Own Your Zip Code: How Tutors Can Dominate Local Search and Enrollment

Do students, families, and teachers in your city even know that your tutoring company exists? When you search for “tutor near me,” do you only see large, national, mega-brands pop up?

Finding new clients is a never-ending task for tutoring businesses, whether you’re a solo tutor or run a multi-site center. Effective search engine optimization holds the key to helping the right clients find your services just when they need them — while also boosting your business’s profile and reputation within your local audience.

We’ll show you how. 

How Local SEO Builds Trust and Brings in Clients

Local SEO is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic to your tutoring website. Professional landing pages and services pages that showcase your expertise and proven results build trust with parents and educators. They also help you compete with huge tutoring companies that pop up everywhere in targeted ads. 

So, how does this work? 

Basically, local SEO is the process of optimizing the technical aspects and content of your website to ensure that your business appears near the top of search results when clients are looking for your specific services in a particular geographic area. 

When it’s done right, local SEO presents your tutoring services as the logical match for what people are actively looking for, generating a steady stream of new inquiries to your business — and freeing up your time to focus on your students! 

Top 3 Ways to Boost Online Visibility for Tutors

Demand for tutoring services has surged over the past decade, as parents look for personalized solutions for their children’s education. Marketing your business to families and educators looking for a tutor is all about building trust. Parents want to know that their child will improve in specific areas, build confidence, and have an enjoyable experience with an experienced, patient tutor.

You can convey all this in a face-to-face conversation, but how do you get new clients that far in the first place? 

An effective local search strategy is all about building trust, too, just with search engine crawlers. A website that functions smoothly and includes detailed information related to search queries sends signals to search engines that you have the information searchers are looking for. This improves your ranking in search engines.

There are lots of ways to improve your overall SEO ranking — content strategy, landing page optimization, technical SEO, and more — but for matching with local searches specifically, there are three things that we recommend tutoring businesses focus on:

• Google Business Profile
• Bing Places 
• Google Local Service Ads

Want to start with your overall SEO performance? Request a free comprehensive SEO audit with SEO Design Chicago. 

Google Business Optimization for Academic Coaches

If there’s one single thing you can do to help students find your tutoring or coaching services, it’s to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile.

Formerly known as Google My Business, this is essentially Google’s “official” listing of your business, and it’s completely free — yet many tutors never even complete theirs. 

At a minimum, your Google Business Profile should contain:

• Updated name, address, and phone (NAP) info
• A clear photo of your business location or logo 
• Hours
• A link to your website

Again, since this is a free property provided by Google, you want to get the maximum benefit from it. Adding additional photos and positive reviews can dramatically improve your ranking in local search results. In fact, research indicates that over 80% of customers use Google reviews to help them evaluate local businesses. 

In an industry like tutoring, where trust is crucial, your Google Business Profile is a powerful tool both for getting discovered by potential clients and helping them trust you with their students’ learning. 

Our team knows all the ins and outs of Google Business Profiles — give us a call to get a customized plan on optimizing your profile to reach more clients and get a steady stream of new inquiries! 

Bing Places for Tutors

When it comes to bringing in a steady stream of new clients to your tutoring business, the job is never done. After all, your current students will eventually master the material, pass their classes or take their exams, and move on to bigger and better things. To keep your business thriving, you need to have new clients ready to go. 

To reach as many potential clients as possible within a particular area, it’s important to maximize the number of places that your tutoring services appear on the internet. That’s where Bing Places comes in. 

Like Google Business Profiles, Bing Places is a free online listing that contains all of your business details. Bing displays on Microsoft-owned properties, including Yahoo and Outlook.

By listing your tutoring services on Bing as well as Google, you’ll reach a new segment of clients who might not otherwise know your business exists. 

Google Local Service Ads for Tutoring Companies

Together, Google Business Profiles and Bing Places are the cornerstone of your organic local SEO strategy. By consistently updating each profile, you’ll automatically boost your online presence without spending any money on ads.

Once your organic traffic streams are running smoothly, it’s time to expand to Google Local Service Ads.

These ads are part of Google’s massive advertising network. By “bidding” on certain high-converting keywords related to your tutoring services, your business listing can appear at the top of search engine results pages. 

The ad looks just like the organic search results, except for a small blue “ad” label attached. Thanks to its prominent position on results lists, it’s more likely to receive clicks.

Now, Google takes into account far more than just the amount of money that you bid on an ad. You also need to have an optimized website that closely matches what people are searching for — that’s where a full-service digital marketing agency like SEO Design Chicago can help. Our experts will analyze your full web strategy to identify the best place to put your resources for maximum effect. 

FAQ: The Best Local SEO Strategies for Tutoring Businesses

As a full-service digital marketing agency, SEO Design Chicago has over a decade of experience helping businesses of all sizes grow their client base through custom-quoted digital marketing plans.

Whether you’re a solo tutor or a growing, multi-site center, we’ll work directly with you to understand your immediate and long-term growth goals. We’ll complete a comprehensive audit of your existing web presence, then give our tailored recommendations to help you grow — all customized to your budget. 

Ready to get started? Give us a call for your comprehensive local SEO audit today. 

In the meantime, check out some of the most frequently asked questions our digital marketing professionals receive about effective local SEO for tutors. 

How does local SEO help tutors get more students?

People tend to turn to local search engines when they’re about ready to hire a tutor for their student. By optimizing your website for your local service area and your specific tutoring services, you are far more likely to be discovered by the clients who are actively interested in what you offer — and more importantly, ready to book services. 

Do tutors need a Google Business Profile?

Absolutely! A claimed, completed, and fully optimized Google Business Profile is one of the best ways to signal your business’s service areas and key details to search engines.

Even if you provide solo tutoring or home-based tutoring services, your Google Business Profile is still valuable for providing contact and map information about your business to potential clients. 

Can online tutors benefit from local SEO?

Yes, online tutors still need to be discovered in search engine results for their specific niches to get new clients. SEO is important for showcasing your specialties and competing with larger, national, or international tutoring companies. 

Moreover, some online-only tutoring providers still specialize in specific regions. Since test requirements vary by state, you can reach your target clients more effectively by targeting state-specific search terms. 

What factors help tutors rank in the local map pack?

The local map pack — sometimes called the Google 3-Pack — is a list of three featured local business listings that Google offers in addition to a map with their physical locations. This is a valuable spot to win, as it displays your business more prominently.

There are a few things you can do to increase your chances of winning a spot in the local map pack.

#1) Optimize your Google Business Profile. This is the information that Google uses to populate the map pack. 

#2) Request reviews from former clients. Businesses with more than 30 or 40 reviews seem to be more likely to be featured in the map pack.

#3) Make sure your geographic location is updated and specific. Google will prioritize showing searchers results that are close to them, so if your tutoring services are in close proximity to a school, suburb, or popular metro area, you are more likely to be featured in searches near those areas. 

#4) Include local content on your website. If you offer tutoring services to students in Phoenix, Arizona, then your website should be rich in content related to Phoenix. This displays your business’s relevance to search engines. 

#5) Consistent business information — make sure that your website, business profiles, and social media accounts all have consistent, updated information. This will ensure that Google can understand and display your business properly. 

Should tutoring companies create location-based service pages?

Definitely — especially if your tutoring company operates more than one location. Customers increasingly expect service pages that are specifically tailored to their location. They don’t want to click around a menu or have to call to find out if location A or location B offers reading tutoring for their dyslexic student — that information should be clearly stated on a location-specific service page. 

Don’t forget to include a clear call to action on that page, too. Once clients confirm that yes, you offer the reading tutoring they’re looking for, it should be easy for them to click a “book now” button or “first session free” form. 

Ready to bring more clients directly to your business? Request your free local SEO analysis with SEO Design Chicago today!