If you run a home care agency or a senior living community, you get pitched SEO constantly. Cold calls, emails, somebody promising page one in thirty days. Most owners either ignore all of it or pick one, pay for a year and see nothing. Both are expensive.
Here is what actually goes wrong on senior care sites, and how to tell a real plan from a sales pitch.
The five mistakes I see most
- Writing for the senior instead of the adult child. The searcher is almost always a son or daughter. Pages written in soft, vague language for “seniors” miss the person actually reading.
- Hiding the cost. “Call for a consultation” loses families to the provider who explains hourly rates honestly. The cost page is the easiest win in this industry.
- Ignoring the Google listing. Most calls come from the map box. The listing is free. A pretty new website does nothing if the listing is half empty. See the Google Business Profile guide.
- One page for everything. Companion, personal, memory, respite and post-hospital care in one list. Google cannot rank that for any of them.
- No review routine. Twelve reviews from two years ago. Families decide on reviews, and reviews only come when you ask, gently, at the right time.
Five questions to ask before you sign
“Which searches will you go after first?” The answer should be specific: “home care near me” on the map, “in-home care [your city],” “home care after hospital stay.” If they cannot name three, they have not looked at your business.
“What will you do in the first month?” A good answer is boring: finish the Google listing, build the cost page, split the services onto their own pages, set up the review routine. A bad answer is “backlinks” with no explanation.
“Do I own the website and the listing?” The answer must be yes. If a company builds a site you cannot take with you, you are renting, not buying.
“How will I know it is working?” Family calls and inquiries. Not “impressions.” Ask for call tracking and a monthly list of which pages people landed on before they called.
“Have you done this for a senior care provider?” This industry has its own reader (the adult child), its own urgent search (hospital discharge), and its own trust rules (license numbers, real staff photos, no stock nurses). Someone who has only done it for plumbers will learn on your dime.
What a good first ninety days looks like
Month one: the Google listing is complete, real photos go up weekly, and the review routine is running. Month two: the home care, cost and hospital discharge pages are live on their own addresses. Month three: the first five town pages are up and reviews that mention towns are coming in. Rankings follow that work. They do not come before it.
What it should cost
I will not give you a number, because it depends on your area and how much of this you already have. What I will say is this: if the price is very low, you are getting a template and a blog. If it is very high with no plan, you are paying for a sales team. Ask for the plan first. Judge the price against it.
Red flags in the first call
- They have not looked at your website or your Google listing before the call.
- They promise a number of “keywords” or “backlinks” per month instead of family calls.
- They want a long contract before showing you a plan.
- They suggest stock photos or soft, vague copy aimed at “seniors.”
- They want to build a new site before the Google listing is finished.
What you can do yourself first
You do not need to hire anyone to finish your Google listing, write an honest cost section, or set up a gentle review routine. Those three things are the first month of any good plan, and they are free except for your time. Do them. Then, if you want someone to build the hospital discharge page, the dementia page and the town pages and keep it all moving, that is where paying for help makes sense. And you will be able to tell a real plan from a pitch.
Want this done for you?
I run a home care lead site in Tampa Bay myself, so I have made and fixed every mistake above on my own money first. If you want a second opinion on a pitch, or just want to know where your site stands, the audit is free and there is no contract.