Google places is a great way for a senior living community to get free exposure on Google. If you're not familiar with what Google places is, they're the listings with the raindrop icon next to them when you do a local search.
Google allows users to leave a review, and the number of reviews gets displayed beside the listing. The more reviews your community has, the higher the number displayed, and the higher the chances a potential new resident or adult child will see the listing.
Here's a story of how powerful a highly reviewed Google places listing can be.
I recently visited my sister in Brooklyn NY who lives in the trendy Williamsburg area. We spent a Saturday exploring new areas outside of Williamsburg, and ended up in an unfamiliar area. It was late and we were getting hungry, so we wanted to find a new restaurant.
I did a search on my phone for restaurants near by.
Below is a screenshot of the search results for “restaurants in Brooklyn”. Notice the restaurant with 1,870 reviews and a Zagat score (restaurant review site) of 26/30.
Can you guess which restaurant we went to? The amount of positive reviews separated it from everyone else on the page. It did not matter if this listing was the last one on the page either. What I was looking at was the reviews from honest people.
