We initially redeveloped the nqt.com.au site 18 months ago to achieve two goals:

  • to make it easier to update information
  • to make sure each page had a consistent look (consistency in branding)

The business benefit was immediate and many web designers would have stopped there: a job well done. However, as part of our ongoing service, I continually try to identify new opportunities for a website to do better.

A few months ago I was discussing the site's performance with the owner of NQT. On another topic he expressed disatisfaction with his advertising in local newspapers. The advertising had reached saturation and just wasn't delivering good results.

NQT operates 15 tutoring centres across NSW and Victoria. Each of NQT's centres attracts customers within a local area, typically 10km around the centre, as families are usually interested in travelling only a short distance for their child's activities.

I suggested a strategy that would refine his website to more effectively target these local customers by targeting local searches (people within 10km of a NQT center) by:

  • expanding the website
  • accelerating results with paid advertising

NQT wouldn't even have to spend any more money! They would simply redirect money from local newspaper advertising into the website.

Targeting Local Searches

The more generic the search term, the harder it is to get a high ranking in a search engine.  Also, ranking well for a term like "tutoring" has questionable benefit: remember, the only people likely to come to NQT live within 10 kms. So there is no point ranking well for someone searching from Perth, or the US.

Therefore the site would be tweaked to make sure it ranked well for search phrases that a likely customer would use such as:

For the Werribee Centre

  • Werribee tutoring
  • Werribee tutor
  • Werribee maths tutor etc.

For the Footscray Centre

  • Footscray tutoring
  • Footscray tutor
  • Footscray maths tutor etc.

Expanding Existing Website - Without Demolition!

The NQT site was initially built as a small “brochure type”. The website was first upgraded to allow:

  • A more comprehensive "menu" system
  • Added features (including URLsthat are more search engine friendly)
  • Contact information on each page

A new design was also developed which was "overlayed" on top of the existing design without the need to rebuild the site from scratch. All existing content was preserved.

The content was then expanded to to profile each centre individually including:

  • useful information (opening hours etc.)
  • areas that this centre targets
  • school scholarship programs in the area
  • a google map (to show the locations)

(Click on any of the below images to enlarge.)

Old Website
New Website

Accelerating Results With Paid Advertising

To compliment the website changes and accelerate their effect, I wrote several paid campaigns to provide additional opportunities for the website to be found.

In many cases, the local business page and Adwords have combined to present multiple listings (up to three first page results) against search phrases, as illustrated below.

Sample Search Results

Of the selected key phrases that I was targeting, NQT achieved “515” first page listings, which included

  • 340 Number 1 listings
  • a further 141 in top 5,
  • and a further 31 in top 10.

Real World Benefit

It is important to remember that "number one ranking" is not an end in itself. Unless website visitors increase and, more importantly, the extra visitors are making enquires, a high ranking is useless.


In NQT's case there has been a 275% increase in visitors to the site. This increase has resulted in a measurable increase in enquires.

We recently spoke to the business owner who reports:

“I know it's working – there has been a significant increase in the number of email enquiries. I am getting contacted for all sorts of things now, which we never got before. We even have new customers who have lived in the area for over 10 years who, until recently, never knew we existed.”

NQT has improved their website in a way that gets more visitors and has a greater chance of converting visitors to enquiries to customers, without spending any additional money on advertising.

For more information about improving the effectiveness of your website and/or marketing, please contact us on 1300 665 281 or on enquiries(at)mcwebs.com.au