Web platform for a network of teachers of French 2025
- The customer
FITH (French Immersion at Teacher's Home) is a network of French teachers who welcome foreign students into their homes throughout France and the French-speaking world. Founded by Georgiana Maës Onesim, a French teacher with a master's degree in modern literature from the Sorbonne, the network now has a network of fifteen or so teachers from Brittany to the Côte d'Azur, from the Paris basin to Provence.
- The context
Georgiana's initial project, paris-french-immersion.com, presented her personal activity as host teacher. The international demand quickly outstripped the capacity of the centre. Other qualified and experienced French-speaking teachers, some from rural or coastal areas, joined the initiative.
So we had to create a two-pronged platform: a student pathway to discover a teacher and book a stay, and a teacher pathway to join the network. All the while preserving the warmth and «home-stay» spirit that were the hallmarks of the original project.
- The approach
Four decisions structured the design.
A three-pronged architecture: who, where, what. Each teacher has her own detailed page (background, experience, location, photo). Each geographical destination has its own page - Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, Saint-Malo, Avignon, Annecy, Vernon, Blois and around fifteen others - presenting the region and listing the teachers who live there. And each format - residential immersion, online courses - has its own structure. So visitors can enter by person, by region or by format, depending on what they're looking for.
An editorial geographical taxonomy. Rather than listing destinations in alphabetical order, they are grouped into five main zones: Near Paris, Mediterranean & Provence, Alps & Mountain Regions, Brittany & Atlantic Coast, Wine & Countryside France. This breakdown speaks directly to the target audience, international learners who see themselves in a French region before choosing a teacher.
A separate teacher registration process. To avoid mixing audiences, a dedicated route Become an FITH Teacher enables qualified candidates to join the network. Dedicated page, specific form, later session space for active teachers.
SEO designed to scale. With twenty or so localized pages (French immersion in [town]) and as many teacher fact sheets, the site plays on the long tail SEO. Each page has its own editorial content about the region, possible activities and the local teacher, and is not duplicated or generated.
- Making it happen
The site is built on WordPress, with a structure of pages, teacher profiles and destinations designed to evolve as the network expands. Adding a new teacher or a new city is done without any development work.
The booking process is based on a qualified contact form.
An editorial blog accompanies the site, with articles on French culture, idiomatic expressions, regions, traditions and key dates in the calendar, all of which feed into the SEO and add substance to the project without falling into the «10 things you need to know about Paris» category.
See the website french-immersion-teacher-home.com