Web design for private tutors, from £395
The agency takes a cut of every hour you teach, for as long as you teach it, and the parent belongs to them rather than to you.
A findable site takes students directly at the full rate. We build narrow, credible tutoring sites around the searches parents actually make. One of our live clients is a chemistry tutor in Maidstone.
The agency takes a cut of every hour, forever
Most private tutors start on an agency or a marketplace because it is the fastest way to get students, and that is a sensible decision. The problem is that it is very easy to still be there five years later, handing over a percentage of every single hour you teach, for students you would now get on your own, because there was never an obvious moment to stop.
The thing that changes it is being findable directly. A parent looking for an A level chemistry tutor near them types exactly that, and whoever comes up gets the call at the full rate with no middleman. That parent then tells two other parents, because tutoring is the most word of mouth dependent trade there is, and those referrals also arrive directly.
You do not need a big site for this. You need a findable one that answers the small number of things a parent checks before they hand over their child's exam year.
What goes on a tutor's website
Short, credible, and built around the specific searches parents actually make.
A page per subject and level
A level chemistry is not GCSE maths. Separate pages, named exam boards where it matters, because that is what gets typed into Google.
Credentials that can be checked
Degrees, teaching experience, examiner work, DBS status. Stated plainly. This is the first thing a parent looks for and the most commonly buried.
Your rate, on the page
The range in tutoring is enormous and a parent cannot place you without a number. If you are at the top end, the number plus your credentials is the argument.
Availability and a waiting list
Being full is a selling point if you say it and a dead end if you hide it. A list means September enquiries become January students.
Results and parents' words
Specific outcomes and quotes from families, with permission. Never an average score and never an implied typical grade jump.
An enquiry with the right details
Subject, level, exam board, year group, what they are struggling with. You reply with something useful instead of asking five questions back.
Kent Chemistry Tutor
A private tutor we build for, live on his own domain in Maidstone.
Kent Chemistry Tutor
Live at kentchemistrytutor.co.uk, built by us, carrying our footer link, and on an annual care plan. It is a good example of the narrow approach working: one subject, one area, stated credentials, rather than a general tutoring site trying to cover everything.
Maidstone is one of the towns we genuinely work in. See every client we have live.
Narrow beats broad, by a long way
Tutoring is the clearest example we know of specificity beating volume. A page targeting tutor plus a large town is competing with agencies, marketplaces and every tutor in the county, and it converts badly because the visitor still has to work out whether you teach their subject. A page targeting GCSE physics tutor plus a smaller town is competing with almost nobody and converts extremely well.
If you teach online as well as in person, that widens the geography enormously, and the site should say so clearly rather than leaving a parent in another county assuming you are local only. Online tutoring is one of the few cases where a small site can sensibly aim beyond its own area, because distance genuinely stopped mattering.
Built first, decided afterwards
Tell us your subjects, levels and area. Within 48 hours you get a link to a real working site built for your tutoring, not a template. If it is not right, say so and you owe nothing. No card and no sales call.
A focused tutoring site is £395, which for most tutors is genuinely all that is needed. £650 buys separate pages for each subject and level with the depth to rank for them individually. £1,200 is for something larger with booking and payments built in. You own it either way.
Care plans start at £45 a month with no minimum term. Some tutors prefer an annual arrangement instead, which is what Kent Chemistry Tutor has, and we are happy to do it that way.
What tutors ask us
The tutoring agencies already send me students. Why build my own site?
Because the agency keeps a cut of every hour you teach, for as long as you teach it, and because the parent belongs to them rather than to you. A tutor with their own site can take students directly at the full rate, and the difference over a year is usually larger than anything else on this page. The agencies are a perfectly good way to fill gaps. They are a bad way to run the whole business, because your income is capped by somebody else's commission.
Parents or students. Who is the site actually written for?
For GCSE and A level, the parent is paying and usually searching, and the student has a veto. That means the page has to do two things at once: reassure an adult about qualifications, safeguarding and results, and not be so stiff that a sixteen year old decides you sound awful. We usually solve it by keeping the reassurance factual and short and letting the tutor's own voice carry the rest. For adult learners and university level, the student is the buyer and the whole thing simplifies.
How specific should I be about subjects and exam boards?
As specific as you genuinely are. A page about A level chemistry for a named exam board will be found by far fewer people than a page about tutoring, and it will convert a much higher fraction of them, because the parent searching that exact phrase has found precisely what they wanted. Vague subject lists are the commonest weakness on tutor sites. Nobody is searching for tutoring. They are searching for A level chemistry tutor near a town, with an exam board in mind.
Should I show my hourly rate?
Yes. Tutoring has a wide and confusing price range, from students charging fifteen pounds to subject specialists charging several times that, and a parent genuinely cannot tell which they are looking at without a number. If you are at the higher end, the number plus your actual credentials is what justifies it. Hiding the rate does not protect you, it just means every enquiry starts with a question about money instead of about the student.
What do I do about the fact that I am usually full?
Say so, and offer a waiting list rather than nothing. Being full is a selling point, and a parent who hears it in September will come back in January if you gave them somewhere to leave their details. Tutors lose a remarkable amount of future work by having a contact form that effectively says no during the months they are busiest. A short honest line about current availability and a list to join is a much better answer.
Towns with a page of their own
We are a Southampton studio and we work wherever the job is. These towns have a page of their own on what the local market looks like and who you are up against.
Other trades, and four plain guides
Each trade has a page of its own. The guides cover what a site costs, how a directory listing compares, your Google listing, and paying in parts.
Get your free preview
Your name, your business and a way to reach you. We build a real preview of your site inside 48 hours, and you see it before you pay anything.
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See your tutoring site before you pay for it
We build a real working preview in 48 hours. Builds from £395, care plans from £45 a month, no minimum term. Don't like it and you owe nothing.