Given the nature of the assisted living industry, it is essential for businesses to implement unique and effective SEO strategies to effectively reach their targeted audiences. We understand the key, not only lies in attracting visitors but ensuring they are the right kind of visitors — those in need of assistance or those looking for options for their loved ones. Here are 10 top recommendations designed specifically for this industry.
1. Optimized local SEO.
Local SEO is immensely important for Assisted Living businesses as you are serving a specific geographical area. Ensuring your website is optimized for local keywords, local directories, and Google Business Profile can highly increase your discoverability among the right audience.
That’s why it’s crucial to focus on optimizing your local SEO. Aim to appear in the ‘local 3-pack’ on Google’s first page—it can drastically improve your visibility to potential clients in the area.
2. Implement Podium Reviews.
Customer reviews play a crucial role in online reputation, especially for the assisted living industry. Families often base their decision on perceived quality of care, which they often glean from reviews. Implementing Podium Reviews can help gather and highlight positive feedback from your residents and their families.
Therefore, we strongly advocate for the incorporation of Podium Reviews into your SEO strategy. Through Podium’s platform, you can streamline the process of review collection and management, helping you to build a strong online reputation that will enhance visibility and credibility.
3. Create an accessible website.
Accessibility plays a huge role for your audience. Taking steps to ensure your website is user-friendly, has well-structured content, and is accessible to visitors with special needs, is essential. This will not only enhance your users’ experience, but it will also increase the time spent on your website, benefiting your SEO goals.
From providing text alternatives for non-text content to ensuring a consistent layout, working towards a more accessible website plays a big role in creating a positive user experience that will keep your visitors coming back for more insightful content.
4. Maintain a dedicated blog.
Maintaining a blog on your website offers offering relevant, helpful content for families looking for information on caring for their loved ones. Posts can include explanations of services offered, tips for seniors on maintaining health and well-being, industry news, or even resident success stories. A regularly updated blog will keep your website fresh and encourage visitors to come back for more.
A consistent and informative blog can best serve your audience while simultaneously boosting your SEO by providing fresh and indexable content for search engines. Remember, quality content will always draw quality traffic!
5. Mobile-friendly website.
More and more people are using smartphones as their primary browsing tool. That’s why Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it could seriously hamper your SEO efforts.
Assess your website’s mobile responsiveness regularly and make necessary adjustments. This accessibility factor can play a major role in capturing and retaining your audience’s attention.
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6. Implement a user-friendly booking system.
A user-friendly online booking system is a need for potential residents and their families who wish to book a tour or inquiry. This is user-friendly, saves time, and also makes record-keeping easier.
A seamless, easy-to-navigate booking system on your website will encourage conversions, enhance the user experience, and boost your credibility. Additionally, successful bookings are a positive signal to Google that can benefit your SEO.
7. Utilize relevant meta tags.
Meta tags provide search engines with information about your page and its content. This includes meta title, description, and keywords. While not all meta tags affect SEO, well-written meta descriptions can enhance click-through rates.
Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions with local SEO keywords to immediately inform potential visitors of who you are and what services you provide. This can highly contribute to better ranking, visibility, and click-through rates in search results.
8. Secure your website.
Website security is an important ranking factor for Google. Make sure your website is secure and users feel safe browsing and sharing their information on your site.
Moving to a secure protocol (https://) not only ensures the safety of your audience’s data, but also enhances your chances of ranking higher in SERPs. A secure website is marked as trustworthy by Google, which could translate into higher traffic and conversions.
9. Optimize site loading speed.
Website loading speed is a crucial SEO factor – Google gives priority to sites that load quickly. Visitors too are likely to abandon a site if it takes too long to load, increasing your bounce rate and adversely affecting your SEO.
Optimizing images, removing unnecessary plugins, minimizing javascript files, and applying various other speed enhancements can significantly improve loading times, providing a smooth experience to your audience, and benefiting your SEO efforts.
10. Use appropriate schema markup.
Schema markup is a code that helps search engines better understand your content and present it more attractively in search results. Structured data can also be useful for achieving rich snippets — enhanced descriptions or additions to your search listing on SERPs.
For assisted living communities, there is specific structured data that can be leveraged. This includes, among others, local business schema, FAQ schema, and reviews schema. Demonstrating appropriate schema markup implementation influences click-through rates and drives a fractionally higher amount of traffic than a normal listing.
How Podium Can Help Your Assisted Living Business
Assisted living businesses, in order to be effective online, need to tap into various aspects of digital marketing. This includes everything from building and optimizing your website for SEO to managing your online reputation. That’s where Podium comes in. It’s not just about getting more traffic—it’s about getting more quality traffic. With a tool like Podium Reviews, you can not only manage your online reputation but also leverage customer experience data to improve overall service. Boost your visibility, authority, and customer trust with Podium’s winning solutions.
