Massage School Competition

The latest statistics from the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) show that there are approximately 1,500 massage schools in the US alone. In Feb. of this year, they also report that the number of students enrolled in massage school has decreased. While this can be due to many reasons, I want to address one that I have recently come across online.

Most massage schools websites are so poorly created that when anyone searches for the words “massage school, some city” that the top listings are not any schools themselves but are the listings of many different directories that are charging massage schools for listings. The actual websites for the massage schools are lost on the web. Massage schools are being held hostage by the many online school directories and link farms.

The websites that are out there are poorly created and lack and real information about the school, the program, what massage is, what it is like to be a massage therapist or any information about their schools at all. While I am not sure how effective this method is, it does not allow one to compare schools online and help students make a more informed decision about what school to go to or to help them decide if they even would be good at being a massage therapist to begin with.

Massage schools could benefit from building website that works – one that attracts their targeted massage school student and provides all of the information one needs to know about becoming a massage therapist. When the massage schools can find better matches of students to their type of school and curriculum, the massage therapist will have a greater chance of being successful. Both win!