My recommendation to ADI's

My recommendation to ADI's is that you do NOT pay for SEO. I hope over time I can release enough SEO tips to help you get your driving school website listed on Google page 1. SEO is a 2-way effort that involves your website being truly SEO-optimised and admittedly this does require some time consuming specialist knowledge. However, ADI's can also help themselves by implementing a few tips which help the way Google views your site when deciding where to list you through organic search results. Bookmark this page and check our ADI SEO-Tips from time to time to check for new releases. There's lots of good and free tips coming .... 

How can I get my driving school website on Google page 1

Essentially, the magic responsible for any website being listed on Google page one (1) through organic search results lies in what the tech-industry call SEO - Search Engine Optimization.

What is Search engine optimisation (SEO)?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of increasing the visibility of website pages on search engines in order to attract more relevant traffic (as defined by Google).  

SEO is effectively the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google, which has a 90% market share. Because search is one of the main ways in which learner driver's discover how to find their local approved driving instructor, it's vitally important that your driving school website is absolutely in compliance with Google's seemingly endless list of search formulas, known as algorithms.

There will be hundreds of people searching online for 'driving lessons' in your locality. SEO helps search engines understand better that your driving school business is offering driving lessons in the same area. This means when a potential customer searches a particular word or phrase - I want driving lessons in Cardiff CF1 - related to your driving instructing service you're more likely to appear in their search results. When a search engine like Google returns results, some of them are paid advertisements (pay per click), and the rest are unpaid results (organic) that the search engine believes are relevant to the phrases entered in the search box.

Organic search results

Unpaid search results are referred to as 'organic' results and this is what budget conscious ADI's should aspire to achieve because it's free. 

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search results

Pay-per-click (PPC) are essentially Google Ads which you pay for and these are focused around keywords - e.g. I want driving lessons in Leeds LS1. Using Google's SEO Keyword research tool you can find out a list of relevant keywords to target, the words that people who want to learn to drive are most likely to use when searching. Google Ads works on an auction system, and you can bid for these keywords, the price being based on how much you are willing to pay for a Google user to click on your ad. When users click on the ads the advertiser will pay a certain cost (the Cost Per Click, or CPC). The hope of course is that a click from the Google search result to the ADI's website converts into a driving lesson enquiry and paid driving lessons. You can set a daily budget to restrict the number of clicks per day, and in turn control the daily expenditure, and it would be wise to do so. I read a horror story on I'm a Driving Instructor (ADI or PDI) & I'm on Facebook about a rival instructor deliberately clicking on a competitor's PPC ad, obviously with a view to putting him out of business. 

Personally, I would not recommend one-man-band driving instructors investing in PPC Google ads. This marketing strategy is more suited to the big driving school franchises.

Continuing ....

Now search engines have search formulas (algorithms), that help them order the list of results. The search engines constantly scour the web for new content and try to make sense of it all. Where your driving school website appears in these results is effected not only by the words you use on your site e.g. manual driving lessons in Manchester M1, but a whole list of other factors such as, for example, how many other quality websites link to yours. 

Think of the search engine as being like a match maker. The goal being to find the learner driver searcher exactly what s/he is looking for on the web. To find and present the best possible results, the search engines look for as much information as possible about the sites to better understand the topic on your webpage, certainly they will scroll through keywords on a webpage and in the meta tag coding. 

Some of Google's other search formula algorithms include good quality content, mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS SSL, site’s loading speed, responsiveness, good site structure, interactivity, visual stability, keywords, appropriate keyword density use, relevance of webpages, quality link building, CTAs, alt text for images, domain name longevity .... the list goes on and is periodically updated. Each one component is absolutely relevant and will help the search engines find the best possible match for the search. 

Search engines will also consider the searcher's geographical location. A learner driver searching for driving lessons in a specific place will receive a localized set of search results from driving school websites who have the town names and postcodes in the correct header tags AND meta tags. 

ADI SEO Tip # 1 - Add your driving school website to Google Maps 

Click here if you need a new, clean, modern, SEO-optimised, mobile-friendly, responsive 

Driving School Website template

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