TUTOR MY KIDS
I realised that my website, which had been absolutely current 4 years ago, was probably not ranking as well as I’d hoped. However, when I typed in what I felt were sensible search terms – it seemed ok, so I was a bit perplexed. It turned however out that people didn’t type in maths tutors Ely (for which I ranked ok), they typed in private tutors Cambridge (for which I was on page 5). Consequently, I was spending money on advertising to bring in enquiries and it was starting to get expensive, so I thought it was time to explore SEO.
I took a pragmatic approach to finding an SEO company – I needed them to be doing it – walking the walk – with their own website, as well as being local. I didn’t want empty promises; I wanted someone who could make their own website rank well. So after searching ‘SEO Cambridge’, I looked at what I’d found.
Lilac James had a really helpful website which demystified SEO for me and they seemed approachable (pretty important for someone who was more than a bit out of her comfort zone). I spoke to Karen (Founder and Director) initially who spoke very clearly about what google likes and doesn’t like. After checking out (with my permission) the technical gubbins of my website, Karen imparted the bad news – “your website isn’t optimisable and you’ll need a new one that is”. Whilst it wasn’t the best news, it was better to have an honest appraisal than an attempt to SEO something that just wouldn’t work. Luckily, I was also able to stick to my budget by keeping the design of my website the same.
I can’t say I was over sold – if anything it was fairly measured. I was told that I might need to spend additional sums on ongoing SEO and that the results might not be perfect – the initial one off on page optimisation and new website might get me to page 2 or 3, rather than page 1. It was a leap of faith to an extent, but I took the plunge.
Adele (Digital Marketing Manager) did a great job of keeping me up to date with the progress, and prodding me for extra words needed for new pages that she was going to SEO optimise for me (found during initial keyword research). I was approached at each individual stage for approval to make sure I was happy with everything and she met with me when the site was live to show me how to edit pages and write blogs. Adele was at great pains to stress that I did need to invest time into adding new content – news, blogs, as well as regularly putting updates on to Facebook and Google Plus.
In the first couple of weeks, there was some movement and my website edged up to page 3. Over the next few weeks it continued to climb to page 1. It’s now 5 months on. I’m still on page 1 and I no longer need to spend money on other advertising (unless I want to).
Would I recommend Lilac James? Yes! I’ve found them honest and easy to deal with. I’d hoped SEO could get me onto page 1, but when I spoke with Lilac James initially they’d been quite cautious about whether I could achieve that without further investment in ongoing SEO work. They didn’t make false promises and I’m delighted to say that further investment hasn’t been necessary, not so far at least, and I’m happily ranking on page 1.
Rachel Law
Founder and Managing Director of Tutor My Kids
