I've moved a handful of times. Whenever I look for something in my area, I generally either google, or use google maps with a keyword like Kung Fu. It helps if a school is on Yelp too, that can be helpful since some people will comment (though usually it's just people with kids, which doesn't help me much, but it could likely help you).

Once I sort through the schools with the bullsh!t sounding names, I look at the site, read about the instructor, look at videos available, basically try to get a feel for the quality of instruction available.

Then if I'm really interested, I look at the stuff David mentioned:

Quote Originally Posted by David Jamieson View Post
I think with martial arts, it is still word of mouth, getting out in the community and doing demos, fronting fighters in amateur or small purse events, entering tournaments, sponsoring tournaments etc.
But of course, I'm a tech-savvy adult with a lot of MA experience. Not your typical student