200 Easiest Martial Arts SEO Keywords to Rank for | Full Keyword List
200 Easiest Martial Arts SEO Keywords to Rank for | Full Keyword List
You know your yoga studio deserves more students walking through the door. But here’s the problem: when potential members search for yoga classes online, they’re not finding you. They’re finding big studios with massive marketing budgets and SEO teams.
Your SEO for yoga studios needs to be dialed in to properly compete.
But here’s the good news: you don’t need to outrank Yoga Alliance or fight for impossible keywords like “yoga classes.” You just need to find the right keywords. The ones with less competition, decent search volume, and people actively looking for what you offer.
We analyzed thousands of yoga-related keywords using Ahrefs and found 200 that smaller studios can actually rank for.
Below is the list of the top easiest yoga studio keywords, plus, a step-by-step guide on how to find more on your own.
Top 200 low competition martial arts keywords to rank for
200+ Martial Arts Keywords
Built for martial arts studios that want to rank faster without the SEO headaches.
Get the List Now| Keyword | KD | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| judo vs wrestling | 0 | 500 |
| muay thai vs bjj | 0 | 500 |
| martial arts insurance | 1 | 250 |
| best martial arts for women | 0 | 450 |
| african martial arts | 0 | 500 |
| purple belt bjj | 0 | 500 |
| purple belt karate | 0 | 500 |
| jiu jitsu kids | 0 | 500 |
| belt colors in karate | 0 | 500 |
| white belt karate | 0 | 500 |
| order of karate belts | 0 | 500 |
| taekwondo school | 0 | 500 |
| wrestling vs bjj | 1 | 450 |
| taekwondo belt | 0 | 500 |
| judo belt ranks | 1 | 500 |
| is taekwondo effective | 0 | 450 |
| most dangerous martial arts | 2 | 500 |
| karate ranks | 1 | 500 |
| best martial arts to learn | 0 | 450 |
| bjj purple belt | 0 | 450 |
| blue belt bjj | 0 | 450 |
| what is a karate uniform called | 0 | 500 |
| taekwondo stances | 0 | 450 |
| karate belt colors in order | 1 | 500 |
| bjj red belt | 2 | 500 |
| yellow belt karate | 1 | 500 |
| jiu jitsu vs wrestling | 0 | 400 |
| bjj kimura | 0 | 450 |
| female martial arts | 0 | 450 |
| blue belt karate | 0 | 450 |
| martial arts moves | 2 | 500 |
| karate instructor | 0 | 450 |
| taekwondo vs jiu jitsu | 0 | 400 |
| belts in taekwondo | 1 | 450 |
| difference between judo and jiu jitsu | 0 | 400 |
| jiu jitsu vs muay thai | 0 | 400 |
| adult karate | 0 | 400 |
| what is the best martial art for self defense | 2 | 450 |
| taekwondo belt ranks | 0 | 400 |
| karate vs jiu jitsu | 0 | 400 |
| toe hold bjj | 0 | 400 |
| taekwondo forms | 0 | 400 |
| crucifix bjj | 0 | 400 |
| belt levels in karate | 1 | 450 |
| vietnamese martial arts | 0 | 400 |
| karate kata | 0 | 400 |
| women's self defense class | 0 | 350 |
| bjj vs wrestling | 0 | 350 |
| jiu jitsu red belt | 2 | 450 |
| what is the difference between karate and taekwondo | 0 | 400 |
Using our methodology (we cover it below), we came up with a list of 200 keywords that martial arts gyms can potentially rank for. Above are the top 50.
Download the full list here so you can easily add this to your system, send it to your content team (or write yourself).
These keywords are a great starting point, but your martial arts gym is unique. That’s why we created a guide on finding keywords for fitness businesses.
How martial arts searchers are different from other fitness keywords
Martial arts attracts a different searcher than something like yoga or general fitness, and understanding this behavior is really helpful when you’re choosing keywords that actually convert.
Parents search for their kids, and, adults search for themselves
One of the biggest distinctions in martial arts SEO is that a huge portion of your potential students aren’t the ones doing the searching. Parents are researching martial arts programs for their children, which changes things.
Parents search with concerns around
Safety
Discipline
Confidence-building
Finding the right age group
They use terms like “jiu jitsu kids,” “kids bjj,” “taekwondo school,” and “karate instructor.” They want to know about belt progression, class structure, and whether their child will actually stick with it.
Adult searchers, on the other hand, focus on effectiveness, self-defense capability, and fitness benefits. They search for “best martial arts for self defense,” “is taekwondo effective,” “bjj vs wrestling,” and “most practical martial arts.”
These are all keywords that show up in our list as easy to rank for, based on what people regularly search.
Your keyword strategy needs to address both audiences separately.
That involves creating content specifically for parents (focusing on child development and safety) and separate content for adult students (focusing on effectiveness and real-world application).
Discipline-specific search patterns have a lot of detail
Unlike yoga where styles blend together somewhat, martial arts disciplines are distinct, and some searchers know exactly what they’re looking for. Or, they might be actively trying to find which discipline is right for them.
This creates two massive keyword opportunities:
Discipline-specific technique and progression keywords: Take keywords like “bjj positions,” and “taekwondo stances.” These are often students already training who are looking to improve, or prospective students researching what they’ll learn.
Comparison keywords: Martial arts has a lot of comparison searches because people genuinely want to know which martial art is best for their goals. High-opportunity keywords we identified here include “muay thai vs bjj,” “judo vs wrestling,” and “karate vs jiu jitsu,” among others.
These comparison keywords have strong commercial intent. Someone searching “wrestling vs bjj” is trying to decide which program to join.
If your gym offers one of those disciplines, you can create content that fairly compares them while positioning your program as the solution.
The self-defense angle is unique to martial arts
Pilates, yoga, and even CrossFit disciplines don’t have this. They may help people build endurance and get physically tougher, but you still need training for reliable self defense. And so, we have search behavior where people search explicitly for self-defense capability.
Keywords like “best martial arts for self defense,” “is boxing good for self defense,” represent searchers with clear, urgent intent. They want practical skills they can use if they’re ever in danger.
This is particularly strong for your school if you offer women’s martial arts programs.
Then, there are keywords like “Female martial arts” and “women’s self defense class” that attract students who are specifically looking for programs that address their safety concerns.
When creating content targeting these keywords, you should be honest about which martial arts are most effective for real-world situations, and which ones your fitness school actually offers.
Decision cycles are often shorter
You may deliberate for weeks before joining a new gym. But, parents looking for kids’ martial arts programs are likely to make faster decisions. They’re driven by immediate needs: school just started, their child needs an activity, or they want to address a specific issue like bullying or lack of confidence.
This means local keywords convert extremely fast in martial arts. “Taekwondo school,” “karate instructor,” or “kids martial arts near me” are searches from parents who are ready to sign up within days, not weeks.
These types of keywords also have high commercial and transactional intent. They represent a unique opportunity for your school to convert students fast.
Content that will succeed here needs to cover two bases:
Provide quick answer content for high-intent searches
Offer deeper educational content for people researching which discipline is best
Types of Martial Arts SEO keywords you can rank for
Now let’s look at the different “categories” of keywords we identified in our research. You can potentially create content and rank for all of these, but because they cover slightly different intents, and fall into different categories, your approach might need to change.
1. Discipline-specific technique keywords
These keywords target people who are either already training or seriously researching what they’ll learn in a specific martial art.
They want to know what’s in store for them. Perhaps they are looking to practise some of this themselves.
From our research, here are easy-to-rank technique keywords:
bjj takedowns
taekwondo stances
karate techniques
judo takedowns
These work best as educational blog content or video tutorials.
Create comprehensive guides that break down techniques step-by-step, explain common mistakes, and show progressions from beginner to advanced levels.
If you specialize in a particular discipline, building a content library around these technique keywords can establish your gym as an authority.
You can find more of these using tools like Ahrefs, UberSuggest or even Google Keyword Planner.
You can also download our full list of low competition martial arts keywords.
2. Comparison keywords
Martial arts has a lot of comparison searches because people genuinely need help deciding which discipline matches their goals.
Here are some high-opportunity comparison keywords from our list:
muay thai vs bjj
judo vs wrestling
karate vs jiu jitsu
bjj vs judo
sambo vs bjj
These keywords have some commercial intent. Someone searching “karate vs jiu jitsu” is trying to decide which is best for them.
3. Belt and ranking system keywords
The belt progression system is unique to martial arts and generates consistent search volume from both prospective and current students.
Easy-to-rank belt keywords from our research:
belt colors in karate
purple belt bjj
purple belt karate
white belt karate
order of karate belts
Create content that explains what each belt represents, typical timeframes to achieve it, and what students learn at that level. This serves both prospective students researching the journey and current students looking for motivation or understanding their progression.
4. Self-defense and effectiveness keywords
We’ve already talked about the intent and rationale behind these, so let’s jump straight into the list.
Here are some self-defense keywords from our list:
best martial arts for self defense
is boxing good for self defense
women’s self defense class
best martial arts for street fighting
5. Age and demographic-specific keywords
Martial arts serves different age groups with different needs, and keywords reflect this segmentation.
Here are the keywords we identified:
jiu jitsu kids
kids bjj
adult karate
6. Equipment and gear keywords
We see this across most fitness keyword categories, whether that’s yoga SEO keywords or pilates keywords.
If you sell martial arts equipment or want to create affiliate content, gear keywords can help you drive consistent traffic and revenue.
Equipment keywords from our list:
what is a karate uniform called
jiu jitsu gifts
7. Local keywords for immediate conversions
Local keywords have the highest conversion rates (up to 80%!) because searchers are ready to join a gym right now.
While we excluded most location-specific terms from our research, you should absolutely target:
[discipline] near me (e.g., “BJJ gym near me,” “karate classes near me”)
[discipline] in [city] (e.g., “taekwondo school Chicago”)
kids martial arts [neighborhood]
These keywords require strong local SEO: optimized Google Business Profile, location pages on your website, consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across directories, and local content that mentions your city and neighborhoods naturally.
It also helps to hit these technical SEO optimizations for fitness businesses.
How to find low difficulty martial arts keywords
Finding the right keywords requires a systematic approach: start with seed keywords relevant to your discipline, use research tools to find variations, evaluate difficulty and volume, then check what’s actually ranking in Google search results.
We’ve created a comprehensive guide that walks you through the entire process: How to Find Low Competition Keywords for Your Fitness Business. It covers tool selection, keyword analysis, search intent matching, and tracking your results.
Or, skip the research and use our curated list of 200+ low difficulty martial arts keywords below.
200+ Martial Arts Keywords
Built for martial arts studios that want to rank faster without the SEO headaches.
Get the List NowPut these martial arts keywords to work
You now have access to 200+ low-difficulty keywords that can help your martial arts gym attract more students through search. Whether you teach BJJ, karate, Muay Thai, or multiple disciplines, these keywords give you a clear starting point for your content strategy.
But having the keywords is just the beginning. You still need to create optimized content, publish consistently, track what’s working, and adjust your strategy based on results. And your website likely needs technical SEO improvements to maximize your ranking potential.
That’s a lot to manage when you’re teaching classes, running a business, and developing your students.
That’s where Content Stream comes in. We help martial arts gyms and fitness businesses with the complete SEO process – from keyword research to content creation to performance tracking. You focus on training great martial artists. We’ll make sure people can find your gym when they search.
Book a free website audit and we’ll show you exactly what SEO opportunities you’re missing and how to start ranking for keywords that bring in new students.
Our methodology: How we found the easiest martial keywords
We analyzed thousands of martial arts-related keywords in Ahrefs in November, 2025, and filtered them down using specific criteria. Here’s what made the cut:
We removed branded keywords. People searching for “Miyagi Karate” are likely searching for the Karate Kid Movie, not your martial arts gym.
We removed most local keywords.
We kept keyword difficulty under 20. Anything above that gets into “harder to rank for” territory. We also excluded keywords with no difficulty score at all. That usually means not enough data.
We filtered out commercial and transactional keywords. Searchers here are looking to buy a product, which might not help your gym.
We required at least 10 monthly searches. Lower than that and there’s not enough data to trust the keyword.
We looked at clicks per search. We wanted keywords with at least 1 click per search. The more clicks a query gets, the better for you because it means users aren’t getting their answers from snippets or AI overviews. They’re actually clicking through to websites.
We manually reviewed everything. Keyword research tools aren’t perfect, so we filtered through the list and removed anything that seemed too general or hard to rank for in practice.
Our scoring system
We gave each keyword a score based on how likely your website, no matter how small, is to rank for it. Here’s what we considered:
Keyword difficulty (40% of score): Lower difficulty = higher score
Search volume (30% of score): More searches = higher score (normalized across the data set)
Cost per click (20% of score): Higher CPC often means higher commercial intent (normalized across the data set)
Clicks per search (10% of score): More clicks = higher score (normalized across the data set)
Author
Matthew Iyiola
I’m Matthew, a personal trainer turned SEO who’s worked with brands like Gymfluencers, Sailo, ClickCease, and Fraud Blocker. These days, I help small to medium sized companies grow their reach with smart, search-focused content.