As a senior care veteran, I’ve mastered a lot of jargon over the years. Our industry is rich with it. DON…MDS…ADL…IADL…you know what I mean. Now that I’m helping senior living and home care partners with their assisted living and in-home care copywriting strategy, I’m frequently asked questions about jargon the SEO and online marketing folks use. One of our clients even asked if there was a decoder ring she could order. Hmmm… not a bad idea right? What girl doesn’t want another ring? Seriously though there are about 14 online marketing terms that come up over and over with confused senior living clients. We decided to decode them and share them with our readers who all seem to be snowed/iced in during the Polar Vortex of 2014!
Online marketing decoding here we go…
- InBound Marketing – In simplest terms, it is creating and sharing content that is of interest to prospective families. That content leads them to you instead of you trying to interrupt them with other forms of advertising (television, direct mail, print ads, etc).
- Algorithms – You’ve probably heard this term in relation to changes Google recently made. An algorithm is the process and formula that helps the search engines understand what you type in to the search bar so they can return web pages to you that contain your answers.
- Meta Description – These are the quick little overview you see on the search results page after you submit a query. It is how most of us decide if the site is worth our click!
- Above the Fold – This is an old journalism term most communications folks associate with newspapers. Writers were always trying to get their stories printed “above the fold.” Online it refers to the area of the site a reader sees first – before they scroll down. Because people are a lot less patient when they are searching online, you have to quickly capture their interest here or they will bounce off your site and on to someone else’s.
- Alt Text – If you subscribe to enewsletters or receive online promotions from your favorite retailers, you’ve likely seen alt text. It is used to describe an image. The search engines can read this text so they know what the image is all about.
- 301 Redirect – We are battling this right now as our site undergoes a facelift! A 301 redirect lets you redirect one URL to another so you can (usually) keep most of the benefits the page enjoyed before the makeover.
- Long-tail Keywords – These are phrases searchers use to find the information they need online. Google tells us that these phrases are getting longer and longer as searchers get more sophisticated. Instead of “assisted living” they are probably actually using something like “assisted living facilities in southeast Michigan.” That is a long-tail.
- Landing Page – It is a page you send traffic to from a particular campaign or other advertisement. Think of it as the destination you are driving people to… These pages generally allow you to capture important lead information and have fewer options for people to click on. They are very targeted pages.
- On Page Optimization – These are the strategies you can employ on your web pages to improve your odds of earning better rank. Because Google continues to make changes to improve search results for users, these strategies are always being adjusted.
- Off Page Optimization – Bet you know now what I’m going to say here? Yep these are the things you can do off your web page to help your site. They range from social media to online reviews and blogging.
- Persona – These are a tool writers use to help create user specific content. For our industry, it is typically the adult daughter who is the decision maker. Let’s call her Amy Adult Daughter. We know that since the average age of someone moving to assisted living is in their mid-80s (or even older) now, the daughter is probably in her 50s or 60s. She may have her own children living at home and probably works at least part-time. Those are all of the details that would go in to creating her persona.
- Responsive Design – This term means that your site responds and adapts to its environment. So if an adult child is sitting in their parent’s hospital room with a list of assisted living communities in hand, they may look you up on their iPad or iPhone. Responsive design allows your site to adapt to whatever device they are on.
- Evergreen Content –For our assisted living and home care audiences, these are the pieces of content that are important for each step of the senior care decision journey. The answers to questions almost every family looking for senior care has. They fall in to the Evergreen category because they really don’t change or go out of date. Think about what families ask you from start to finish as they make their decision and tailor your content to answering those questions online.
- Meme – Ok I realize you already know this, but how could we not include it? Here are a few to enjoy…
Looking for a little help with your content development? I’m the one to speak with… Shoot me an email and we can set up a time to talk more!