People ask us the most straight forward questions. Some are really tricky for us to answer, too.
The marketing directors for our two new clients asked us a big one before coming on board: how could they tell if their senior living content was good quality.
I’ll give you a little context to explain why they asked that question.
Both of these new clients (sister companies) had fallen victim to a content mill. They’d heard over and over that “content is king” and didn’t have time to create any on their own.
When a content mill pitched them via email, they hopped on board. They paid for reams of content and felt they had received zero return on their investment.
Turns out, they were right. When we looked their content over and reviewed their analytics, virtually none of their content was being viewed.
Then we looked a little closer… and saw a few things that were holding them back.
Why Your Senior Living Content Is Failing
A few of the many problems we discovered with their content were:
- No keyword/key phrase strategy was employed
- Blog posts were only 200- 250 words in length
- Blogs had no voice and no substance
- Topics were slightly relevant but written in a manner that offered no answers
- Content was nearly the same for each of their two sites (duplicate content)
- No internal links were included (none at all!)
- External links were to spammy sites and those lacking credibility
And for this poor quality content, our clients had been paying $300 per blog post.
Yep, top dollar for the lowest possible quality.
So what constitutes good content, you might be wondering?
Let’s take a look at what you can do to work your way to the top of the SERPS (search engine results pages).
How to Create Good Quality Content
- Writers with a voice of experience and knowledge: Instead of relying on writers who have no industry experience, tap members of your own team to create content. You might have to hire an outside editor to polish it, but it will help make your content more meaningful to seniors and their families. If you can’t do that, find a content writing team with hands-on industry experience.
- Create an editorial calendar with rich, relevant topics: Strategy is vital when it comes to creating good content. Answer questions, offer suggestions, and clarify confusing issues. Make sure you include each step on the senior living decision journey. Don’t focus exclusively on awareness.
- Remain objective and use your analytics: Senior living providers often assume they know what families need. Don’t be one of those providers. Do the leg work. Ask families and seniors what brought them to you and what questions they have. Talk with team members in sales and on the clinical side to see what questions they are being asked during tours and evaluations. Check your analytics to see what’s connecting and what isn’t. Use a keyword research tool.
- Be transparent and helpful: No one wants to be tricked or given half answers. That applies to in-person visits to your communities and online. We’ve talked about pricing before and that’s an important one. But it’s equally important to create content free from hidden agendas and content that is more than one big sales pitch. It can be tempting to do both, but don’t.
- Check out your competitors: While our industry is famous for conducting loads of competitor research off-line, not many are great about doing so online. Take the extra step of monitoring how well your competitors are ranking for important keywords. There are a variety of tools that can help you do that. Then dig in and see what’s helping them rank so well.
It’s not a quick and easy route to the get to the top of the SERPS, but it pays off in spades when you get there.
Drop me a note if you have questions or need a little advice. I’ll be happy to help!
Shelley