Considering we live in a digital world, it is crucial that every tutor (that includes you) has a website. If you don't have a website yet, this post will help you build the foundations for creating your tutoring website and give you the confidence to get started.
If you already have a website, great! You may pick up a few gold nuggets that you can implement to make your site even better. Let's get started!
Why is a website a must?
- It’s a way for parents to discover you on the internet.
If you don’t have a website...It might sound obvious, but how would parents be able to find what you do, what you offer and how you can help? Especially if you are wanting to be found in places like the google search results.
- Your website provides a place where you can tell your story.
When done right, a website can be much more than just a website. It can be a platform for you to share your story with the world! You can share why you are passionate about tutoring and how you have been able to make a massive impact through tutoring.
Paint a picture as an artist would paint a canvas. A website is your canvas!
- Your website provides information on how to contact you.
Your site should be geared towards getting people to take action, right? You want to make it as easy as possible for someone who is researching you to call you, text you, or email you.
- It's an opportunity to share your success stories.
When you begin tutoring and helping loads of students you’re going to want to showcase how awesome of a tutor you are and how you are changing your students lives. A website is the perfect place to showcase these results! The more success stories the better.
- The site is an excellent place to showcase why you are an expert.
Why should a parent pick you over another tutor? Why should a parent trust you to help their child over everyone else? These are questions that you can help overcome with an awesome website.
- A website helps build authority. Without it, you lose trust.
Before picking up the phone to call you, most parents will do a lot of research. If they cannot find a website for you, that is not going to be a good first impression, and they will move on to a tutor who does. You will lose their trust instantly and they will move on to someone who has all of the trust factors they need.
What’s the first thing that you’ll want to consider when planning out your tutoring website?
Choosing the right domain name for your website!
Here are a few things to consider when choosing your website’s domain (website address).
- Keep Your Domain Really Simple!
You will hear me say this over and over but simple is always best. I have spent hours of my life before trying to come up with the perfect domain, you shouldn’t have to do that. Pick something that makes sense and roll with it.
- Make Sure it Makes Sense.
Let’s say for example, you are a special ed tutor and you specialize in math.
A simple domain that might make sense for you would be www.TheSpecialNeedsMathTutor.com. It’s simple, it makes sense, when someone reads this domain, they know exactly what you’re all about.
- Avoid numbers and hyphens.
This is simply because it can be very confusing or easy to forget where the the hyphen goes or what number it is or even if it has one at all. It can make for a terrible domain name.
- If you can’t find the name that you’re looking for...Try synonyms!
Oftentimes the first domain you come up with will be taken. There are a lot of websites out there and that can be frustrating. When this happens, try different synonyms for words that you may also like.
You can use this website to help: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/synonym
- 99% of the time you are going to want to get the .com if you can.
Most people are familiar with " .com " and it’s the most highly trusted ending to a website. If you are absolutely set on a domain name that doesn’t have a .com available you can use a .net or anything else that you’d like...But I highly recommend getting the .com.
- Short on Ideas? Use a Domain Name Generator!
Sometimes it can be helpful to get ideas that aren’t your own! Try using a domain name generator for some awesome ideas that could help you brainstorm and find a great domain.
Here is a domain name generator you could use for your tutoring website: https://domainwheel.com/
What elements are needed to create a high-converting tutoring website?
There are a few things that every website needs to have and if they’re missing any one of these, they may not perform as well as you’d like them to.
- It Should Be Responsive and Easy to Navigate
Your website shouldn’t confuse the people who are on it. It should be simple, clear, and easy to find everything they’re looking for. Your website also needs to be responsive! This means that your website will automatically adjust to fit any device people are using. For example, your website will be visible and easy to navigate on mobile devices, tablets, as well as computers! Most people who visit your website are going to be using a mobile device. So, make sure it’s mobile friendly!
- It Should Clearly Communicate the Benefits of Your Services
A lot of tutoring websites focus on themselves, their education, and experience, rather than on how they can help solve the parent's problems. At the end of the day, no one is going to care about your 20+ years of experience and your 7 college degrees if they don’t feel you can actually solve their problems.
Instead of focusing on yourself on your website, put a spotlight on how you can help increase their child’s confidence and get them back on track to succeed.
Example: “We have 20 years of experience” is not as magnetic as “We guarantee your child will feel more confident after just 3 sessions”
- Include “Social Proof”
You should have as much social proof as possible! Social proof is also known as “third party validation”. People want to see that other people are benefiting from your tutoring services before purchasing. Examples of social proof include:
- Testimonials
- Videos of parents saying how great you are
- Videos of students (with parent’s written permission of course!) sharing how much you’ve helped them.
- Pictures of Good Grades/Test Scores/Concerts (for music tutor!)/College Acceptances etc.
- It Should be Very Simple to Contact You
You should have your contact information plastered all over your tutoring website. They shouldn’t have to go searching how to contact you. Have your number, email and chat widget as clear as day! Remember, the goal of a website is to get someone to inquire about tutoring - make it simple for them to do that.
- You should have a chat widget that is based around texting.
Ever since I began using the SmartTutor chat widget on my tutoring website, inquiries have significantly increased! This is because a lot of people are either too busy to call you or simply don’t want to.pick up the phone. They really would rather send a quick message with their questions.
Having a way to text or chat will put you leaps ahead of your competition. It captures the potential client during their peak interest!
- An Effective Tutoring Site Will Have a Call to Action!
Always tell your audience what to do…. Give me a call today... Book your child’s free assessment today... Claim your child’s free tutoring session today.... Book a free 30-minute consultation now.
Whatever action that you’d like them to take, make sure you are telling them how to take it on your website.
What’s the secret sauce to building a website that converts?
Don’t reinvent the wheel...MODEL WHAT’S WORKING.
Now when I say modeling, I absolutely do NOT mean copying. That is always wrong, and will never benefit you.
But modeling is a great way to use what’s currently working for others to work for you too.
There are large companies out there who have a significantly larger budget than we do and have massive marketing teams that we can definitely learn from.
How?...
Simply spend some time looking at websites and pages that you know are converting prospects to clients and see what they are doing!
Here is an example of how modeling works...If you notice many different tutoring websites are using testimonials, you should too!
If you notice that another successful tutoring provider is using a specific offer such as “A free assessment” and it seems to be working because their center is full, maybe you should try that too! (But take their offer and make it even better!)
If you notice they are using a pop-up to collect emails or have a newsletter, you should have one as well!! Make sense?
It pays to pay attention to some major players in the tutoring space and learn from their methods. Take a look and see what they are doing to market to potential clients!
- Sylvan
- Mathnasium
- Club-Z
- Large centers in your area
[I walk you through some of my findings in the YouTube video on this page, if you’d like to go watch that! You can skip to 14:57 - That’s where I begin checking out different tutoring websites]
How can you create your own website?
There are several ways to get a website for your tutoring business. Here are a few:
- SmartTutor (Provides a tutoring website that is already DONE-FOR-YOU)
I remember when I first began. Creating a website can be an overwhelming task! That’s why I included a website in the SmartTutor system. You can have your website up and running within minutes, because I have already taken the liberty of creating one for you.
All you have to do is edit what you like and BOOM you have a fully functional website based on everything covered in this post.
- Wix (Take some time to build and learn)
- Wordpress (Takes time to build and there is a learning curve + you’ll need hosting)
- GoDaddy (Takes time to build and learn but the builder is a bit outdated)
- You can hire someone ($$$$$)
I paid around $1500 for my first website and that company ended up disappearing and taking my website with them! It was super stressful, but it was a lesson learned! If you end up going the hiring route, make sure you have complete control over the website, hosting and everything else involved. Learn from my mistakes!
- Other website building sites are also available, this is just a selection of the most known.
You Made it to the End!
Congrats! You now know how to build a strong and high-converting tutoring website or improve the one you already have.
If you don't want to deal with the hassle of creating, designing, and developing your own website...you can sign up today for a 14-day free trial of the SmartTutor system and get a fully-functioning website for your tutoring business.
