We know a day in the life of a home care agency owner is filled with putting out fires: Clients with emergencies. Caregivers calling in sick. Scrambling to find replacement caregivers. Trying to stay ahead of the competition with referral sources. The list goes on and on, and in the midst of it all, who has time to even think about writing a home care blog?

Recently our own Marisa Snook was asked by Caring.com to be a guest speaker for their digital marketing academy and was also asked to write a guest blog on the importance of blogging for home care SEO. In researching this topic, she came across some startling statistics that may help you rethink where blogs fall on your priority list. For example:

• 88.5% of Americans are utilizing the Internet. In 2016, that translates to 286,942,362 people!
• Out of that number, about 200,000,000 of them are using smartphones.
• Health information, which includes information on caring for seniors, is the single most searched for topic on the web.
• Caregivers are more likely than non-caregivers to pursue support and advice online.
• 29% of those searching for help will leave a site immediately if they don’t find what they’re looking for, and 40% are unlikely to come back to that site that didn’t meet their needs.

It boils down to this: if you aren’t providing the fresh, relevant content that search engines are looking for, your target market searching for help online will be organically directed to a website that is. And there’s no better way to provide that content than through strategic, creative blogging.

Examples of particular ways to strategize and use creativity include:

• Think like your target market. Consider the type of person who contacts your agency. Are there certain similar questions that are asked most often? Answer those in a home care blog. Are there services that are of particular interest, such as specialized Alzheimer’s care? What kinds of questions come up around those services? Provide the specific information your target audience is seeking.
• Get trendy. In our vast experience with home care SEO, we know how important it is to pay attention to industry trends – such as the spike in searches for home care in January, after adult children have visited with their elderly parents over the holidays. Writing a home care blog around topics of relevance during that timeframe, such as warning signs that care is needed, what to look for in a good home care agency, and what care options are available, draws enormous interest.
• Be consistent. A recent case study that Marissa shared with Caring.com’s audience compared two home care agency websites in comparable sized cities, one of which blogged four times a month and the other that didn’t blog at all. Not surprisingly, the blogging agency received a whopping three times as many visitors to their website.

Strategic, creative blogging is, hands down, one of the most effective tools available to home care agencies looking to grow their businesses. And the best part is, you can focus your energy on what you do best – running your agency – and leave the blogging to the home care SEO and marketing experts at corecubed! Contact us any time at 800-370-6580, x1 or fill out our online contact form to learn more.