searches for intent-heavy queries like:

“pilates near me”
“yoga near me”
“reformer pilates beginners”
“best pilates studio near me”
“Pilates studio near me”

And whether they discover your studio or never see it at all depends on one thing: the health of your GBP.

When someone types “pilates near me,” they are not just curious; they are looking to make a decision.

And the decision is made in seconds — not based on your programs, instructors, or branding — but based on whether:

You appear in Google’s search results
You appear high in ranks
Your listing looks credible
Your reviews are recent
Your hours are accurate
Your images reflect reality
You have an easily accessible book now button

The very structure of Google’s results is built this way: only three studios appear at the top in the Map Pack. Those three absorb almost all the attention —126% more traffic and 93% more calls or direction requests vs those not in it. Everyone else gets pushed down the page, where most customers never look.

The cost of being invisible on Google

If your GBP is outdated, incomplete, or unmaintained — you don’t just rank lower. You disappear.

A stale GBP means:

you don’t show up for the searches already happening
you lose visibility that should have been yours
you lose people who were actively trying to find a studio
demand gets misdirected to competitors simply because they are better maintained

And the tragedy is: you never even know who you lost.

These are the easiest members you will ever convert —people who are already searching for your service, in your area, with the intent to book.

When you delay fixing your GBP, you lose members who could have been.

How hidden losses add up fast

The loss doesn’t happen once. It compounds.

Every day your studio fails to appear in local searches, you quietly lose more prospects who should have become new members.

In a high-search city:

You might miss 800–1,200 local impressions monthly
Even a 2–3% conversion rate means 5–8 new members lost monthly
Over a year, that’s 60–120 members gone
At $149/month membership, that’s $107,000–$214,000 in lost annual revenue

How poor visibility impacts marketing ROI

When GBP visibility falls, marketing teams start compensating with ads, boosted posts, discounts, referral incentives and other paid tactics.

You begin spending $800–$2,000/month trying to win back the attention you can receive at zero cost.

This is a fact not many studio owners realise: If your GBP was healthy, you wouldn’t need to rely so heavily on paid marketing — or spend as much on it.

A strong GBP gives you local authority, higher ranking, more impressions, more first visits, and an overall lower acquisition cost

All automatically — because Google’s algorithm rewards relevance, accuracy, and activity.

GBP vs Paid Marketing

Aspect	Google Business Profile (GBP)	Paid Marketing (Ads, Boosts, Discounts)
Cost	Free	$800–$2,000/month (or more)
Type of Visibility	Earned — based on relevance & accuracy	Rented — disappears when you stop paying
Longevity	Long-term, compounds over time	Short-lived; ends when the budget stops
Search Intent	Captures people actively searching “pilates near me”	Interrupts people who may not be ready
Trust Signals	Reviews, photos, recency, credibility	Ads have lower trust than organic results
Impact on Ranking	Directly boosts local ranking & Map Pack	No impact on local SEO authority
Conversion Quality	High — people already want a studio	Lower — must create or warm intent
ROI	Increases over time	Decreases if competition also advertises
Who Benefits	Studios with consistency and relevance	Studios with a budget to sustain campaigns

Why studio owners keep delaying this (and why they shouldn’t)

If you’re like most studio owners, you’re not ignoring GBP out of negligence. You’re overwhelmed.

When we talk to studio owners, we hear the same things over and over:

“I know I need to fix it, I just don’t have time.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to update or optimise.”
“I don’t want to break something accidentally.”
“It feels like a small task — I’ll get to it after this week’s classes.”
“I don’t even know if I’m doing it right.”

And what begins as a one-week delay becomes a one-year loss in visibility, revenue, and momentum.

That’s why Kenko built a full AI-powered marketing + GBP optimisation system — specifically for studios who don’t have the bandwidth to manage this themselves.

Kenko handles: