Are you looking to draw more seniors and their loved ones who would be interested in your services to your senior living community’s website? Search engine optimization (abbreviated as SEO) can help your community provide the right level of care to the kinds of seniors you are trying to reach.
In contrast to search engine marketing (SEM), SEO is a collection of methods that typically improve a site’s position in relevant search results. It can be improved through manual edits you or your marketing team make to your website, rather than methods of paid promotion, such as advertising, or earned responses to your services, including news stories or online reviews. This means that the organic SEO included in your website is classified as owned media. Learn more about paid, earned, and owned media in our blog post.
Why is senior living SEO valuable?
It’s cost-effective.
Since SEO improvements are free — aside from existing fees associated with your website or hiring extra help — they are a comparatively low-cost method to improve your online presence that will translate into real-world revenue and satisfied seniors.
It can help you reach a large audience.
What have you usually done when searching for a new local service? Your go-to method is most likely typing in a few words into a search engine like Google and sifting through results that show up first.
Google is currently the most visited website, so earning high rankings there can exponentially increase your brand’s visibility. In addition, if you successfully target locations, services, and amenities specific to your community, it will receive more leads from people who have been specifically searching for those features.
It can improve your company’s reputation.
Internet users generally trust search results over digital advertisements. They are more likely to view your company as a credible source of information if they see it has earned a top spot in organic search rankings. Building trust is especially important in our industry, in which seniors and their families need to know that your team will always prioritize their well-being.
It can help you better understand what your target audience is looking for.
Most keyword analysis tools provide valuable insights into peoples’ top questions, concerns, and needs regarding senior living. They can also help you understand what your competitors are doing to attract potential residents and increase their move-ins.
This newfound knowledge can help you improve not only your website’s content but the messaging throughout all of your branded materials as well.
Want help from an experienced senior living SEO company?
How can you develop a plan to improve the SEO of your senior community’s website?
1. Research effective keywords.
Start with keywords, also known as keyphrases, which are topics covered by your website for which internet users commonly search. There are plenty of methods to research which keyphrases will be best to include throughout your senior living website. Some free versions include Google Search Console and Ahrefs’ free SEO tools, while SEMRush and MOZ Pro offer extensive options for paid members.
When looking for keywords, look for those with the highest search volume — the number of people searching for a certain keyword — and an easy or moderate possibility to rank. You may choose those that are or aren’t already ranking well on your website; just make sure to avoid targeting exactly the same keyphrase on multiple pages or posts.
2. Plan future content.
The next step involves planning website pages and blog posts around the keyphrases you have found. You may want to organize these overall plans with spreadsheets and/or project management software.
When organizing your ideas, you may want to note the following for each piece of content:
- Which keyword synonyms, if any, can be entered into the backend of your website. These are additional words or phrases used in content that are similar to but not identical to the high-ranking keywords. They do not need to rank highly themselves.
- Which pages you intend to make SERPs — those that should show up most frequently in the results of Google Bing, or other search engines. Most should be SERPs, but others can simply be focused on your brand.
3. Write and publish what you have planned.
When writing informative and persuasive content in word processing documents for search engine results pages, balance your stylistic choices with the following methods of boosting SEO:
- Maintain a high keyword density, the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage compared to all words on that page.
- Headings are helpful to search engines because their hierarchy from large to small (H1 to H6 in HTML format) indicates which information is most important.
- Whether they are hyperlinked within your text or contained within buttons, internal links will take seniors to other pages within your website, while external links can link to different sites entirely. Both are useful for improving your rankings.
- Write or denote backend content as well, including any keyphrases, synonyms, SEO/page titles, meta descriptions, and slug portions of URLs.
In your content management system, fill out all the necessary frontend and backend information noted in your document and publish it to the web when you are ready.
4. Track your results and revise past work.
The great content you publish may only stay relevant on the web for a limited time. However, the actions listed below can help you maintain your place in search engine rankings.
- Keep your website’s loading time as fast as possible.
- Sign up for software such as Google’s Search Console and Analytics that can help you monitor your site’s traffic (number of visits) and keyword effectiveness.
- Each sitemap is a file containing a list of your pages and posts. You should not only submit sitemaps to Google through its Search Console, but as your amount of content changes, you may periodically resubmit them so that the platform has an accurate view of your website’s structure.
- Another maintenance method involves searching for pages or posts to determine their popularity and then revising those that you cannot find after the first few pages of results.
With a continual dedication to improving your senior living website’s SEO, your senior living team will likely find an increase in qualified leads to the site over time.
SEO is the most important marketing tool for assisted living communities.
Why is SEO so effective? People search for solutions online.
When families begin contemplating senior living options, they turn to search engines. If your community’s website is correctly optimized, it will appear at the top of search results when potential residents or their families seek your services.
This visibility is the first step in attracting them to your site.
SEO is a potent tool that enables retirement and assisted living communities to connect with their audience at a deeper level. It’s about understanding each family’s unique journey when choosing senior housing and positioning your community as the perfect solution.
Optimizing your online presence goes beyond improving search visibility. SEO is the bridge to creating meaningful connections, narrating compelling stories, and, ultimately, transforming lives.
We can take care of your SEO improvements while your team cares for your residents.
Contact us if you would like us to develop a custom senior living SEO strategy for your company’s website. Our trusted web developers look forward to applying the technical expertise they have developed in their own field so that you can focus on improving the everyday lives of seniors.
