The power of the Internet – oh, the possibilities… unfortunately not everything is possible online, despite many websites and experts trying to convince companies and people that they can help to become the top number one search result for their industry and beat all the competitors out there.
Let’s face the facts, shall we? The cold true fact is that it is simply impossible to be ranked online for a number one position with a generic phrase like “language teacher” or “language school” alone.
It is too broad and generic – and if you are entering the business game just now you have to realize that you face several challenges online when creating a website for a service or business not just in the language industry but in any line of work.
First of all Google and search engines have a very close eye on the history of websites and a website that has been around many years and proved to be a source of authority and expertise for a topic such as learning languages can’t be beaten by a newcomer in just a few weeks nor in a few months.
The value of being found online comes down to networking and being connected to other trustworthy websites and sources on one hand and to be a source yourself that provides VERY SPECIFIC KNOW-HOW on a subject that is UNIQUE.
Only if you identify yourself for a very specific purpose and niche you can succeed and win online. So let’s look at it if you want to promote yourself as a “language teacher”. That term alone is impossible to market – as likely as impossible to rank for “best restaurant”.
The only way that people can find you as a language teacher is by starting yourself defining and putting yourself into a specific niche market.
So, for example, it is very easy to be ranked and found if you market yourself as a “language teacher specialized for the hospitality industry” teaching professionals in tourism, travel, and for example training staff for hotels.
They key is to find a niche market that is in demand and focus on this one niche only. You still can offer of course other language services if you like. Almost anyone can relate that a language teacher that is specialized for a specific market might be able still to help you with translating some documents if needed.
When it comes to niche marketing a language school is usually a bit easier to promote because a language school with a physical presence has a local focus and if you market the school to be “the expert” in your area locally there is only a limited number of competitors you can have. Compared if you promote yourself location-independent online the numbers of competitors are almost unlimited – if – as outlined above you do not define yourself in a defined niche market.
Of course, you can market yourself as language teacher also with a local focus to gain the same advantage. However as marketing yourself a person instead of a business like a school you have much better options and bigger advantages.
If you can profile yourself as an expert in a specific niche, people are willing to pay higher prices and you can travel everywhere and you are in fact NOT limited to local restrictions.
So the key for both successful online awareness for a language school and yourself as a language teacher is to find the right niche.
Some examples are “language training for lawyers”, “language training for sports coaches”, “language training for actors” – and of course if you teach a specific language that is rare – that itself makes you already present in a niche
By the way, nobody says you can’t have two different niches, but you have to be very careful how you brand yourself on your own website. Sometimes it makes sense to have a separate website for an additional topic and specialty, sometimes it is good enough to dedicate an additional specific area on your website to – as long the search engines and your website visitors are not confused by mixing unrelated content into one big mess.