The idea of personalized one to one SEO training is to work with an SEO expert in order to understand the fundamentals of SEO, gain an understanding to then be able to implement changes onto your business’ website to transform your digital presence. However, a lot of prospective students wonder how exactly does one go about learning and implementing SEO strategy?
Since SEO has so many components, and every course must be customized to fit the student and his business’ needs, I think one of the best ways to show the power of SEO training is through case studies. Today, I invite you to follow the transformation of a French teacher in Naperville’s SEO strategy to see how she earned a number one spot on Google and gained the client base to match through learning how to use the power of SEO to her advantage. I believe that holding your hand while you optimize your own website is far better than watching videos, learning in a classroom or paying an expensive SEO company to do it for you. Many of the steps are easy, it just takes time and a little bit of knowledge.
One on One SEO Training for a Naperville Small Business: The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
This case study highlights the transformation of Anne Cottez and her small business, NaperFrench, which offers private French classes in Naperville. When I first met Anne over ten years ago, her SEO efforts were virtually non-existent. Anne knew that having a website was going to be necessary to her tutoring company’s success and that Google was going to play a big part of that as well, but she didn’t understand all that needed to go into the digital marketing to be able to reap its benefits.
You have 5 seconds to get your message across.
When I asked her if she has a digital marketing strategy, she pulled up her website. Right away, I told her that she needed a new website – simply because her current website didn’t easily explain what she did very well. An Internet user will only stay on your website for 3-5 seconds on average before clicking away, so you only have that long to get your message across. While her text may have made sense in her head, it lacked the right keywords and any clear messages to state exactly what service she was offering and be visible to viewers above the fold within the first 5 seconds.
Catch and keep their attention.
Given that there is little time to communicate what you do and what makes you the best choice for consumers, logically you also need to work effectively to keep people on your website, and keep them clicking. Keep viewers’ attention by not only giving them the right messages, but also by adding value and giving them something more than just information. In Anne’s situation, I suggested the idea of giving out a French test. So, the call to action at the bottom of the homepage became a French test, where people could test their knowledge in French. It is something fun and different, which reinforces the message of learning and might prove to some that they need to be taking classes, or spark their interest.
To the business’ advantage, having a French test ensures that the viewer will not turn into a bounce from the webpage. Anne said initially that she did not want to have a French test on the site, as it would be too much work for her to grade all of them. However, the grading was done automatically and answers were sent to students via autoresponder in email, so Anne did not have to do any of the work. Another great point to this feature was that she could then use all of the email addresses collected from the test as lead sources for going out and converting the potential customers. Here is the result of this idea: https://www.naperfrench.com/contact/french-test/.
Answer questions before they are asked.
Next, I explained to her that she needs to think like the client. What questions will people ask? Consider these questions when building your website, so that you answer everything before they even realize that they need to get that information.
For example, if you are a donut shop, you should create content keeping in mind what most people looking to buy donuts would wonder when investigating you business:
What kind of donuts do you offer?
What is the price, can you buy them individually or just in dozens? Are there specials, promotions or coupons?
Where are you locations and how far away from me are they? Directions on a map are a nice touch.
What is the parking like there, can you get in and out easily? Do you have a drive up window?
What do others think about the donuts? How many reviews do they have and what is their review score?
What do the donuts look like? What do they taste like.
Use media and visuals.
On Anne’s original site, there was a major lack of media and visuals. Not only are these components very helpful in attracting attention, but they are a natural and necessary answer to many customers’ questions. I explained to Anne that people want to know what they are getting, whether it is a product or service. Going back to the donut shop example: when a prospective customer is online looking for a donut shop, he will naturally want to know how the donuts look, to see if they are aesthetically pleasing, appetizing, if the shop looks nice, if they are the kind of donuts he is looking for, how big they are, the packaging, etc. Same goes for a service: you want to know what you’re going to get. With Naperfrench, there is not much of a physical result of the service, like there would be for lawn maintenance services or salon services, for example. But, students do get a class with a teacher, and they probably want to know what they can expect. Adding a picture of Anne gave the site a more authentic dimension, showing that you will get a teacher who is friendly, vibrant and compassionate.
The same discussion ensued for the idea of posting a video. I explained to Anne that she needed a video on her website, to answer more of the students’ questions. For instance, many people probably would like to hear how the teacher speaks – to see if their accent is heavy, or to see their personality shine through, and to see a bit of their style of teaching. We took advantage of this space on the website to also show prospects how existing NaperFrench customers felt, with the use of testimonials. You can see that video here: https://www.naperfrench.com/about/.
Create purposeful content.
A final takeaway I want to share today with the story of NaperFrench and Anne’s journey with one on one SEO training is the importance of truly meaningful content. To all of my students, whether it is about building main pages or blog posts or any other content, I can never stress enough the importance of making content useful for viewers. The rule of thumb to live by is that if your content has purpose, it will get viewed and make an impact that eventually leads to more business for you.
One of my best examples for this situation comes from Anne’s training with me. Rather than thinking up content for her to use as blog posts, I approached this matter in reverse. I noticed that Anne was always sending students instructions on how to type French accent characters via email, as they would ask for help on this so that they could type and do their assignments on the computer. I taught her that this was the kind of information that made for the perfect blog post. Anne uploaded it into a post on her website, and now when a student needs the information, she can just give them the link to it. Even better, she also to this day still gets several visitors daily to this post, plus backlinks from other websites referencing her post – all great for her SEO strategy! Have a look at her blog post here: https://www.naperfrench.com/typing-french-accents-french-accent-characters/.
I also stress with Anne the need to continually add quality content through blog posts, because it shows her as an expert in her field. Of course, it also helps for rankings. In Anne’s case, making posts about teaching adults, for example, helps her to rank for terms such as ‘adult French classes near me’, meaning more business. It is also a way to have something to talk about on social media, where you can announce your new post. The same with French lessons via Skype as an alternative to classes in her home. That is paying off big time now with social distancing in this coronavirus age.
The Takeaway: Personalized Online SEO Training to Build your Business
The lesson to be learned in this case study is that a little bit of SEO training can go a long way in helping your business. Whether you are a business with an advanced digital marketing strategy for your website, or one who has done very little work, there are many ways to improve your current situation and learn a lot about SEO. With just a bit of work – for example finding out which keywords to be using, or adding some routine blog posts – you can do a whole lot for you business.
Anne’s NaperFrench tutoring company was built from the ground up, starting with one student to what is today a full-fledged French language school in Naperville IL. And while her talent and quality classes are what make her so successful, it is SEO and strategy which got the students in front of her in the first place. As a local small business, she gets upwards of 1500 monthly website views – that’s a lot of French classes for one woman! 
The main things that hold people back from optimizing their websites are a lack of education (not knowing how SEO works) and a lack of budget (especially for small businesses, who need SEO the most). My one on one SEO classes are the perfect solution to both of these issues – the customized curriculums allow you to learn while making improvements to your own website, like Anne, so that the work is done for you while you learn! Then, in the future, you can continue to improve your own site and be on top of your search engine optimization, saving you money and keeping you educated. Contact an SEO teacher to discuss how you can use search engine optimization training to grow your business and drive sales.
Oh yes, and by the way, besides being a student, Anne is also my wife. Currently she is teaching French via Skype about 50 hours a week. If YOU would like to learn French she says she would be happy to add you to her waiting list.
