What a music school website needs

The facts here come from primary sources: the FTC's COPPA frequently asked questions, Google's Business Profile guidelines and its help on bookings through a provider, the Maps user-generated content policy, Google Search Central's event structured data documentation and its June 2025 post Simplifying the search results page, YouTube's How Content ID works and the W3C's captions and subtitles page, all checked on November 14, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. Where we give our own view, we say so.

The short answer

A music school website needs a page for each instrument or program, a clear way to book a trial or first lesson, tuition and policies written as text, a short page for each teacher, a calendar with recital and term dates, a plain explanation of online lessons if you teach them, a parent page that covers photos and recordings, and a name, address and service area that match your Google Business Profile.

Instruments and programs

Most visitors arrive with one instrument in mind. Our view: give each instrument its own page (piano, guitar, voice, violin, drums and so on) and say on it which ages you take, whether you teach beginners, which styles you cover, how long a lesson lasts and whether the student needs their own instrument at home. If you rent or recommend instruments, say so there.

Group programs need their own pages too: early childhood music classes, ensembles, bands, theory classes, exam preparation, summer camps. For each one, list the age range, the level, the day and time, the length of the term and how many places are left. Keep adult lessons visible on their own page or in the menu, since many adults assume a music school is only for children.

Lesson booking and scheduling

Private lessons are usually a fixed weekly slot with one teacher, so booking is a match between the student's free times and the teacher's open slots. Our view: let a new student book a trial lesson online, ask for the instrument, the student's age, experience and preferred days, and then confirm a weekly slot. If you use lesson-management software, check that its booking page works on a phone and that parents can see and change their own slot. Our guides to online booking and form design cover the tool and the form.

You can link your booking page from your Google Business Profile as well. Google's help says "You can also add your own link to your Business Profile", or you can connect a supported booking provider, with one warning: "When you book through Google, your provider might charge you."

Tuition and policies as text

Write every price on the page as text, not as a picture of a price sheet. Our view: list tuition per lesson length (30, 45, 60 minutes) and per month, term or package, any registration fee, sibling or multi-lesson discounts, the price of group classes and camps, and how and when you charge. Then write the policies that cause the most calls: missed lessons and make-ups, how much notice a family must give to cancel a lesson, holidays and breaks, teacher absences, how to pause or stop lessons and whether any fees are refunded.

Put the same policies in the registration form and ask the family to accept them there, so nobody signs up without seeing them. Our dance studio guide's registration and fees section covers the same ground for classes, and our guide to accepting payments online covers taking card payments. If you advertise a free trial lesson, put every condition next to the offer; the intro offers section of our yoga studio guide quotes the FTC on the word "free".

Teacher pages

For private lessons, the teacher is often the reason a family picks a school. Our view: give each teacher a short page with a real photo, the instruments and styles they teach, the ages and levels they work with, their training and performing background, the days they teach and a line in their own words about how they teach. Link each teacher from the instrument pages they teach, and let a visitor request that teacher when booking.

Only list training, degrees and performance credits the teacher has confirmed, and update the page when a teacher leaves. A page for a teacher who no longer works at the school is a common source of disappointed calls.

Recitals and student recordings

Our view: publish a term calendar with the first and last lesson dates, breaks, recital dates and times, the venue and what students should wear and bring. Give each recital its own page with the program order and parking, and update it if anything moves. Our dance studio guide's recitals section covers ticket fees and event markup in more detail.

Do not count on student recitals showing up as events in Google Search. Google's event documentation says "Events must be bookable to the general public", that "Spectator events where the primary participants and audience are minors and occur on-premise of a school aren't eligible for the event experience" and that "Virtual experiences that have no real-world component aren't supported." A public concert at an outside venue may qualify; a studio recital for families usually does not.

Recordings need care. The FTC's COPPA FAQ says "The Rule considers photos, videos, and audio recordings that contain a child’s image or voice to be personal information." COPPA applies to websites and online services directed to children under 13, or that know they collect personal information from them; a site written for parents is usually not directed to children, but if you ever let students upload recordings or create accounts, read the FAQ first. Either way, our view is to get a parent's written OK before you post a child's photo, video or audio, keep surnames off the page, and say on a parent page how you use recordings. Our guides to privacy basics and the dance studio guide's parent info section go further.

If you post recital videos on YouTube, remember that most recital pieces have a copyright owner. YouTube's help says "When a video is uploaded to YouTube, it's automatically scanned by Content ID", and a match can, depending on the owner's settings, lead to a claim that "Blocks a video from being viewed". Public domain classical pieces are less of a worry than current songs, but the recording or arrangement you used still matters.

Online lessons

If you teach online, give it its own page. Our view: say which instruments you teach online, which video tool you use, what the student needs (a stable connection, a device with a camera that shows the hands or the bow, headphones, a music stand), whether prices differ from in-person lessons, how you share sheet music and practice notes, and whether lessons are recorded and who can see the recording. Say which time zone your schedule uses if students book from other areas.

If you post lesson videos or practice tracks on your site, caption the spoken parts. The W3C explains that "Captions are a text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content." Our guides to video on websites and accessibility basics cover hosting and the rest of the page.

Reviews and your Google Business Profile

Many families search for lessons near them on Google, so your Google Business Profile matters as much as the site. Use the same name, address and phone number on both. If teachers also travel to students' homes, read the service-area part of Google's guidelines: "Service-area businesses, or businesses that serve customers at their locations, should have one profile for the central office or location with a designated service area."

Hours are a special case for schools. Google's guidelines say businesses "with varied hours (like schedules for different types of activities, including showtimes, worship services, or classes) and those that operate only by appointment" should not provide hours, and they list "Schools and universities" among the examples. Read that section before you enter lesson times as opening hours; the lesson schedule belongs on your website.

Ask every family for a review, not only the happy ones. Google's Maps policy does not allow a business to "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers", or to "Offer incentives - such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review". So no free lesson for a review. Our guides to Business Profile reviews and reviews and testimonials on your website cover asking, replying and quoting reviews on your own pages.

One note on markup: Google's June 2025 post says Course Info is among the structured data types that "will no longer be supported in Google Search results", and adds "This update won't affect how pages are ranked." Our view: you do not need course markup for lesson pages; local business markup for the school itself is still worth adding.

Templates or a custom site?

Our view: a template from a website builder or lesson-management tool can work well for a single-teacher studio with a few instruments, as long as you can add a page per instrument and per teacher, keep prices and policies as text and link a booking page that works on a phone. A school with several locations, many teachers, group programs, camps and online lessons usually outgrows a template, because each program needs its own page, schedule and booking path. Whichever you choose, look at a few template examples on your own phone before you decide: menus, schedules and booking widgets are where templates most often break.

A short checklist (our view)

• One page per instrument and per group program, with ages, levels and lesson length.
• A trial or first lesson that can be booked from a phone.
• Tuition, fees, make-up and cancellation rules written as text.
• A page for each teacher, linked from the instruments they teach.
• A term calendar and one page per recital.
• Parent permission before posting any student photo, video or audio.
• An online lessons page with equipment, time zone and recording rules.
• Name, address, phone and service area matching your Google Business Profile.
• Reviews asked of every family, with no incentives.

If you want help building or rebuilding a music school website, see our website development service or the full list of services.

Frequently asked questions

What should a music school website include?

A page per instrument and program, a way to book a trial lesson online, tuition and policies as text, teacher pages, a term and recital calendar, an online lessons page if you teach online, a parent page on photos and recordings, and contact details that match your Google Business Profile.

Can I post videos of students at recitals?

The FTC's COPPA FAQ treats photos, videos and audio recordings that contain a child's image or voice as personal information. Our view: get a parent's written permission first, leave out surnames, and remember that copyrighted pieces on YouTube may get a Content ID claim.

Will my student recital show up as an event on Google?

Usually not. Google's event guidelines say events must be bookable to the general public, that spectator events with mainly minors on a school's premises are not eligible and that virtual-only events are not supported.

Should I put lesson hours on my Google Business Profile?

Google's guidelines say businesses with varied hours, such as class schedules, and those that operate only by appointment should not provide hours, and list schools among the examples. Keep the lesson schedule on your website.