When it comes to advertising online, the first thought many business owners have is marketing with social media.
That’s like saying the only in-person type of advertising is door-to-door sales.
Obviously, we know there are many components.
Still, there’s a fundamental motive behind each.
For on-foot and in-person types of advertisements, the main goal is to attract leads by telling a story, providing educational materials, and meeting the community and shaking their hands.
There is more of a personal and hospitality approach to this kind of marketing.
Digital marketing is a little trickier.
While it may seem that storytelling, providing educational materials, and attracting leads to get a phone call (to eventually meet in person for a handshake) are still the core motives behind being online, there’s a very special difference.
This difference makes online advertising so much different than direct marketing.
That difference?
Search engine optimization, in other words, SEO.
What is SEO?
You probably already know it, but the main purpose is to get your business at the top of search engines to increase your chances of being clicked and called.
Anything you do to advertise online will be utilizing some form of SEO strategy – and there are various methods.
Methods of SEO
Keywords
Phrases, short or long, that you believe people will type in to search bars.
While you can take wild guesses, sometimes there are keywords that you may not suspect, but people are using.
Typically, they come from the hearts of searchers.
If you don’t use these keywords, you risk not being displayed for these prospects searching for services.
For instance, in the home care industry, someone may be struggling to get their senior to eat and are experiencing negative outcomes from that.
Perhaps medication is more difficult to keep down on an empty stomach.
Or maybe the senior is experiencing more fatigue and unable to keep up physical therapy.
Now, go to any home care agency’s website and you won’t find the service “We help get your Elderly loved one to eat!”
Rather, you see “Meal Preparation”.
But how does that get the aging patient to consume food?
What we’ve found is that having a blog and talking a little about the challenge around seniors and nutrition, help prospects find support online.
We may use the blog titled “When Seniors Refuse to Eat” because many people do type in, “what to do when a senior refuses to eat”.
You can even use that as your title.
Either way, this helps search engines find you and will put you in front of the searcher so they may receive support.
Google allows you to start a campaign and filter out which keywords you want to target, as well as regions.
It’s a hyper-focused way to optimize your website in search engines, specifically Google, and increase your chances of being seen.
Paid Advertising
The challenging part is to set a budget that is higher than your competitors’.
Many top home care businesses put thousands and thousands of dollars into their campaigns.
Meanwhile, a smaller agency placing a $300 budget has a lower chance of being seen in searches.
You will still get seen, however, as soon as your budget gets tapped, the campaign is done until the next billing cycle.
The other challenging part is that many competitors, although not ethical, will click your ad just to max out your budget.
This prevents real leads from seeing you and makes it a waste of money.
Can it be effective?
Yes.
At a low cost?
Unlikely.
If you have a high budget to risk the losses and poor sportsmanship of your competitors, then, give it a try.
If not, try to focus on optimizing your keywords.
Headers
When you write a blog, don’t just choose the header font for H1, H2, or H3 based on how pretty it looks at a certain size or color.
These are the markers for search engines to screen what your blog is about.
H1 will be targeted first, then H2.
Those are your most important headers and need to be as close to keywords commonly used as possible.
If someone is searching for prices for 24-hour care services, make sure your first title, your headline, matches what someone might search.
Then make your subheading, H2, more of a longtail keyword or phrase that also matches, something someone might type in, too, but also more detail of what your blog is about.
This helps search engines find the best match for its user, the searcher.
The last thing search engines want to do is find some bogus blog and provide a list of unrelated topics to its user.
Give your website, and article, a higher chance of being seen by ensuring you have a quality topic to offer.
Backlinks
Networking is your friend.
If you have local affiliates you work with, like Nursing Homes or Assisted Living Facilities where you provide private caregiving services, ask them if they’re interested in a trade where your website gets linked to theirs in exchange for you writing an article for them or referring folks to them.
Getting your website on other websites is a great way to tell search engines, “Hey, others are talking about ABC Home Care, let’s boost them up in rankings in case others need to know of them.”
Talk to doctor’s offices, your friends in related fields – even the beauty industry can help (skin care for seniors? Why not?!) – and you can help optimize your site.
If you’re not looking to exchange work for this, there are sites out there that charge a fee to host your website’s URL, but they can strip your link off their site whenever they want, while still charging you.
If you’re going to do this, find a cost-effective way to exchange your services for the support.
There are other methods, but it’d take an entire book to write about them.
One thing to keep in mind is that your website is very important.
We’ve heard ex-clients say the opposite.
Truth is, in a digital world, you need to optimize your website.
It’s the brick-and-mortar that sits in the airwaves of your prospect’s Wi-Fi.
Don’t disregard the importance of nurturing your site.