Senior Living

  • Marketing, Senior Living

    Will AI Content and ChatGPT Take Over Custom Content?

    If you’ve been, well, anywhere, you’ve heard the buzz about artificial intelligence (AI). Recent developments in the AI program ChatGPT have led to new possibilities —  and new concerns. Now you can get concise answers to most questions almost instantly, raising hopes for new applications as well as concerns about students cheating on papers, national security, and the spread of disinformation. Whether you’re an optimist or a skeptic about the future of AI, you may have considered putting AI capabilities to work for your business, using AI content to replace custom content. Before you put that plan in motion, here’s a look at the uses and limitations of AI-generated content.

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

    AI has already infiltrated daily life. An estimated 77% of the devices we use feature some form of AI, and 77% of businesses are using or exploring AI to automate routine operations, analyze data, and improve productivity. But ChatGPT has brought AI’s abilities to a new level. This interactive chatbot uses machine learning to process information, learn language patterns, and respond to users’ prompts in a conversational manner. Give it a prompt and it can 

    • Produce a rap
    • Create an essay
    • Explain a line of poetry
    • Generate computer code
    • Write a 900-word blog post on talking to your parents about assisted living

    That’s a pretty impressive list of capabilities, yet ChatGPT isn’t flawless, and it’s not ready to replace human content writers.

    Can AI Make Senior Living Content?

    Despite the advances in AI, custom content is still the best choice for retaining current clients and connecting with new ones. Yes, you can generate content using AI, but it won’t speak to the complexities of aging and the emotions that underlie the decision to move to senior living. 

    In fact, if you experiment with ChatGPT or other AI content generators, you’ll discover a number of areas where AI content proves inadequate, including:

    Accuracy

    AI’s knowledge is based on vast quantities of information, but most AI models haven’t been fed up-to-the-minute data. ChatGPT’s knowledge base, for example, cuts off at the year 2021, so the copy it generates may not be accurate. Unfortunately, AI can give plausible, authoritative responses even when it’s wrong, which can lead you down a disinformation highway.

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy

    While AI can streamline some aspects of SEO content creation, effective strategies that address the needs of your target audience, your long-term vision, and current market trends require a creative — and human —  touch.

    Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)

    Google’s ranking system sorts content based on how well it demonstrates E-E-A-T. AI writing that violates these standards or that aims solely to increase search engine rankings may be flagged as spam and downgraded in search results, meaning fewer people are seeing the content you produce.

    Readability

    “The readability of AI-generated content can vary greatly depending on the specific AI model used and the quality of the training data it was trained on. Some AI models are capable of producing highly readable content that is comparable to content written by humans, while others can produce content that is difficult to understand or riddled with errors.”

    If you’ve read much about AI content, you’ve probably been waiting for the moment a snippet of AI-generated copy is slipped into the text. Well, here it is. The quoted text above was produced by ChatGPT in answer to the question, “How readable is AI-generated content?” As you can see, it’s readable, but not reliably so, if ChatGPT is accurate here.

    Relatability

    Even with advanced AI content generators like ChatGPT, the human touch is noticeably missing. Without metaphor, irony, personality, style, emotion — the nuances that make human language —  the copy feels like what it is, the product of a robot. It may sound competent, but it’s not compelling, and will likely leave readers unmoved.

    Brand Inclusion

    You’ve worked hard to craft a brand that speaks to who you are and connects with your intended audience. Ideally, every bit of content you put into the world carries your brand messaging. AI can harvest macro-level data and turn it into copy, but it can’t tailor that content to your unique selling points, include pertinent company references, and end with a call to action that converts readers into customers.

  • Senior Living

    SEO Checklist for Rebranding and Renaming Senior Living Communities

    A lot of work goes into rebranding and choosing a new company name that encompasses everything you offer and clearly and succinctly communicates with your target audience. But all too often, companies have this happen within a series of meetings to hash out names, colors, style guides and press releases, yet forget  to involve their digital marketing teams in the process. 

    When SEO isn’t involved in rebranding, we often see these regrettable results:

    • The community’s website is harder to find after a rebrand.
    • There is a large drop in organic, direct and referral traffic. 
    • There is a  drop in leads that takes 6-12 months to bring up to pre-rebrand benchmarks.

    How to Rebrand a Company For Search Engine and Lead Success

    SEO has a place in all 3 stages of rebranding and renaming:

    • In the early stage, SEO will vet names for any search association or discoverability issues.
    • In the middle stage,  SEO will start putting together a road map to make sure you don’t lose domain authority or brand awareness.
    • In the final stage, SEO will make sure people can find you after the name change and have a good user experience.

    By involving your SEO team in these 3 stages, you’ll ensure a minimal loss of traffic and leads with a rebranding and the smoothest experience for people already familiar with your brand. 

    Early Stage: SEO Makes Sure You Don’t Pick the Wrong Name

    That’s right, we’re here to make sure you don’t pick the wrong name. If you come up with a new company name, we can research how people would search that name and what associations that name has. Here’s how that played out across 3 rebranding campaigns just in the first half of 2022 alone:

    Early Stage Case Study: Picked a Name That Brought Up Correctional Facility Mentions

    A senior living community was looking to rebrand and brought in the Attane SEO team on the 2 final contenders for the new name. We found that the community picked a name that shared a name with a correctional facility about 20 miles away,  which meant when people search for their senior living community, the correctional facility would also show up in search results. Because the community brought the SEO team in early, they were able to nix this name suggestion before they put in time and money for creative branding. 

    Mid-Stage Case Study: Chose a Name Similar to a Company that Targets the Same Market

    A senior living community picked a name and had gone through most of the rebranding. The SEO team was notified of the upcoming name change, and the team brought up issues immediately. 

    There was a home health agency in the same state, but in a different city, that had a nearly identical name. The home health agency had been around for many years and had a strong search presence. After weighing our findings, the community ultimately decided to pick a different name so they wouldn’t have to compete for brand awareness with a home health agency.  

    After the Rebrand Case Study: Rankings and Discoverability Tanked After Changing Name to Mention “Lake”

    A community with lake access picked a simple name, in the format of regional name + lake.  After they changed their name, they found their organic positions dropped significantly.  Worried, they came to the SEO team asking us to investigate. 

    We found that by choosing a simple format of  regional name + lake, they now have to compete with Google bringing up all the local county lakes in search results before bringing up their senior living community. 

    Since this happened after the rebrand, the community is having to deal with lower discoverability than they had with a past name, and the only way to resolve it would be to change their name again. 

    Middle Stage: SEO Makes Sure You Don’t Lose Domain Authority and Brand Awareness

    Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain authority scores range from 1 to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking. A brand-new domain will have a domain score of 0, and a longtime, major  website like Amazon will have a domain score near 98. 

    Senior living benchmarks:

    • The domain authority benchmark for non-system senior living communities is 20. 
    • Senior living communities that invest in content and SEO surpass this benchmark. 

    Changing a Name, Changing a Domain

    With a name change often comes a domain (URL) change. When you change a domain, you’re starting back at 0 with your domain authority. Your SEO team can set up 301 redirects from your old domain to your new one so that Google shares the domain authority of your old domain to your brand-new domain. 

    • 301 redirects: When you move, you tell the post office to forward your mail to a new address. This is the same thing, but it’s from your old website address to your new website address.

    An SEO team will also set up individual page-level redirects to ensure a good user experience for anyone who has saved an old email or bookmarked a page. We’ll make sure that even if they have an outdated URL on your old domain saved, they’ll be redirected to the content they were expecting. 

    Preparing a Brand Awareness Road Map 

    In the mid-stage of a rebrand, your SEO team can build a road map to maintaining brand awareness and branded traffic after a name change. We’ll provide a list of things our team needs to change a name on a local listing (the verification process is complex these days). We’ll also provide a plan for where we should have mentions of the old brand name after the rebrand, including meta descriptions, local listings posts, in key content areas such as the About page, and more. 

    Final Stage: SEO Makes Sure People Can Find You After the Name Change

    In the final stage, your SEO team will work to implement everything listed in the brand awareness road map as soon as the rebrand is launched.

    Examples of post-launch rebrand work:

    • Changing meta descriptions to contain phrases such as “X, formerly Y, offers your dream retirement lifestyle…” so that people searching for the old brand name still find you.
    • Preparing  your local listings with new names in descriptions and posts, and walking you through the complex processes of verifying a name change in Google Business Profiles
    • Updating all the many directories with your current information, from often overlooked directories like Apple Maps and TomTom to niche market directories for senior living and senior care
  • Senior Living

    Video SEO: The Next Must-Have Optimization Opportunity for Senior Living

    Seniors are increasingly embracing more technology in their everyday lives. 75% of Americans 65 and over are online and a majority of online seniors spend at least 6 hours a day online and own an average of 5 devices. Additionally, 82% use their smartphone every day.

    Seniors go online for a variety of reasons, from staying in touch with friends and family (91%) to organizing their finances (87%) to improving their health and wellness (73%).

    How Seniors Use Video in Their Decision-Making Process

    Time spent watching YouTube videos among adults 55 and over grew by 10% from May 2020 to May 2021. According to Google’s research, seniors are increasingly using video to learn new things and make key decisions about a product or service: 

    • Seniors are 30% more likely to prefer watching a YouTube tutorial video than reading instructions.
    • 1 in 3 seniors say they use YouTube to learn about a product or service.

    In a 2020 study by Google, we hear from Marla, 73, who was scheduled to have knee surgery and wanted to research pre-rehab exercises. Imagine if Marla found a video from a local senior living community that offered rehabilitation services near her, and how that would have made her interested in contacting them for post-surgical rehabilitation services.

    What Does SEO Have to Do with Video?

    When people hear about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), they often think only of the page of links they get after they put something into Google. Search is more than just what you type into Google; it’s in all parts of our online lives, from how you use Pinterest or find your next podcast to looking up your favorite recipes or a how-to video. Optimization for search spans text, audio and visual content. 

    What Kind of Optimized Video Content Should Senior Living Communities Be Creating?

    Just as with creating text content (like blog posts) senior living communities should create video content that hits these 3 key areas of SEO:

    • Search volume: How many people are looking for this?
    • Ranking: How easy is it for this video content to show up on the top of a search results page?
    • Relevancy to the community: Is this something the community is known for/would like to be known for?

    Examples of video content senior living communities could be making:

    • Exercise/virtual fitness classes
    • Videos explaining costs or contracts
    • Walk-through of popular/most-searched properties, such as individual independent living homes
    • Educational videos giving answers to the most searched questions, such as:
    • How to Talk to Children About a Grandparent’s Dementia Condition
    • How to Talk to an Aging Sibling About Assisted Living
    • Educational videos showcasing unique selling points of your community, such as:
    • How to Use [senior living community app] to  Stay in Touch with Family
    • How Our Dementia-Friendly Design Helps Manage Wandering in People with Memory Loss
    • What Does Practicing Your Faith Look Like When You Move to Our Retirement Community?
    • Videos on the latest senior trends, such as:
    • Solo Agers: Everything You Need to Plan for Now
    • The Must-Visit Travel List for Seniors: 10 Places in the U.S. That Feel Like You’re in Europe

    How to Optimize the Video Content 

    When you’re trying to think of the perfectly optimized title and description, there are two free, easy ways to come up with the keywords and phrases you need:

    • Go to Google Trends – YouTube to see what’s trending on YouTube and what related keywords are searched.
    • Search for the topic on YouTube. Write down what’s similar about the titles and descriptions of the most-watched videos and use those phrases.

    Optimized Title

    The title must both be optimized and attractive, just like a title of a website page in a search result. It must clearly and concisely explain what the content is and hook someone so they want to learn more. Remember, your title should be for search; let your thumbnail be visually attractive and more fun. A title should be:

    • Around 70 characters (it can fit 100, but anything after 70 might be truncated)
    • Have a descriptive and attractive title
    • Place your keywords earlier in the title

    Optimized Description

    The description should be optimized and have a call to action leading to the link to your website or a landing page. A description should have:

    • Around 1,000 characters
    • Keywords that are searched for on Google and YouTube
    • Relevant hashtags
    • Timestamps so people can jump to sections of your video if you have a longer video with different sections
    • Links to your website or landing page (short URLs or direct URLs preferred – hide those long UTM codes!)
  • Senior Living

    Don’t Hide Your Pricing – You’re Just Leaving The Cost Discussion To Referral Companies

    Today’s tip for senior living marketing: Don’t hide your pricing from your website, you’re just leaving the cost discussion to referral companies.

    One of the most prevalent myths in senior living marketing is that you can control the conversation around pricing.

    All too often, communities keep pricing off of their website under the pretense that if they force people to call to get pricing, they can control the conversation around pricing.

    1. If you don’t provide pricing, people will search for pricing and go to places that say they offer pricing information and choose to give their contact information to them, instead.

    2. Those people who are looking for pricing? They want to move into your community. They already have a positive view of your community and are engaged leads. They’re specifically looking for your pricing information as a final decision to choose your community. But they’ll sign up on a referral site rather than your own, and you’re now paying for a lead you should have already earned.

    The Quick and Simple Way to Estimate the % of People Getting Pricing From You vs Referrals

    Step 1: Go to Google Search Console and see how many searches (impressions) and how many people chose your site in that search (clicks) for questions about the cost of your retirement community.

    Step 2: Divide it out to find out the percentage of people getting pricing information from you vs popular directories.

    Step 3: Search those terms and see who is showing up on top. You’ll see caring.com, APFM, seniorly.com, and others giving estimates of your costs.

    What This Looks Like

    I recently did this for a client, and only 25% of people searching cost questions about their community came to their site, instead, two referral directories ranked high for the question and were giving incorrect estimates on costs.

    That’s right, 75% of the people interested in moving into their community were visiting other websites to make a final decision about cost and moving in.

    Don’t hide your pricing!