Tutorful prides itself on using the latest search-based technology to help match our students with their ideal tutor.
We use a variety of measures to influence the position a tutor appears on the search results page, the key measure being your levels of engagement with the Tutorful platform. This includes how successful your relationships are with students, your ongoing activity on the platform, and keeping your profile up to date. By focusing on these areas, you will be more likely to appear near the top of the search results for students that match your criteria.
This means the search results may look different as we try to match each student with their ideal tutor. The right tutor for me may not be the right tutor for you. We take info from students and tutors to try and give them the most relevant results, meaning students get the right tutor and tutors get the right students.
You can boost your position in the search results by following these best practices:
Respond quickly to a student enquiry
The quicker you respond to new enquiries, the more likely a student is to book with you - we have found that tutors with a response time of within an hour have a much greater chance of securing a booking than normal, and we would always suggest that you try to keep this response time within 24 hours where possible. Responding quickly to enquiries is more likely to result in a booking and will positively impact your search result position.
Try to have long and successful relationships with your students
You can improve your position in our search results by building long-term relationships with students, booking more lessons, and always following up with students who take a break or are undecided about whether they would like to continue.
We know some students may only want one lesson, that’s more than fine, this won’t impact your search result position. Having a lesson with this student is better than ignoring the request completely.
Ask for reviews from all your students
Reviews are a fantastic way to boost your profile, as new students can read through these before they contact you through the site to get an idea of how other students have found your lessons. We automatically prompt students after every third lesson with you to leave a review, and we highly recommend asking them to do this as these look great on your profile! By improving in these areas, you will see your profile rise up the search results and will then be able to gain a higher number of students and secure a better hourly rate.
Jobs board performance
We assess your performance on the jobs board to ensure that you are applying for jobs that align with your profile. For example, if you apply for every job available to you, but then request a price higher than a customer is willing to pay, this will negatively impact your search result position as you’re providing a poor customer experience and reducing the likelihood of a more suitable tutor applying for that role. However, if you are successful in your job performance this will translate into your search page ranking - so this is a great way to boost your profile!
The jobs board is there for you to actively get work. If you’re fortunate enough to have enough work and plenty of enquiries, so you don’t use the jobs board, your search result position won’t be negatively affected.
If you’re offering a new subject, or would like to boost your search result position in a particular subject, then the jobs board can be a great place to do this.
Keep your availability accurate
Students want to know their chosen tutor is free when they are, so by keeping your availability up to date, you are more likely to receive enquiries from students who can fit into your schedule.
If a student mismatches a relationship because you’re unavailable at a time you specified you were free, this will negatively affect your position in the results. Inaccurate availability leads to a poor customer experience, and another tutor may have been more suitable to this student’s requirements.
We know this may happen every now and then, but repeat offenders will have their profile reviewed by our Tutor Quality team, and may be removed from our website.
Students achieving their goal
We ask students to tell us if they have achieved their goal by working with you. This could be getting their expected grade, improved confidence, or overall content with your lessons. When a relationship on Tutorful ends, mark the relationship as ‘student achieved their goal’.
Positive sentiment
Sentiment signals from your interactions with students on our platform are included in our algorithm. This includes the messages you send on our platform to students. Make sure your conversations remain positive and professional, to ensure maximum engagement with your students.
By improving in these areas, you will see your profile rise up the search results and will then be able to gain a higher number of relevant student enquiries.
It’s also important to note that our search results update daily. If you’ve been offline recently, you may not see your search result statistics in the performance section of the app. If you have been offline for a while, you may not appear in search results immediately when going live. When you set your account live, we recommend allowing 24 hours for your statistics to update, after which you should be able to see your updated position.
Remember, we are always here to help you in all of these areas, so just get in touch with us if you need any support.