Connected content builds trust.
Those of us working in the senior living industry know there’s no single lane highway running from an older adult’s home to your community. Metaphorically speaking. There are off ramps, traffic jams, and red lights along the way.
The same holds true for visitors to your website. Seniors and their adult children often spend a considerable amount of time online before they ever send you an email or pick up the phone.
Pre-pandemic, research showed that adult children visited all or most of the community websites for those that appeared above the fold on the search engine results page. Some even made it to page two and beyond if they weren’t confident in what they found on earlier pages.
As a provider, your goal is to get an adult child to contact you and take the next step. But it’s important to remember that doesn’t always happen after reading one blog article or reviewing one services page.
That means you have to make sure your content is connected and doesn’t lead families to a dead end on a side street.
Connected Content for Senior Living Websites
So what is connected senior living content and how can you make sure you achieve it? It’s not as tough as you might think.
Think about it this way….
An adult child is zipping through a blog article of yours that they found when searching for information to help them understand the different types of senior living. They come across the phrase activities of daily living (ADL) in the article and pause. It’s a term they, like most family members, haven’t heard before.
If you have an internal link set up from that phrase to a glossary on your website, you’ve made a connection that keeps the adult child from leaving your website in search of a definition for that term. They now understand what tasks make up ADLs and how it plays a role in understanding the care they need.
On the other hand, if you don’t have an internal link set up to explain ADLs, the adult child might start a new Google search which takes them to a site, like A Place for Mom. It’s not a far-fetched scenario given how well the APFM site is optimized for those types of terms.
You’ll end up paying APFM for a lead that could have come directly to you…
Call-to-Action (CTA) Tips for Senior Living
One place to really focus in on is the end of each and every page on your website. Far too often we see a great article or piece of content just end. Complete stop. No next step identified.
How crazy is that? You’ve worked hard to create content that engages a visitor and then it’s just a big “see ya later” at the end.
At the end of every page and blog post, you need to make it clear to visitors what you’d like them to do next. One clearly defined CTA.
It’s important not to give them multiple choices because then they might not know what to do. So they’ll do nothing.
Encourage them to call and include a phone number. Ask them to schedule a tour and link to your online scheduling page.
Those are the obvious CTAs.And they are good ones to move the connection forward quickly.
But not everyone is ready for that, especially if the content they just read is early in the self-education process.
Others could include inviting them to bookmark or subscribe to your blog. Follow your community on Facebook. Check out a list of upcoming events. Download an ungated ebook. These are all great options when you are working to build trust.
Take Action to Better Connect Your Content
What can you do to identify your content dead ends?
A good way to find the dead ends on your senior living website and look for opportunities to better connect your content is to enlist the help of a few folks unfamiliar with our industry.
You don’t have to go full on focus group, but something along those lines would be very beneficial. Make sure they are members of your target audience.
Ask them to spend time searching and reading as if this were a decision they were about to make. Where do they get stuck? Or confused about what to do next? Their input can help you look back on old content and fix it.
Moving forward, make sure your content team or freelance writer understand how essential it is to keep every piece you add to your site connected.
Drop us a note if you have any questions or need the support of an experienced senior living copywriting team. We’ll be happy to help!