Most tutors and tutoring centres are excellent at their trade and treat the website as a box to tick. That shows. The good news is that the common mistakes are cheap to fix once you can see them. This article lists them in the order customers notice them.
1. Results claims with no context that parents no longer believe
Why it matters: someone searching maths tutor [your suburb] is comparing you with the next two results, and the site that answers first wins the call.
Fix: add the one sentence a careful customer is looking for, in plain words, on the page they land on — not in the footer.
2. No fees, forcing parents to phone five centres
Why it matters: every point of friction loses a small percentage of visitors, and small percentages of every visitor add up to most of your missed enquiries.
Fix: Show per-session and term fees for group and one-on-one. Add sibling or term-payment discounts if you offer them.
3. One long page instead of subject pages parents can find by search
Why it matters: it is the kind of detail tutors and tutoring centres stop noticing on their own site, and the first thing a new customer sees.
Fix: add the one sentence a careful customer is looking for, in plain words, on the page they land on — not in the footer.
4. Opening hours that differ between the website, Google and the front door
Fix: Pick one source of truth, update it everywhere on the same day, and add public-holiday hours a week ahead.
5. A slow site full of oversized images
Fix: Compress every image before uploading and remove sliders and autoplay video. Test on a phone using mobile data, not office wifi.
6. No service area, or a service area that claims the whole state
Fix: Name the suburbs you genuinely cover. It helps people decide and it is what local search looks for.
7. No reviews on the site
Fix: Embed or quote your Google reviews with names and dates. Third-party proof carries more weight than anything you write about yourself.
How to check your own site
- Hand your phone to someone who does not know the business and ask them to find your price for maths and English tutoring.
- Watch where they hesitate. Each hesitation is a lost enquiry at scale.
- Compare hours, phone and address with Google.
- Count stock photos and PDFs.
- Write down three fixes for this week and three for next month.
Common questions
Should a tutoring centre publish results?
Yes, with context: subject, year, starting point and what changed. Unexplained scores read like advertising.
Do I need a page for each subject?
Yes. Parents search for 'year 9 maths tutor', not 'tutoring centre', and a page per subject and level matches that.
Will a new website guarantee Google rankings?
No one can guarantee rankings, and anyone who does should be avoided. A well-structured site with honest local content and a complete Google Business Profile gives you the best foundation; results depend on competition and time.
YINO builds focused websites for Australian local businesses: $499 for a one-page site delivered in 3 business days, $999 for up to 8 pages. If you are weighing up a refresh versus a rebuild, start with website refresh; otherwise get in touch.
