Music Teacher's Helper - Your music studio manager

Maximize Your Site: Google map on your MTH website

Tue March 17th, 2009 by Sarah Luebke

I love having all of my studio information on my MTH website homepage, and I also love how polished the MTH template is for each page.  In this short series, I’m going to show you how to take the MTH template and use it to its fullest to attract prospective students, and keep your current students checking the site regularly.

With many prospective students finding my studio on the web, the choice of studio can come down to where you are located.  On my homepage I have a Google Map embedded with my studio address.  Students can click on the map, and are instantly connected to the Google Map website.  There they can get directions, establish mileage, and determine how long it would take to get to the studio.  Plus, this cuts down on miscommunicated directions and late students.

One big point to consider is how you want to be listed.  If you work out of your home, it may not be a good idea to have your exact address in your map.  In this case, you can simply use your city, state and zip, and a regional map will be created.  For teachers teaching through a music school, church, or store front, this should be no problem having the exact address.

  1. Go to Google Maps
  2. Type in your street number, or just city, state and zip in the “Search Maps” field.
  3. A map should come up.  Click on “Link” in the upper right-hand corner.
  4. Click on “Customize embedded map.”
  5. For most MTH website designs, the small map fits perfectly on the homepage.  Click “Small” and copy the HTML information at the bottom of the box.
  6. Login to your MTH account, click “Home”, then “My Studio Website”, then “My Website Pages.”
  7. Click “Edit” by the home page.
  8. At the top of the text box, click “Source”.  This will put all of your information in HTML.
  9. At the end of your text, type <br /> then return down.  Paste the HTML information from Google Maps here.
  10. Click “Save” and then “View Homepage.”  At the end of your website welcome, there should be a shiny new map to your studio.
This should add even more polish to your homepage, and hopefully attract more students to your studio. Take a look at my studio website at slvstudio.com to see the finished product.  Have you tried this on your website?  What do you think?

About the Author

Sarah Luebke

Nebraska native Sarah Luebke completed her MM in vocal performance at the University of Kentucky, and her BM in vocal performance at St. Olaf College. Recently she has been seen performing the female lead, Jane McDowell, in "The Stephen Foster Story" and the ensemble of "Big River" with Stephen Foster Productions. Other performances include the soprano soloist of Bach's St. John Passion, La Fee in Massenet's "Cendrillon" at the Intermezzo Opera Festival, Najade in "Ariadne auf Naxos" at the Brevard Music Festival, Monica in "The Medium", Rose Maybud in "Ruddigore", and Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte". She currently resides with her husband in Florida, teaching a studio of 40 students and auditioning and performing locally.

3 Comments (Add Comment)

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  1. Thank you so much, your instructions were clear and precise and it worked for me the first time!
    I appreciate your help and ideas.

    by Leila Viss — Wed Mar 18, 2009 @ 1:31 pm

  2. all in one search engine

    http://trypu.com

    by trypu — Wed Mar 18, 2009 @ 11:15 pm

  3. It worked perfectly the first time! Thanks!

    by Stephanie — Thu Dec 24, 2009 @ 4:12 pm

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