What a driving instructor's website needs on it
A learner takes days to choose an instructor, so the page has to answer five questions: lessons and towns, your ADI number, prices, the car and test centre, and a form that asks the right things.
Someone learning to drive does not behave like someone with a leaking pipe. There is no emergency, so the decision takes days. A learner opens three or four instructor pages, reads for a minute each and quietly rules people out. Rarely because of the design. Usually because one question went unanswered.
Five questions decide it. Here is what to put on the page for each.
Lessons, not "driver training"
Write the plain thing people search for: "driving lessons in Halewood and Speke". Name whether you teach manual, automatic or both, because that one fact decides half your enquiries. Add who you teach: total beginners, people who failed a test and stopped, refreshers after years away, and whether you take under-18s.
Then the towns, as a list rather than a phrase. "The local area" tells a stranger nothing. The name of their own street does.
Your ADI number, written as text
If you teach in Great Britain, you are on the ADI register, and the DVSA keeps a public service for finding approved instructors and checking an instructor's grade if they have declared it. Being listed there is optional, so not being on it does not mean someone is unqualified. It does mean a careful learner has one fewer way to check you.
Two things follow. State that you are a DVSA-approved instructor, and publish your ADI number in plain text, not only on a photograph of your badge. If you are on the DVSA list, say so, because it gives people a route that does not involve ringing anyone. If you are not, mention that the DVSA can confirm a registration from your name and ADI number, which is exactly what government guidance tells learners to do when their instructor is not listed.
Money before the first lesson
The hourly rate, what a block of ten costs, what a two-hour lesson comes to, and whether the first lesson is a full lesson or a short assessment. Say whether you ask for a deposit and when it goes back. Prices change, and that is fine. A page that never mentions money reads as "if you have to ask". Putting prices on your website sets out the three honest ways to handle it without promising a figure you will regret next spring.
The car, the test centre, the pick-up
Learners compare cars nearly as much as they compare teachers. The make and model, the gearbox, whether there are dual controls, whether it is kept clean. Then the two facts that are missing from most instructor pages: which driving test centre you normally take pupils to, and where you pick up from. Say whether you collect from home, school, college or work, how far you will travel, and what you need before a first lesson can be booked. A postcode is usually enough.
An enquiry form that asks the things you need
Most instructor sites ask for a name and a message, which leaves the learner to guess what you want. Ask for it in the form instead:
- the postcode you would be picked up from
- manual or automatic
- whether they already hold a provisional licence
- whether they have had lessons before
- the days and times that suit them
- whether they want to start in the next fortnight or later
Six fields and a send button. It also separates real enquiries from the ones where nobody has applied for a licence yet, which saves a phone call each time. If what goes on the rest of the site is still open, this walkthrough covers the sections around it.
Hours, and what a parent will ring to ask
Write your teaching days and times as text rather than inside a picture, and give a phone number that reaches you. Add your policy on late cancellations, whether you work bank holidays, and whether you take card payments.
Parents often pay for lessons, and they ask two practical questions. Insurance, and whether you have been checked. On the second one, the answer is on the record: a new criminal record check is part of applying for ADI registration, and registration and that check are renewed every four years. A sentence saying so, in your own words, saves the same conversation.
What to leave off
The gallery of cars you do not teach in. The stock photograph of a smiling stranger holding keys. Any pass-rate figure you cannot show the paperwork for. A page of honest specifics beats a page of encouragement, and a learner can tell the difference in about ten seconds.
Sitewright is not built yet, so there is nothing here to sign up for. The waitlist on the home page is the only thing that is open.