Search “home care near me” on your phone right now. Before any website, you get a map with three businesses on it. That box is where most senior care calls come from, and it is run by one thing: your Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows on the map. Not your website. Your listing.
The good news is that many agencies have never finished setting theirs up. That is your opening.
1. Claim it and fill in every field
Google rewards complete listings. Business name exactly as it is on your license. Your office address. Phone number, answered by a person. Website. Hours, and whether someone answers after hours, because families call at night. Then the fields agencies skip: services (companion care, personal care, respite care, dementia care, overnight care, post-hospital care), service areas (every town you send caregivers to), and attributes that fit.
2. Pick the right categories
Your primary category should be Home health care service or Home care service, whichever fits your license. If you run a community, Assisted living facility. Add secondaries only if they are true. Do not add “nursing home” if you are not one. It confuses Google and it confuses families.
3. Photos that show real people, with permission
Families want to see who will be in the house. Your office team. Caregivers in uniform, with their permission. A caregiver and a client on a walk, with the family's written OK. Your branded car. A photo of the front door of your office. One or two a week. Never a stock photo of a smiling nurse. Families can tell, and it reads as hiding something.
4. Reviews from families, with the town in them
Reviews are the biggest single factor in the map box, and in senior care they carry extra weight, because the family is trusting you with a parent. The best ones say what you did and where: “cared for my dad in Brandon for eight months, same two caregivers the whole time.” There is a whole guide to getting reviews from families. Reply to every one.
5. Post like it is social media
Your listing has a posts feature almost nobody uses. A photo and two sentences once a week: a caregiver you are proud of, a note that you have openings for overnight care, a plain tip for families. It keeps the listing alive in Google's eyes and shows a family that you are real and present.
6. Add your license number
Put your state license number in the business description and on your website, with a link to the state lookup. Families check. Making it easy to check is a trust signal Google sees and families feel.
7. Match everything to your website
Your name, address and phone number must be the same on the listing, your website and every directory that lists you. An old phone number or a different spelling splits your trust in two. This is the boring part, and it matters.
How to check your progress
Once a week, search “home care” plus your city on your phone from a few spots: your office, a client's neighborhood, across town. See who is in the three pins. If it is not you, go back through the steps and find what is missing. Usually it is reviews or photos.
Link each service to its own page
In the services section, link each service to the matching page on your website: post-hospital care to the hospital discharge page, and every service to the cost page where it fits. When a family taps from the map to a page about exactly what they searched for, they call. When they land on a homepage, they wander.
Answer the questions section
Google lets anyone ask a question on your listing. Families ask “do you do overnight care,” “are you licensed,” “is there a minimum.” Answer every one plainly, and post your own common questions too. It saves phone time, and Google reads the answers.
Want this done for you?
The Google listing is the first thing I fix for any senior care provider, because it is the fastest way to more family calls. If you want me to look at yours, the audit is free.