If you're going to take the time to write a blog post, you want to be sure that it will be noticed. Writing an SEO-friendly blog post will help ensure that your content gets ranked in search results and attracts the type of visitors that you want. These steps will help provide you with the optimization you need and should be a critical par of your assisted living marketing plan.
1. Choose 1-2 Long-Tailed Target Keywords
When you're writing your blog post, you want to be sure that you have 1 or 2 keywords in mind that you're trying to optimize the post for. Each keyword that you successfully optimize is another chance for you to get found for that term. In order to give yourself the best chance of ranking you'll want to choose keywords that have a decent amount of search volume and aren't overly competitive to rank for. For example of instead of trying to optimize for "assisted living" you'd be better off picking a term like "assisted living community near Boston." The term "assisted living" will simply be too tough to rank for and you'll never get on the first page of search results no matter how much content you publish. A "long-tail keyword" give you a better chance of ranking and also allows you to be more specific. Keyword research is a critical component of optimizing content and something you should do long before you start crafting your content.
*The more descriptive your keywords are the better chance you'll have of converting and the less competition you'll have (i.e. you'll have a better chance of ranking)
2. Put Your Keywords in the Right Place
You've chosen your keywords. Now, you need to be sure they're located in the right place! The title of your post, the URL, and headers (H1 and H2 tags) throughout the post are all key locations for keywords. For example, if you're focusing on "how to choose an assisted living community," you'll want to make sure that all of those words appear within the first 65 characters of your title and that you use them as a header somewhere in the post if possible.
*In the image above we see search results for "cost of assisted living." This post from a Place for Mom is optimized well for this term with the keyword included in both the page title and the meta description.
3. Optimize Your Images
There are two things to keep in mind when you're adding images to your blog post. First, remember that it's always better to take your own pictures than it is to use stock images. Consider getting your residents involved in the process or even inviting them to submit their own! Second, make sure that the alt text for the image--the only part of the picture that search engines can "see"--contains your target keywords. Adding alt tags to your images is just another way that search engines can index your post and help your site rank in search results.
*Screenshot of inserting alt tags into the image above. Using a CMS like Wordpress or Hubspot makes this process much easier. If you need to hard code the alt tag into an image in the HTML use the code below:
<img src="smiley.gif" alt="assisted living community">
4. Write a Great Meta Description
Your meta description is the description readers will see when they search for your site - and the description search engines will use to help choose your ranking. Creating a great meta description is one of the best ways to get your website noticed. Make sure you include your target keywords into a sentance that describes what the page is about. Also make sure to keep the length inside 160 characters.
*A well written meta description will showcase what the page is all about and also include your target keywords that you want to rank for.
5. ) Internal Linking
Linking to other pages on your site is a great way to build up your ogranic search presence. By linking a specific keyword to a page you're telling search engines that a particular page is about a certain topic. For example, if I want to optimize a page on this site to get found for senior living sales CRM, then I simply link to it! Just like I did in that last sentence you can use internal links in your blog post to optimize other pages on your site.
Learning to optimize your content for search engines is an ongoing process. As you build a great blog library, however, adding these tools to your arsenal will help ensure that your assisted living facility gets noticed instead of being just one more member of the crowd.