The internet is a key driving force behind most modern-day consumer decisions, and senior living choices are no different. Where in the past, seniors and family caregivers might have visited local providers or relied upon word of mouth as a first port of call, they now have the tools to narrow down their options before even setting foot in a single assisted living facility. 

With the internet proving to be powerful in the hunt for the perfect community, SEO for assisted living is more vital than ever before. Many senior living providers have already harnessed the power of assisted living SEO, catapulting them to the top of the shortlists of seniors from both their local area and beyond. To contend with your competitors in this day and age, getting to grips with senior living SEO should be a priority.

What is Senior Living SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and its main function is to target unpaid traffic using carefully researched and placed keywords. A great assisted living SEO strategy will allow your website to rank more highly on search engines like Google, which is absolutely vital to help seniors and their loved ones find your community with ease. 

Focus keywords and phrases should be highly relevant to your niche, and effective keyword research can help you pinpoint the best keywords to drive traffic, money and exposure. SEO for assisted living communities is impacted by a plethora of decisions you make for your website, and focus keywords can be implemented in everything from main website pages to blog posts and articles, meta descriptions, alt text and even social media posts.

What are the Benefits of SEO for Assisted Living?

By boosting organic search traffic using senior living SEO, you will be able to:

    • Build a highly impactful, far-reaching presence for your community.
    • Make sure your assisted living marketing reaches the right people.
    • Draw attention to the excellent quality of care you provide.
    • Improve conversion rate and build patient census.

5 Basic tips for Effective Assisted Living SEO

  1. Learn keyword strategy. The basics of keyword strategy are fairly simple; find out what words and phrases your target audience are searching for, and include these within your content to help them find you. A great keyword strategy will help you rank highly on search engines, and can be achieved by inserting focus keywords into your content at the right density, as well as within key areas like titles, subtitles, opening paragraphs and meta descriptions.
  2. Get to know your audience and provide high-value content. Driving your audience to your website is just the first step in the process. After all, there’s little use in attracting thousands of visitors if not a single one of them ends up becoming a resident. By creating genuinely helpful content, you can keep visitors on your website for longer while increasing the chances of them taking further action.
  3. Ensure your website is user-friendly. Conversion rate optimization (or CRO) works in harmony with SEO, and neither one is much use without the other. CRO aims to increase the percentage of your website’s visitors who stay to perform a desired action (e.g. arranging a tour, signing up to your newsletter or filling out an inquiry form). This is done by enhancing the functionality and user-friendliness of your site, while providing useful content that encourages prospects to take the next step. While good senior living SEO will help the right people find your website, CRO will encourage them to stick around and take further action.  
  4. Don’t neglect technical SEO. While selecting good focus keywords and optimizing your content for increase CRO are vital for effective assisted living SEO, it’s also important to make sure your site is up to scratch from a more technical perspective. Upgrading your website’s speed, responsiveness and source code elements can help search engines efficiently analyze your website’s content to present the right links in the relevant search engine results. 
  5. Don’t give up! It’s best to think of SEO for assisted living as a long-term strategy. You won’t see results overnight, but rest assured that your efforts will pay off in the long run. The best assisted living SEO strategies are carefully refined over time, and as you get to know your audience better and adjust accordingly, you will reap the benefits.  

SEO Will Help You Constantly Elevate Your Assisted Living Marketing

SEO for assisted living communities has a lot more to offer than simply attracting more of the right audience to your website. Working on your assisted living SEO strategy can also be valuable in helping you get to know your audience even better. As an assisted living provider, your audience might be much broader than is typical for an organization; it’s likely that both seniors themselves and younger family caregivers are utilizing your website. By pinpointing what works best in your senior living SEO strategy, you can consistently improve your assisted living marketing to appeal to seniors and family caregivers alike.

Why Work With an Assisted Living Marketing Agency?

Working with an assisted living marketing agency can provide you with the guidance and support you need to build a powerful senior living SEO strategy for your community. Scott Marketing and Consulting Group® have years of collective experience, and a deep understanding of both long-standing strategies and innovative new tools in assisted living marketing and sales. Our team of SEO experts, web designers, marketing and branding professionals and copywriters are ready and waiting to grant your assisted living community the exposure and success it deserves.