Ways to Find More Students

by Chris Lewis who teaches Seattle Tennis Lessons

How Most Students Find Teachers

Before last April I had no idea what Search Engine Opitimization (SEO) was. Why would I? I’m a tennis coach, not a computer guy. At the same time though, I realize most people use Google to find just about everything.

So out of curiosity, to see if I’d show up, I did some Google searches that people would use to find tennis lessons. I tried typing in terms like “tennis coaches seattle,” “tennis lessons seattle,” “tennis lessons ballard and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

My TeachStreet Profile page was on the second page of Google’s listings for each of these terms and several others, too. But being the competitive person I am, this made me ask another question: “How can I rank on the 1st page?”

Check it out! Listing #1 and #2 for “tennis lessons ballard!”

Rank Higher on Google

Being a Guest Teacher Blogger on the TeachStreet Blog has been the single biggest thing that has improved my search engine performance. I love how making these posts make my TeachStreet profile page show up higher on Google.

How Guest Blogging Helps Me Show Up Higher on Google

It’s really pretty cool. I take 20-30 minutes to write an interesting post, I send it over to Joseph (joseph@teachstreet.com), usually in a word doc, and he makes the posts for me. When he does this, being the SEO guru he is, he gives me 1-2 links to my profile page.

I didn’t get why he added these links at first, but now I do, and it’s brilliant. Basically, each link from the TeachStreet Blog to my profile page is an endorsement telling Google my page is a relevant listing to show when someone searches for that term.

In other words, if Joseph links to my page (http://www.teachstreet.com/teacher/chris-lewis-tennis) in a blog post by linking the phrase “seattle tennis lessons,” my page will show up higher on Google when people search for the phrase “seattle tennis lessons” on Google.

The way Joseph explained this to me was by making the analogy that my TeachStreet profile page is like a book and each link from the TeachStreet Blog is like a citation. And the more citations (or links, rather), I get to my profile page, the more crediblity my page is given, and the higher it will rank on Google.

Now that my Profile is on the 1st page of Google, I get students by the dozen!

How to Get Started

Once you have a profile set up, and you’ve gotten a couple students to write reviews about you, I’d say one thing…blog, blog, blog. Write blogs that are interesting for people who love what you teach (hopefully not Tennis!) and e-mail your post to joseph@teachstreet.com.

Happy posting, everyone. And thanks again for all your help, TeachStreet!!!

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