For those of you instructors asking why we are using a blog to advertise our services instead of a normal static website, the answer is not far fetched.
Blogs are much easier to create, manage and update especially for those not too technical minded (HTML knowledge is not required), but most importantly they have been optimised to perform better in search engines and this is crucial to an ADI who wants a constant supply of learner driver enquiries from his website
There are many blogging platforms and software available to use, and the one you eventually choose is really a matter of personal preference.
For our current driving instructor advertising needs, I'm going to create our school blog using Blogger.com. It is owned by google, and they also host your pages for free with no advertising, and I've used them for over 5 years with no problem or downtime. If you prefer using a website instead of blog, you can use Moonfruit to create a basic professionally looking website for free, this can be upgraded to use your own domain once you register one.
Creating driving school advertising blog using Blogger.com
To start the process go to the blogger homepage.
Click on the create a blog button, this will take you to the create a google account screen shown below.
If you already have a google account you can use the sign in link, otherwise fill in all the fields as requested. In the email field use the business address if you opted for that feature when you registered the driving school domain name, alternatively use any existing email address you have access to (you will need to activate your account later using the link sent to this address).
Once you have completed the form, tick the box to accept the terms and conditions (you read them of course) and click on continue.
You are now presented with the name your blog screen.
blog address (url): You can fill this in with whatever you like, as it is only a temporary address, we will be using our driving school domain name. I have used midrivinglessons.blogspot.com
Enter the word verification in the appropriate field and click continue.
Select a template for your blog (you can always change it later if necessary), click continue. You have now successfully created your driving instructor website. Don't close the window yet or click on the start blogging button, as we are going to proceed to the next step.
Optimising your school advertising website
The key to any business website performing well in search engine results is optimising it as much as possible while still keep focus on your target market and the keywords that will attract them. So let us do a little tweaking of our driving school blog.Click on the start blogging button from the screen above, this will take you to the create a new post section.
Click on the settings tab and you should see something similar to the one shown below.
Unless specified, we will leave the default setting alone.
First thing we will do is to fill in the description field with a summary about yourself or driving school, note I have used driving instructor and mentioned hampstead once. I have also added the word north London as this description will appear on all the website pages.
Skip to Show Email Post links? and change this to Yes. An explaination of this feature is given next to field and is very good for allowing your visitors to email interesting articles to other learner drivers thus advertising your website for you.
Go to the bottom of the page and save settings.
Now click on the formatting tab.
Change the following settings.
Save Settings
This completes the creation and optimisation of our driving school blog, and are now ready to start writing our marketing posts that will go on the website. Note the url of your blog you have just created, mine is midrivinglessons.blogspot.com which is just a temporary address which will be kept just long enough for the school marketing articles to be posted and will be changed after that.
More Reading
Creating a free professional looking website using Moonfruit.
I am just starting out as a driving instructor and have followed your instructions above to create a blog. I guess my question is...how do I get people to know that it exists....? Thanks Ian
ReplyDeletePublise it as much as possible, post it to your facebook, myspace or other website profiles.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you put it in your email signature so that it appears at the bottom of every email you send out.
If you are a member of an online forum, put it in your profile/signature there.
Send me the link and I'll post it here, hope that helps.
Do submit your blog in social networking sites like twitter, digg, facebook. It will solve your purpose.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the blog
ReplyDeleteDo you find free hosting fares well in the SERPS? I've read that search engines put sites hosted on "proper" servers higher than those hosted on free ones - maybe because a lot of people built extra mini sites to build the backlinks to their main site????
ReplyDeleteFree hosting websites can do as well as paid ones, it just depends on backlinks, content, keywords and competition.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons why free hosted sites might not do well is that many of the owners think that once they have a website created, that is all they need to do, and that people will automatically find them. They don't add keyword rich unique content, nor do they promote it or find ways of getting back links.