Local search can be a huge boost to your marketing efforts as a guitar teacher. What is local search? I’ll explain it for you.
Local search explained
“Local search” is just like a regular Google or Yahoo search, except that the search results are “geographically restrained”. That simply means that if someone does a Google search for “guitar teacher”, instead of returning a list of teachers from all over the world, only the guitar teachers in that person’s LOCAL AREA will show up. What does that mean for you? A LOT, if your teaching business shows up in the list!
A great opportunity for exposure
I heard this interesting statistic recently:
90% of online users use Google Maps to find local businesses…but only 7% of the local businesses have claimed their local listing
That’s a HUGE opportunity for you, because chances are, not many of the other guitar teachers in your area have listed themselves in the local search directories. You can be one of the first teachers in your area to do it, and that means you will get those lesson inquiries everyone else is missing out on.
Location, location, location
Another cool aspect of local search is the fact that most people are VERY sensitive to how far they would need to drive to get to your teaching studio. Most people are all about convenience these days, and they would probably choose to study with the teacher who was closest to their home or office if all the other factors were more or less equal. With local search, they can quickly see the teacher located closest to them and get to that person’s website with just a few clicks. Here’s an example “Google Places” search for guitar lessons from my local area. In this example, “Music Factory” is at the top of the list and is the closest place to where I live, so I would probably call them first:
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The power of social proof
Another cool (or maybe not-so-cool) thing about local search is that people can leave reviews and ratings for your business. I would encourage you to get a bunch of your happy students to leave ratings and reviews for you, because it’s easy for people to see exactly how popular you are and how happy people have been with your lessons by looking at the search returns. This is also known as “social proof”, and it’s yet another reason for them to call you or seek out additional information about what you can do for them. If all of these folks are happy enough with you to write a recommendation, in their minds you must be a good teacher.
Getting started
Getting yourself registered in local search is easy…just visit the “Big Three” search engines using the links below and sign yourself up:
Make sure you include your WEBSITE address in the listing (and in everything else you put out there, too)…interested people will click through to your site to get more information, and then sign up for your opt-in email list (you do have one of those, right?). Obviously you want to also include your phone number so they have the option to call you directly.
Using local search is a great way to increase exposure for your local “brick and mortar” guitar teaching business, and best of all…it’s absolutely FREE! Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to attract new students. Go and get your teaching business registered for local search today.
Have you had any success attracting more guitar students with local search? Any questions about how to use it? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!
