If you feel like your website performance is sputtering and your competitors seem to be leaving you in the dust when it comes to driving new business, one reason could be that they have a better executed SEO presence and strategy. Do a quick search – do your competitors appear in more search results than your agency? Do they appear higher up on the first page of search results than your agency?
Achieving the pole position requires an experienced pit crew that is knowledgeable in SEO best practices and in home care industry changes and challenges, like the professionals at corecubed. By partnering with a knowledgeable team for ongoing SEO strategy, which involves managing keywords, metadata, content, alt tags, backlinks and much more, you can feel confident in knowing that corecubed has a winning track rerecord, deep SEO experience, and has been designated a Certified Google Partner.
To get your website running in tip-top shape, corecubed recommends the following 10 home care SEO tips to increase website traffic:
1. Keywords
Know how your audience is searching. Are they searching for “senior care” or “elder care?” It’s important to also consider using a localized approach for your keyword list. For example, if you optimize your website for the keyword “home care Baltimore” rather than simply “home care,” you will be able to better target people in your service area and you will have a much better chance of ranking for those types of popular keywords. corecubed provides SEO clients with customized keyword and local market research to determine which keywords consumers are using most when searching, and how much competition there is for those keywords.
2. Metadata and On-Page Keyword Work
Use your localized keyword list and make sure each page of your website has an original SEO title and meta description. In addition, make sure to work your localized keywords into the body copy throughout the pages of your website. The higher you can place keywords on a page, the better for SEO. For example, main titles and opening paragraphs will carry more weight than sub-titles or closing paragraphs.
3. Content
Regularly post new, engaging content that is relevant to the consumers who would be searching for your services. Blogging is a great way to do this. Always utilize your localized keywords, as appropriate, throughout your blog content.
4. Alt Tags
Make sure that all of your images include an alt tag. An alt tag is text that is added to an image (not a caption) that describes the image. It is often used for visually impaired users and has become important in light of recent ADA compliance requirements.
5. Backlinks
You should audit your backlinks regularly (at least quarterly) to look for and remove any spam links that can hurt your SEO. Disavow any spam links and always work on building high-quality backlinks. It’s also important to understand that you shouldn’t be reaching out to just any website to increase the number of backlinks pointing to your site. Instead, you want to make sure a website selected for a possible backlink has a high domain authority and quality score before doing any outreach. Think quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks, as that will generate the best SEO performance.
6. Local SEO
Claim your listings on internet directories and keep information up to date on Google Maps, Google My Business and Yelp profiles. Be sure to incorporate keywords as frequently as possible.
7. Competitors
Know what your competitors are doing. What are the keywords for which they are ranking? Do they have backlinks pointing to their sites that would be worth pursuing for your site as well? The more you understand and know about your competitors’ SEO performance, the better your chances of competing with them, and outperforming them in search results. For each SEO client, corecubed performs comprehensive competitor research in order to make informed and strategic decisions about how to market to seniors online using SEO to increase website traffic.
8. Reviews
Always ask clients and customers for reviews. You can provide a direct link to your Google My Business page that makes it easy for people to leave a review. Make sure you highlight positive reviews and testimonials and promptly respond to any negative reviews. Because more than 92% of consumers now read online reviews to judge a business, corecubed offers RISE, a reputation management system that helps home care owners collect customer feedback and positive online reviews to improve agency reputation and enhance SEO.
9. Page Speed
Review your current page speed and make improvements as necessary. However, don’t get too caught up with getting a “perfect” score. Page speed can vary from minute to minute, so work on achieving a Google PageSpeed score of 60-70 or better, and then focus your attention on other SEO-boosting tasks. As part of corecubed’s comprehensive SEO strategy for clients, site metrics like page speed and others are regularly tracked in order to work on performance improvements.
10. Social Media
If you’re going to have a social media presence, make sure that you’re active. Post content that is engaging and always include a link back to your website. Facebook drives the best results for home care businesses.
Your agency website is an investment and a vital tool for information and sales. When maintained and calibrated correctly, it will work hard for you, both day and night, by sending viable, local leads to you for further cultivation and outreach. By having knowledgeable and experienced SEO experts on your pit crew, you can feel confident that your website will not just hum, but take the checkered flag when it comes to increased website traffic and maximum performance. To learn more about corecubed and how to market to seniors online by tapping into our home care industry knowledge and expertise for your agency, give us a call today at 800.370.6580, x1.