Have you ever had a conversation with an internet marketing company that went like this? "Well there's a number or complex technical factors that go into Search Engine Optimization including keyword density, meta data, link analysis, and latent semantic indexing."
After that conversation, you say to yourself, "They must know what they are doing because this just seems way too complicated and time consuming."
Part of you is right, there are many technical activities that make Search Engine Optimization successful, but what they are not telling you is there are simple and low cost ways to get a first page listing for your senior living community. So simple, that it doesn't matter if your technical skills are limited after being able to hit the on button.
In this article, I'm going to reveal two simple ways you can get your senior living community or senior care company listed on the first page of Google for either free or very inexpensively.
For a senior living community or senior care business, your online efforts are local. And this is a great thing because Google is catering to local businesses and trying to get them online.
Here's some other important local search and senior statistics:
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53% American adults ages 65 and older are online. (pew research)
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20% of searches on Google are local searches (Google)
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30% of mobile searches have local intent. (Google)
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90% of online searches end up in offline bricks and mortar purchases. (comScore)
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54% of Americans now use the internet over phone books. (comScore)
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74% of internet users make local searches (Kelsey Group)
Now you can see why getting your senior living community ranked well on the search engines is important. Unfortunately, some predatory internet marketing companies won't tell you what I'm about to.
Google is giving away free local listings to local businesses with Google places. This is top advertising real estate that can go for $5 a click, but yours free!
For the past few years, Google has made a huge effort to eliminate the yellow pages by giving free local business profiles to their customers. These are the listings in the search engine that have a raindrop icon next to them. Many businesses are catching on and claiming their free Google plus business profile, and I'm sure your competitors are.
All you have to do is go to www.google.com/places and sign your senior living community up. Go through the profile and fill out the information the best you can. Just completing the profile 100% can often get you a first page listing for your community.
A Simplified advertising system to get your senior living community to stand out.
Google has the most advanced advertising system in the world. It is incredibly powerful because you can attract people the moment they need your service, and only pay when they come to your community's website. The downfall of this is, operating their advertising system has become as complicated as flying a commercial airliner. And if you don't obey their compliance rules or have a successful campaign, then you may face what many call a stupidity tax. Google will raise your price to advertise to outrageous amounts. Sometimes $10 per click!
Realizing this, Google has rolled out another service for local businesses. There is now a simplified way to advertise your community without knowing all the bells and whistles of Google Adwords. You can take your senior living community profile on Google, and make it a sponsored one. This will put your listing in their advertising area on the right and top of Google's search engine, and your listing will have a blue raindrop versus everyone else on the page that has a red one. It's another way to stand out and attract visitors to your site.
The service is Adwords express and you can sign up here www.google.com/adwords/express. All you have to do is select a business category, write and ad, and set a budget. Google will take care of the rest. I encourage you to test it, and see how it works for your senior community.
I hope I challenged you to question the overly complicated pitches your hearing from your internet marketing companies, and I urge you to claim your free profile on Google. It's a fast and free way to start getting seniors and their caregivers to your website and learn more about your community. And if you want to stand out more, then sign up for Adwords express.
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Kevin M. Williams is the President of SeniorMarketing.com. SeniorMarketing.com helps senior living communities and senior care companies across the country in three ways. We increase occupancy and profits, we increase customer value, and we improve marketing efficiency. To schedule a free 30-minute Marketing Tune-up, please call (888) 523-3311 or visit www.seniormarketing.com
About Kevin Williams
