October 31, 2023 • 30 mins
Listen to our current Care Home Conversations Podcast where we have a great conversation with Amie Clark, BSW, co-founder of TheSeniorList.com and AgingToday.com.
Amie talks about using a website as a marketing tool to tell the story of your care home.
Amie talks about using a website as a marketing tool to tell the story of your care home.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hello, and welcome to the careHome Conversations podcast, where we have important
conversations about adult care homes. Weare your hosts, Matt Gannon and alyssa
Elsing maguire. The care Home Conversationspodcast is brought to you by oregoncare Home
Consulting and Training. To access allprevious shows, visit oregoncarehome dot com,
(00:24):
forward Slash Podcast, or search careHome Conversations on your favorite podcast app.
Melissa, would you like to giveus an update on our twenty twenty three
Fall care Home Conference. Yes,I'd love to. So. We've opened
registration for our twenty twenty three Fallcare Home Conference, which will be November
fourteenth in Lakeauswego. We really lookforward to seeing everyone again, so please
(00:46):
visit our website at oregoncarehome dot com, Forward Slash Training for registration information.
For our conversation today, we aretalking with Amy Clark, owner of Clark
Fork Media. The title for twoshow is Websites Where Your Story Comes Alive.
Amy, Thank you for being withus today. Thank you for having
(01:07):
me. Yes, thank you,Amy. It's really great to have you
as a guest on the podcast.And just to begin, Amy, we
know that you've created several leading seniorcare websites, including the Senior List and
Agingtoday dot com, and we're surethat many of our listeners have heard of
the Senior List. You're also aco founding member of the Oregon Senior Referral
Agency Association, also known as OSRA, and you recently created adultcare home dot
(01:33):
org. So that's a lot ofwork and we want to hear more about
it. Will you please share withus more a little bit about yourself,
including your educational and professional background andwhy you decided to start the Senior List.
Yeah, you bet. My backgroundis in social work. I have
worked with older adults my entire career, which is now getting up into about
(01:56):
twenty five years. I started outworking as a discharge play in skilled nursing
facilities and cut my teeth on acouple of the skilled buildings here in the
Portland metro area. That really wasn'tthe place that I belonged. I did
that for a couple of years.It was such a great learning experience,
but I decided I would be moreuseful helping older adults find housing, so
(02:20):
I ran Some of your listeners mayremember, if they've been around a while,
I ran a placement agency way backin the day called the Senior Resource
Network, and I did that tillabout twenty fifteen. So I dearly miss
working with adult care home providers.I had such a wonderful, loving experience
(02:43):
working with the homes, and Iplaced a lot of clients in some of
the most amazing adult care homes inthe Portland metro area. So I'm just
the thrilled to be talking to everybodytoday. I started the Senior List with
my husband back in two thousand andeight, and thousand and eight was still
kind of the wild West of theInternet in terms of good information. We
(03:07):
started the Senior List because at thattime there were no websites or resources that
you could go to to learn aboutreviews of anything related to senior care.
So I think about that time iswhen Angie's List came online, and it's
now I think just angie dot com. But it was a place where you
(03:27):
could go to read reviews about ahouse painter or someone to come and read
your bathroom. So we started theSenior List with the idea that people could
go online and read reviews about seniorcare businesses just in the Portland metro area.
I had no intention of ever turninginto something other than that. So
we got traction, and lots ofpeople were very interested in being able to
(03:52):
go online and read about the experiencesthat other people had had at assisted living
communities, adult care homes, nursinghomes, and the site just grew from
there. We started covering the stateof Oregon, and then eventually it turned
into this nationwide database of senior carecommunities. As you can imagine, that
(04:12):
is an incredible amount of work tokeep up with who's open, who's closed,
who's changed the name. It wasjust it was an enormous undertaking to
have that kind of directory, andeventually it wasn't where my heart was actually
at that time anymore, and westarted doing more writing about products and writing
(04:34):
about the things that were working wellfor people and the things that were not
working well for people, specifically medicalor systems. Again, back at that
time, there was really no innovationin the call buttons that people use.
The industry had not changed for thirtyyears. So we started writing about the
good companies and the not so goodcompanies and who was taking advantage of customers.
(04:59):
And again, this has just beensuch a long journey with that site.
But it eventually turned into this verycool advocacy focused site for older adults
with tons of information. So that'smy very long winded story about how the
Senior List came to be. Well, I appreciate you sharing that with us
and also sharing your why. Ilove to ask people that question, what
(05:21):
is your why for doing this?And it's interesting how it started with this
idea and it grew to be thisnational resource. It's amazing and I know
a lot of people have heard ofthe Senior List. I also know a
lot of people know about you throughyour placement business as well, so for
very good things about you. Butwe're really glad to have you here,
(05:42):
of course to talk about this.But I want to talk a little more
about websites. The majority of carehomes don't have websites for multiple reasons.
So I've had providers tell me thatthey don't have a site because they're not
going to be found on search engines. It's cost prohibitive, especially when they're
first started out, because there's justa lot of costs involved in the starting
the business. Now, some providersdo have websites, of course, they
(06:05):
primarily use their sites to highlight theirservices and showcase the home kind of what
the services they provide. So acouple questions for you, do you believe
that adult care homes need a website? And then what are the benefits and
what are some of the ways providerscan use their website to market their care
home. Those are great questions.To answer the first question, yes,
(06:26):
I absolutely think every adult care homeshould have a website. In fact,
I think every legitimate business should havea website. The last time I looked
at the statistic, seventy to eightypercent of consumers look for a website before
they visit a business. So ifyou think about the adult care home world,
(06:48):
you know, assuming that the majorityof your referrals are coming from either
placement agencies or directly from the networkthat you have in your own community,
Even if your referrals are coming fromthose people, the people they're referring you
too, are probably looking for youonline first before they ever step foot in
(07:10):
your home, before they ever makea phone call. So people are going
to be looking for you online.They may be looking for your home,
They may be looking for you.Somebody may get your name and they instantly
enter that in Google. My firstquestion to people who don't have websites is
what comes up when someone googles yourname, because your name is in the
(07:33):
state registry for being an adult carehome provider, so that's probably one of
the first places that pops up.But where else does your name come up?
Having a website lets you control,to a certain extent, what shows
up online about you and about yourhome. A website is a chance for
you to control your message and tellyour story. A website is also it's
(07:57):
just another marketing tool, just likebusesusiness cards, and brochures, but it
has potentially a much larger reach inregards to not being found on Google or
other search engines. A website ofan adult care home may not necessarily rank
for the term adult care home,but your website will rank for words like
(08:18):
your business name, your name,your address, your phone number, and
perhaps if someone googles adult care homenear me, if they're in your local
area, your local neighborhood. Chancesare, if it's done correctly, you
will pop up in the first pageof those search results. If a website
(08:39):
is set up and mamed maintained correctly, it's also possible to rank for other
terms that you may not necessarily thinkare going to bring you business, but
they are going to bring you visitorsto your website. People may be visiting
from other areas of the country thatyour website is popping up for or I'm
going to talk about this in alittle bit, but it's all part of
(09:01):
helping Google recognize that you are alegitimate business, that you're an expert at
something, that you have something tosay about this particular industry. All of
those things are so good for websitesand businesses. Thanks for that, Amy.
Continuing on with that, you talkabout a number of things can either
benefit a website or kind of hurtit a little bit. I want to
(09:22):
stick with that so with the careprovider in mind, maybe they've never built
a website before, they have noexperience with that, but they understand the
power of it and they want todo it correctly. Like you were talking
about, there's kind of a rightway and a wrong way. Break that
down for us. Talk more aboutthe right way to do it that would
benefit a care home provider's website,those key things like you said, key
(09:43):
search words for example, and thenwhat could hurt them ultimately whether they're doing
something or not doing it. Yeah, okay, So let's start with the
things that should be included on awebsite. The great thing about websites is
that a provider could highlight as manyor as little details as they wanted about
the home. They can also changethose things if your decor changes. You
(10:07):
can change a photo. When youhave just a brochure, that's not as
easy to do. The things thatI think would be important for an adult
care home to use in their websiteare what your rooms look like, who
your caregivers are, photos of yourgarden, photos of your pets. What
are the things that make your homeunique and special? Those things can all
(10:28):
be highlighted on your website. Whenyou're marketing out in the community. It's
the easiest way to show people yourhome and the love that's in your home
without an actual in person tour.In regards to elements elements about how people
can improve their website, what kindsof things websites need to contain. To
(10:50):
start with the basics, websites needto contain key information like your address,
your phone number, your name,but also what kinds of experiences do you
have as a provider, what's yourexpertise, what level is your home what
kinds of residents are you taking careof? That You can tell people a
(11:11):
lot about what you are crafting andwhat you do in your home through your
story, And that's just such agreat way to tell that story is on
a website. I would make surethat every website has an about us page.
Your about us page should be aboutyou, your background, why you
are drawn to this work, whatis your why? What is your story?
(11:35):
Is this a family run business?Is this a business that's run by
a husband and wife. People wantto know this information. Think about all
the things people ask during an inperson tour. All of that good information
should be on your website. Iwould always encourage people to include testimonials on
their websites. I think everyone hascards that people have written. Every one
(12:00):
has letters of recommendations. Those things, with permission from the families or the
permission of whoever wrote them, canbe put on your website. You can
type those out, have a pagethat's specifically for testimonials. When you talk
about the services that you offer inyour home, assume that people looking at
your website don't know anything about adultcare homes. They don't know anything about
(12:22):
senior care, which my experience andI'm assuming a lot of people who are
running adult care homes. The experienceis there's a lot of people that are
coming into this who are just shellshocked. They're being educated along the way.
Help them along in that journey.If your website can show them that
(12:43):
this is the thing you know about, this is your expertise, you're just
going to help foster an already developingrelationship with that person. That shows that
you know what you're doing and thiswould be a great place for their mom
and dad or their loved one.Another thing I think is really good for
or local businesses to include, especiallyadult care homes, on their website is
(13:05):
to talk about where your home islocated. If you think about people who
are looking for adult care homes,so many people want something that's close by,
somewhere that they can visit. Talkabout your neighborhood, talk about the
positive things. Is it walkable,is it close to stores or parks?
Even though a resident may never utilizethese things, Having this kind of descriptive
(13:28):
information on your website is so good, not just for families who are going
to be looking at it, becausesome families just place such huge importance on
the location, but also for Google. Google loves to see descriptive information on
websites that talks more than about justthe exact same thing that everybody else is
(13:50):
going to be talking about on yourwebsite. Also, every website needs a
contact page. You need to clearlylist your phone number. However you want
to be contacted your address, email, or even better than email, I
personally think, is a contact formbecause email can really be abused. It
(14:11):
can also get thrown out into thespam verse and all of a sudden you're
going to be getting all kinds ofcrazy stuff. But a contact form on
your website is a great way toencourage people to contact you. But if
you're okay with putting your business panenumber up there as well, I think
every website needs to have. Everybusiness needs to have a very clear contact
page. Now, the things thatcan hurt a website. The first most
(14:33):
important thing I would say that someonecan do wrong with their website is to
plagiarize from another website. Search enginesknow where information has shown up first,
So if you are simply copying andpasting from somebody else's website, Google is
not going to like that. There'schances your website will not even be indexed
(14:56):
to show up in search results.So the things you say on your website
have to be in your own words. If you have trouble writing, you
can hire a writer, and hiringa writer does not have to be expensive.
There are lots of sites like fiverlike upwork where you can hire somebody
to help you write this stuff foryour website. This is a little bit
(15:18):
technical, but you need to makesure you have a secure site, which
means having an SSL certificate, whichis that little lock the bar where a
URL shows up that needs to besecure again. Otherwise Google other search engines
won't trust your website and you'll getthis little pop up when someone comes to
(15:39):
your site that says, are yousure you trust this website? Because we're
not so sure. There are someother technical things to make sure what not
to do. I don't know thatI really want to dive into those so
much, but it's a reason tohave someone who knows about websites so that
they can just make sure that someof these technical things are implemented directly or
(16:00):
that they don't exist at all.The other thing that can really hurt your
website is to participate in any sortof spammy link exchange. There's a lot
of people out there who promise thatthey can get you on page one,
who promise that they can get youlinks on a bunch of websites. That
is usually a scam. If Googlesuspects that you participate in any sorts of
(16:22):
link exchange schemes, it's another wayto just instantly get kicked off the search
results and then again duplicate content.In terms of adult care homes, you're
probably all going to be talking aboutthe same thing, but you need to
be able to tell it in yourown way. Part of doing that is
to include your specific details, yourspecific story, the story of your home.
(16:48):
Photos. I need to mention photos. I have seen some great websites
with really sad photos on the websiteof the home. It may cost a
little bit of money, but itwould be so worth it to have a
professional photographer come into your home,make sure the lighting is correct, and
(17:10):
take good professional photos of your home. If potential residents families are looking at
your website as their very first impressionand they see dark, dingy, not
well set up photos with a comeout in the background next to a living
room chair, there's things that youcan do to make those photos look really
(17:30):
good, and I just think it'sreally important. I know that's a lot,
but those are kind of my toplevel. Don't do this on your
website. That information is key andit's really essential that people need to know.
It's invaluable information too, because Ithink that just by diving a little
bit deeper into the why you carehome provider would want to have a website
(17:52):
or need a website, and thenhow they can use it is really key.
And you mentioned something I want tojust reiterate, what is your why
and what is your story? Ilove that that is such a marketing tool
in and of itself, your whyin your story because you know what that
comes from the heart, and Ithink that's the key here. So I
want to ask you, if aprovider then does have a website, how
(18:17):
do they know if it's working,if anything's broken? How many people are
actually looking at their website or isnobody looking at their website? How do
they know that? And then whatdo they need to do and know about
their website? Yeah? Great question. So there are several different tools and
(18:37):
they're all Google related and they're allfree. The reason I continue to say
the word Google instead of being andduc ducgo and other search engines, is
that Google accounts for I have notlooked at the statistic lately, but I
think it's literally like ninety percent ofonline searches are and on Google. Google
(19:02):
also has some really great tools tohelp people understand what's working and what's not
working on their website. Once Ido a website, one of the first
things I do is plug in GoogleAnalytics, which is a free tool through
Google that literally tells you day today and sometimes if you have enough traffic,
it will tell you in real timehow much traffic you're getting, where
(19:26):
it's coming from, what pages peopleare looking at. Are they coming to
your homepage and then immediately bouncing,Are they just leaving right away or are
they spending time on your website?Are they clicking on photos? Are they
looking at your pictures? There's allkinds of really cool things you can tell
about your website with Google Analytics.The second tool that I use every day
(19:51):
is Google Search Console. Google SearchConsole also tells you about your traffic,
but it's very specific to search traffic, so it's not going to tell you
how many Facebook clicks you got orhow many Instagram clicks you got. It's
simply about who came to your websitebecause they searched for a thing and then
(20:11):
they clicked on your website. Thegreat thing about Google Search Console, once
a site has been marinating for alittle while, you can look to see
what people are searching for that yourwebsite actually showed up in a search result,
but they didn't click on it.It's one of the best tools for
me as a person who works onwebsites, to go in and say,
(20:33):
Okay, you're showing up in thesesearch results, but no one's clicking on
your site. Why is that?What do we need to fix? Is
there a title tag that we needto fix? Does your website just say
ABC dot com care home slash homeyou know? Is that what's showing up
in the search results? What canwe do to make this better? And
(20:55):
again, not to get too technical, but there's several things that can be
fixed and changed and improved to helpimprove people clicking through on your site.
The other tool that I use alittle bit for analytics, but also it's
a great promotional tool is the GoogleBusiness Listing. It's a really great way
(21:17):
when you search for something. Ifyou search for a business. Sometimes you'll
get the map and all their businessdetails and reviews that people have written.
That's a Google business listing. It'sa free thing to set up. It's
just such a great way to promoteyour business, let people know who you
are if someone's near you and they'researching for adult care homes. It's such
(21:38):
an amazing free tool to use,and there's ways to make those Google business
listings super powerful, good descriptions,asking people to write Google reviews, and
then those can click through to yourwebsite, so that helps analyze. There's
also some reporting that comes with thatin terms of how many people clicked on
(21:59):
your website, how many people we'llclick on your phone number. But it's
also another great way to drive trafficto your website. You mentioned it's complicated.
It is kind of ties into mylast question here. It's complicated.
You really want to look at workingwith somebody who has expertise in this area.
Just like a lot of things wedo as business owners, we want
(22:22):
to delegate to other people because wecan't do it all. And I think
with a lot of providers who alreadyhave so much on their plate, the
thought of adding the creation of andthe maintenance of a website probably seems a
little bit overwhelming and it's really somethingthat they're going to need support with.
So if they do hire someone,can you give us a general idea of
(22:42):
how much this might cost to bothdesign and develop the website and the maintenance
of the website, and what dothey look for and of course can they
hire you. Yes, So we'llstart with cost. The cost is really
going to end. It will dependon if this is a brand new project
(23:03):
or is there an existing site thatsimply needs to be improved. It depends
on if a provider just wants asingle page or if they want to have
multiple sections of a site that highlightall the amazing things about their homes.
If I had to throw out anumber, and this is a very large
range because it's going to depend Ithink is my best answer, but I
(23:26):
would anticipate anywhere from fifteen hundred tofive thousand dollars to start with. Now,
again, that's going to depend onif it's brand new or if it's
an existing project. There's different typesof people and companies that will work on
websites. There are agencies, thereare companies that is what they do.
(23:48):
They'll build you a website, they'llget your input, they can put their
creative flare on it. I meanthey can do a little bit of everything.
That will probably cost more because it'sa company, they're gonna have a
lot of overhead costs team members.Generally, a web agency will will ask
for long term commitments from their clients, so there will be an ongoing monthly
(24:11):
fee where they're doing continual work,but you may be locked into something like
six months to a year of commitmentwith an agency. There's also freelancers like
myself that do work one on onewith a person or a company. They
set their own rates. Freelancers canbe found on sites like upwork and fiverr.
(24:33):
Those are my two kind of favoritesites that I go to to look
for people who are experts in allthings web related. There's also some DIY
options. So if someone is feelinglike, you know what, I think
I can do this. I ama little tech savvy or I'm a lot
tech savvy and I think I justwant to build my own there are some
(24:53):
great DIY websites where you can goset your own website up, do all
your own pictures, do all yourown content. So there's sites like squarespace,
Wix. GoDaddy has a builder.I really don't recommend the go Daddy
builder, but they do have one. So if if you have a domain
name and GoDaddy, it's pretty easyto set up. It's just not flexible
(25:17):
at all. I have had tohelp companies move away from their GoDaddy site
and essentially start from scratch because theGoDaddy site really wasn't doing them any favors.
There's also Weebly. I personally useWordPress for all my sites just because
it's what I know. It's veryflexible, it's very customizable. There's a
lot of different things you can dowith WordPress to make it exactly what you
(25:41):
want. So if you're thinking aboutdoing a website, one thing to keep
in mind is there will be someongoing expenses, although they really should not
be enormous. You're going to havethe expensive purchasing a domain name, and
then each year you will need torenew that domain name, so that can
cost anywhere from ten to twenty dollarsa year. It just depends on if
(26:03):
it's a dot com, if it'sa dot org, and who you've bought
it from. You will also needto pay for hosting, which will cost
again, depending on where you boughtit from. I do my nearly and
I think I just paid like fortyfive dollars per year, so it's not
a huge expense. If it isa huge expense, you might be working
with the wrong hosting provider. Andthen in terms of maintenance, you did
(26:26):
ask about maintenance on a website.So it just really depends. But there
is definitely some maintenance that needs tobe done to websites. You can't just
build it and then never look atit again. Things will probably need to
be updated from time to time.I with all my clients, I actually
do a monthly check in just tomake sure there's no plugins that aren't working,
that there's nothing broken. Just somethingto think about in terms of cost.
(26:49):
If you are going to hire acompany or a freelancer, I would
highly recommend asking to see other websitesthey've built. Do they have any experience
with your industry in terms of adultcare homes? They may not have any
experience with adult care homes, butdo they know anything about senior care?
As we all know when we starttalking about the terminology that we all use
(27:11):
day to day in terms of seniorcare, most people have no idea what
we're talking about. So it'd bereally nice to work with somebody who kind
of already had some general sense ofsenior care. And then I would ask
them, is ongoing maintenance and option? Is that something they do? How
much does that cost? Are theyfull service? Do they just set up
(27:32):
a website and they're done, oris it somebody that's going to hang out
with you for the duration of yourwebsite. And then probably the question on
everyone's mind is how does their paymentschedule work? Are they flexible with their
payment schedule? Do they ask foreverything up front? I think that would
be a super important question for everyone, regardless of who you work with or
(27:53):
what company you hire. I wouldhighly recommend making sure that you have full
access to the back end of yourwebsite, even if you never go on
the back end, even if youget there already have no idea what to
do. And the last thing thatI will say, Alissa, back to
the idea of telling a story.I know how hard providers have worked to
(28:17):
get to the point where they havea business. Their home is open,
They've passed all the inspections, everythingis moving as it should. They've worked
so hard to get there It's soimportant to reward yourself and that story and
that work with a website that canreally share that with other people, because
I know it's a labor of lovefor so many providers, no doubt about
(28:38):
that. Thanks Amy, I meaneverything that you just shared with us.
What a benefit to anyone who's listening, who is thinking about doing this,
from enhancing their own website or startingfor the first time. I feel like
I've been totally educated here in theshort conversation. So I just thank you
for that so much. It's justgreat. And for anyone who is listening
and interested in getting in touch withyou, Amy, how would they best
(29:00):
do that? The best way isthrough email For me. My email is
Amy at amy Clark dot com.Amy is spelled Amie, so if you
spell at Amy, I don't thinkI'll get the email. But it's a
M I E at am I EC l A r K dot com.
Thank you so much, Amy.You know we really truly appreciate your expertise
(29:25):
and appreciate you being a guest onthe podcast. Thank you for having me.
It was fun. This has beencare home conversations with your hosts Matt
Gannon and Alyssa Eltingmaguire produced by oregoncareHome Consulting and Training. Engineering by Roger
Smith, music by Brandon Elting.Have a question or a comment for us,
or a show topic that you'd recommend, Email us at podcast at oregoncarehome
(29:48):
dot com. If you haven't already, please sign up for our weekly newsletter
by visiting oregoncare home dot com.Be sure to join us next time,
and thanks for tuning in.
Hello, and welcome to the careHome Conversations podcast, where we have important
conversations about adult care homes. Weare your hosts, Matt Gannon and alyssa
Elsing maguire. The care Home Conversationspodcast is brought to you by oregoncare Home
Consulting and Training. To access allprevious shows, visit oregoncarehome dot com,
(00:24):
forward Slash Podcast, or search careHome Conversations on your favorite podcast app.
Melissa, would you like to giveus an update on our twenty twenty three
Fall care Home Conference. Yes,I'd love to. So. We've opened
registration for our twenty twenty three Fallcare Home Conference, which will be November
fourteenth in Lakeauswego. We really lookforward to seeing everyone again, so please
(00:46):
visit our website at oregoncarehome dot com, Forward Slash Training for registration information.
For our conversation today, we aretalking with Amy Clark, owner of Clark
Fork Media. The title for twoshow is Websites Where Your Story Comes Alive.
Amy, Thank you for being withus today. Thank you for having
(01:07):
me. Yes, thank you,Amy. It's really great to have you
as a guest on the podcast.And just to begin, Amy, we
know that you've created several leading seniorcare websites, including the Senior List and
Agingtoday dot com, and we're surethat many of our listeners have heard of
the Senior List. You're also aco founding member of the Oregon Senior Referral
Agency Association, also known as OSRA, and you recently created adultcare home dot
(01:33):
org. So that's a lot ofwork and we want to hear more about
it. Will you please share withus more a little bit about yourself,
including your educational and professional background andwhy you decided to start the Senior List.
Yeah, you bet. My backgroundis in social work. I have
worked with older adults my entire career, which is now getting up into about
(01:56):
twenty five years. I started outworking as a discharge play in skilled nursing
facilities and cut my teeth on acouple of the skilled buildings here in the
Portland metro area. That really wasn'tthe place that I belonged. I did
that for a couple of years.It was such a great learning experience,
but I decided I would be moreuseful helping older adults find housing, so
(02:20):
I ran Some of your listeners mayremember, if they've been around a while,
I ran a placement agency way backin the day called the Senior Resource
Network, and I did that tillabout twenty fifteen. So I dearly miss
working with adult care home providers.I had such a wonderful, loving experience
(02:43):
working with the homes, and Iplaced a lot of clients in some of
the most amazing adult care homes inthe Portland metro area. So I'm just
the thrilled to be talking to everybodytoday. I started the Senior List with
my husband back in two thousand andeight, and thousand and eight was still
kind of the wild West of theInternet in terms of good information. We
(03:07):
started the Senior List because at thattime there were no websites or resources that
you could go to to learn aboutreviews of anything related to senior care.
So I think about that time iswhen Angie's List came online, and it's
now I think just angie dot com. But it was a place where you
(03:27):
could go to read reviews about ahouse painter or someone to come and read
your bathroom. So we started theSenior List with the idea that people could
go online and read reviews about seniorcare businesses just in the Portland metro area.
I had no intention of ever turninginto something other than that. So
we got traction, and lots ofpeople were very interested in being able to
(03:52):
go online and read about the experiencesthat other people had had at assisted living
communities, adult care homes, nursinghomes, and the site just grew from
there. We started covering the stateof Oregon, and then eventually it turned
into this nationwide database of senior carecommunities. As you can imagine, that
(04:12):
is an incredible amount of work tokeep up with who's open, who's closed,
who's changed the name. It wasjust it was an enormous undertaking to
have that kind of directory, andeventually it wasn't where my heart was actually
at that time anymore, and westarted doing more writing about products and writing
(04:34):
about the things that were working wellfor people and the things that were not
working well for people, specifically medicalor systems. Again, back at that
time, there was really no innovationin the call buttons that people use.
The industry had not changed for thirtyyears. So we started writing about the
good companies and the not so goodcompanies and who was taking advantage of customers.
(04:59):
And again, this has just beensuch a long journey with that site.
But it eventually turned into this verycool advocacy focused site for older adults
with tons of information. So that'smy very long winded story about how the
Senior List came to be. Well, I appreciate you sharing that with us
and also sharing your why. Ilove to ask people that question, what
(05:21):
is your why for doing this?And it's interesting how it started with this
idea and it grew to be thisnational resource. It's amazing and I know
a lot of people have heard ofthe Senior List. I also know a
lot of people know about you throughyour placement business as well, so for
very good things about you. Butwe're really glad to have you here,
(05:42):
of course to talk about this.But I want to talk a little more
about websites. The majority of carehomes don't have websites for multiple reasons.
So I've had providers tell me thatthey don't have a site because they're not
going to be found on search engines. It's cost prohibitive, especially when they're
first started out, because there's justa lot of costs involved in the starting
the business. Now, some providersdo have websites, of course, they
(06:05):
primarily use their sites to highlight theirservices and showcase the home kind of what
the services they provide. So acouple questions for you, do you believe
that adult care homes need a website? And then what are the benefits and
what are some of the ways providerscan use their website to market their care
home. Those are great questions.To answer the first question, yes,
(06:26):
I absolutely think every adult care homeshould have a website. In fact,
I think every legitimate business should havea website. The last time I looked
at the statistic, seventy to eightypercent of consumers look for a website before
they visit a business. So ifyou think about the adult care home world,
(06:48):
you know, assuming that the majorityof your referrals are coming from either
placement agencies or directly from the networkthat you have in your own community,
Even if your referrals are coming fromthose people, the people they're referring you
too, are probably looking for youonline first before they ever step foot in
(07:10):
your home, before they ever makea phone call. So people are going
to be looking for you online.They may be looking for your home,
They may be looking for you.Somebody may get your name and they instantly
enter that in Google. My firstquestion to people who don't have websites is
what comes up when someone googles yourname, because your name is in the
(07:33):
state registry for being an adult carehome provider, so that's probably one of
the first places that pops up.But where else does your name come up?
Having a website lets you control,to a certain extent, what shows
up online about you and about yourhome. A website is a chance for
you to control your message and tellyour story. A website is also it's
(07:57):
just another marketing tool, just likebusesusiness cards, and brochures, but it
has potentially a much larger reach inregards to not being found on Google or
other search engines. A website ofan adult care home may not necessarily rank
for the term adult care home,but your website will rank for words like
(08:18):
your business name, your name,your address, your phone number, and
perhaps if someone googles adult care homenear me, if they're in your local
area, your local neighborhood. Chancesare, if it's done correctly, you
will pop up in the first pageof those search results. If a website
(08:39):
is set up and mamed maintained correctly, it's also possible to rank for other
terms that you may not necessarily thinkare going to bring you business, but
they are going to bring you visitorsto your website. People may be visiting
from other areas of the country thatyour website is popping up for or I'm
going to talk about this in alittle bit, but it's all part of
(09:01):
helping Google recognize that you are alegitimate business, that you're an expert at
something, that you have something tosay about this particular industry. All of
those things are so good for websitesand businesses. Thanks for that, Amy.
Continuing on with that, you talkabout a number of things can either
benefit a website or kind of hurtit a little bit. I want to
(09:22):
stick with that so with the careprovider in mind, maybe they've never built
a website before, they have noexperience with that, but they understand the
power of it and they want todo it correctly. Like you were talking
about, there's kind of a rightway and a wrong way. Break that
down for us. Talk more aboutthe right way to do it that would
benefit a care home provider's website,those key things like you said, key
(09:43):
search words for example, and thenwhat could hurt them ultimately whether they're doing
something or not doing it. Yeah, okay, So let's start with the
things that should be included on awebsite. The great thing about websites is
that a provider could highlight as manyor as little details as they wanted about
the home. They can also changethose things if your decor changes. You
(10:07):
can change a photo. When youhave just a brochure, that's not as
easy to do. The things thatI think would be important for an adult
care home to use in their websiteare what your rooms look like, who
your caregivers are, photos of yourgarden, photos of your pets. What
are the things that make your homeunique and special? Those things can all
(10:28):
be highlighted on your website. Whenyou're marketing out in the community. It's
the easiest way to show people yourhome and the love that's in your home
without an actual in person tour.In regards to elements elements about how people
can improve their website, what kindsof things websites need to contain. To
(10:50):
start with the basics, websites needto contain key information like your address,
your phone number, your name,but also what kinds of experiences do you
have as a provider, what's yourexpertise, what level is your home what
kinds of residents are you taking careof? That You can tell people a
(11:11):
lot about what you are crafting andwhat you do in your home through your
story, And that's just such agreat way to tell that story is on
a website. I would make surethat every website has an about us page.
Your about us page should be aboutyou, your background, why you
are drawn to this work, whatis your why? What is your story?
(11:35):
Is this a family run business?Is this a business that's run by
a husband and wife. People wantto know this information. Think about all
the things people ask during an inperson tour. All of that good information
should be on your website. Iwould always encourage people to include testimonials on
their websites. I think everyone hascards that people have written. Every one
(12:00):
has letters of recommendations. Those things, with permission from the families or the
permission of whoever wrote them, canbe put on your website. You can
type those out, have a pagethat's specifically for testimonials. When you talk
about the services that you offer inyour home, assume that people looking at
your website don't know anything about adultcare homes. They don't know anything about
(12:22):
senior care, which my experience andI'm assuming a lot of people who are
running adult care homes. The experienceis there's a lot of people that are
coming into this who are just shellshocked. They're being educated along the way.
Help them along in that journey.If your website can show them that
(12:43):
this is the thing you know about, this is your expertise, you're just
going to help foster an already developingrelationship with that person. That shows that
you know what you're doing and thiswould be a great place for their mom
and dad or their loved one.Another thing I think is really good for
or local businesses to include, especiallyadult care homes, on their website is
(13:05):
to talk about where your home islocated. If you think about people who
are looking for adult care homes,so many people want something that's close by,
somewhere that they can visit. Talkabout your neighborhood, talk about the
positive things. Is it walkable,is it close to stores or parks?
Even though a resident may never utilizethese things, Having this kind of descriptive
(13:28):
information on your website is so good, not just for families who are going
to be looking at it, becausesome families just place such huge importance on
the location, but also for Google. Google loves to see descriptive information on
websites that talks more than about justthe exact same thing that everybody else is
(13:50):
going to be talking about on yourwebsite. Also, every website needs a
contact page. You need to clearlylist your phone number. However you want
to be contacted your address, email, or even better than email, I
personally think, is a contact formbecause email can really be abused. It
(14:11):
can also get thrown out into thespam verse and all of a sudden you're
going to be getting all kinds ofcrazy stuff. But a contact form on
your website is a great way toencourage people to contact you. But if
you're okay with putting your business panenumber up there as well, I think
every website needs to have. Everybusiness needs to have a very clear contact
page. Now, the things thatcan hurt a website. The first most
(14:33):
important thing I would say that someonecan do wrong with their website is to
plagiarize from another website. Search enginesknow where information has shown up first,
So if you are simply copying andpasting from somebody else's website, Google is
not going to like that. There'schances your website will not even be indexed
(14:56):
to show up in search results.So the things you say on your website
have to be in your own words. If you have trouble writing, you
can hire a writer, and hiringa writer does not have to be expensive.
There are lots of sites like fiverlike upwork where you can hire somebody
to help you write this stuff foryour website. This is a little bit
(15:18):
technical, but you need to makesure you have a secure site, which
means having an SSL certificate, whichis that little lock the bar where a
URL shows up that needs to besecure again. Otherwise Google other search engines
won't trust your website and you'll getthis little pop up when someone comes to
(15:39):
your site that says, are yousure you trust this website? Because we're
not so sure. There are someother technical things to make sure what not
to do. I don't know thatI really want to dive into those so
much, but it's a reason tohave someone who knows about websites so that
they can just make sure that someof these technical things are implemented directly or
(16:00):
that they don't exist at all.The other thing that can really hurt your
website is to participate in any sortof spammy link exchange. There's a lot
of people out there who promise thatthey can get you on page one,
who promise that they can get youlinks on a bunch of websites. That
is usually a scam. If Googlesuspects that you participate in any sorts of
(16:22):
link exchange schemes, it's another wayto just instantly get kicked off the search
results and then again duplicate content.In terms of adult care homes, you're
probably all going to be talking aboutthe same thing, but you need to
be able to tell it in yourown way. Part of doing that is
to include your specific details, yourspecific story, the story of your home.
(16:48):
Photos. I need to mention photos. I have seen some great websites
with really sad photos on the websiteof the home. It may cost a
little bit of money, but itwould be so worth it to have a
professional photographer come into your home,make sure the lighting is correct, and
(17:10):
take good professional photos of your home. If potential residents families are looking at
your website as their very first impressionand they see dark, dingy, not
well set up photos with a comeout in the background next to a living
room chair, there's things that youcan do to make those photos look really
(17:30):
good, and I just think it'sreally important. I know that's a lot,
but those are kind of my toplevel. Don't do this on your
website. That information is key andit's really essential that people need to know.
It's invaluable information too, because Ithink that just by diving a little
bit deeper into the why you carehome provider would want to have a website
(17:52):
or need a website, and thenhow they can use it is really key.
And you mentioned something I want tojust reiterate, what is your why
and what is your story? Ilove that that is such a marketing tool
in and of itself, your whyin your story because you know what that
comes from the heart, and Ithink that's the key here. So I
want to ask you, if aprovider then does have a website, how
(18:17):
do they know if it's working,if anything's broken? How many people are
actually looking at their website or isnobody looking at their website? How do
they know that? And then whatdo they need to do and know about
their website? Yeah? Great question. So there are several different tools and
(18:37):
they're all Google related and they're allfree. The reason I continue to say
the word Google instead of being andduc ducgo and other search engines, is
that Google accounts for I have notlooked at the statistic lately, but I
think it's literally like ninety percent ofonline searches are and on Google. Google
(19:02):
also has some really great tools tohelp people understand what's working and what's not
working on their website. Once Ido a website, one of the first
things I do is plug in GoogleAnalytics, which is a free tool through
Google that literally tells you day today and sometimes if you have enough traffic,
it will tell you in real timehow much traffic you're getting, where
(19:26):
it's coming from, what pages peopleare looking at. Are they coming to
your homepage and then immediately bouncing,Are they just leaving right away or are
they spending time on your website?Are they clicking on photos? Are they
looking at your pictures? There's allkinds of really cool things you can tell
about your website with Google Analytics.The second tool that I use every day
(19:51):
is Google Search Console. Google SearchConsole also tells you about your traffic,
but it's very specific to search traffic, so it's not going to tell you
how many Facebook clicks you got orhow many Instagram clicks you got. It's
simply about who came to your websitebecause they searched for a thing and then
(20:11):
they clicked on your website. Thegreat thing about Google Search Console, once
a site has been marinating for alittle while, you can look to see
what people are searching for that yourwebsite actually showed up in a search result,
but they didn't click on it.It's one of the best tools for
me as a person who works onwebsites, to go in and say,
(20:33):
Okay, you're showing up in thesesearch results, but no one's clicking on
your site. Why is that?What do we need to fix? Is
there a title tag that we needto fix? Does your website just say
ABC dot com care home slash homeyou know? Is that what's showing up
in the search results? What canwe do to make this better? And
(20:55):
again, not to get too technical, but there's several things that can be
fixed and changed and improved to helpimprove people clicking through on your site.
The other tool that I use alittle bit for analytics, but also it's
a great promotional tool is the GoogleBusiness Listing. It's a really great way
(21:17):
when you search for something. Ifyou search for a business. Sometimes you'll
get the map and all their businessdetails and reviews that people have written.
That's a Google business listing. It'sa free thing to set up. It's
just such a great way to promoteyour business, let people know who you
are if someone's near you and they'researching for adult care homes. It's such
(21:38):
an amazing free tool to use,and there's ways to make those Google business
listings super powerful, good descriptions,asking people to write Google reviews, and
then those can click through to yourwebsite, so that helps analyze. There's
also some reporting that comes with thatin terms of how many people clicked on
(21:59):
your website, how many people we'llclick on your phone number. But it's
also another great way to drive trafficto your website. You mentioned it's complicated.
It is kind of ties into mylast question here. It's complicated.
You really want to look at workingwith somebody who has expertise in this area.
Just like a lot of things wedo as business owners, we want
(22:22):
to delegate to other people because wecan't do it all. And I think
with a lot of providers who alreadyhave so much on their plate, the
thought of adding the creation of andthe maintenance of a website probably seems a
little bit overwhelming and it's really somethingthat they're going to need support with.
So if they do hire someone,can you give us a general idea of
(22:42):
how much this might cost to bothdesign and develop the website and the maintenance
of the website, and what dothey look for and of course can they
hire you. Yes, So we'llstart with cost. The cost is really
going to end. It will dependon if this is a brand new project
(23:03):
or is there an existing site thatsimply needs to be improved. It depends
on if a provider just wants asingle page or if they want to have
multiple sections of a site that highlightall the amazing things about their homes.
If I had to throw out anumber, and this is a very large
range because it's going to depend Ithink is my best answer, but I
(23:26):
would anticipate anywhere from fifteen hundred tofive thousand dollars to start with. Now,
again, that's going to depend onif it's brand new or if it's
an existing project. There's different typesof people and companies that will work on
websites. There are agencies, thereare companies that is what they do.
(23:48):
They'll build you a website, they'llget your input, they can put their
creative flare on it. I meanthey can do a little bit of everything.
That will probably cost more because it'sa company, they're gonna have a
lot of overhead costs team members.Generally, a web agency will will ask
for long term commitments from their clients, so there will be an ongoing monthly
(24:11):
fee where they're doing continual work,but you may be locked into something like
six months to a year of commitmentwith an agency. There's also freelancers like
myself that do work one on onewith a person or a company. They
set their own rates. Freelancers canbe found on sites like upwork and fiverr.
(24:33):
Those are my two kind of favoritesites that I go to to look
for people who are experts in allthings web related. There's also some DIY
options. So if someone is feelinglike, you know what, I think
I can do this. I ama little tech savvy or I'm a lot
tech savvy and I think I justwant to build my own there are some
(24:53):
great DIY websites where you can goset your own website up, do all
your own pictures, do all yourown content. So there's sites like squarespace,
Wix. GoDaddy has a builder.I really don't recommend the go Daddy
builder, but they do have one. So if if you have a domain
name and GoDaddy, it's pretty easyto set up. It's just not flexible
(25:17):
at all. I have had tohelp companies move away from their GoDaddy site
and essentially start from scratch because theGoDaddy site really wasn't doing them any favors.
There's also Weebly. I personally useWordPress for all my sites just because
it's what I know. It's veryflexible, it's very customizable. There's a
lot of different things you can dowith WordPress to make it exactly what you
(25:41):
want. So if you're thinking aboutdoing a website, one thing to keep
in mind is there will be someongoing expenses, although they really should not
be enormous. You're going to havethe expensive purchasing a domain name, and
then each year you will need torenew that domain name, so that can
cost anywhere from ten to twenty dollarsa year. It just depends on if
(26:03):
it's a dot com, if it'sa dot org, and who you've bought
it from. You will also needto pay for hosting, which will cost
again, depending on where you boughtit from. I do my nearly and
I think I just paid like fortyfive dollars per year, so it's not
a huge expense. If it isa huge expense, you might be working
with the wrong hosting provider. Andthen in terms of maintenance, you did
(26:26):
ask about maintenance on a website.So it just really depends. But there
is definitely some maintenance that needs tobe done to websites. You can't just
build it and then never look atit again. Things will probably need to
be updated from time to time.I with all my clients, I actually
do a monthly check in just tomake sure there's no plugins that aren't working,
that there's nothing broken. Just somethingto think about in terms of cost.
(26:49):
If you are going to hire acompany or a freelancer, I would
highly recommend asking to see other websitesthey've built. Do they have any experience
with your industry in terms of adultcare homes? They may not have any
experience with adult care homes, butdo they know anything about senior care?
As we all know when we starttalking about the terminology that we all use
(27:11):
day to day in terms of seniorcare, most people have no idea what
we're talking about. So it'd bereally nice to work with somebody who kind
of already had some general sense ofsenior care. And then I would ask
them, is ongoing maintenance and option? Is that something they do? How
much does that cost? Are theyfull service? Do they just set up
(27:32):
a website and they're done, oris it somebody that's going to hang out
with you for the duration of yourwebsite. And then probably the question on
everyone's mind is how does their paymentschedule work? Are they flexible with their
payment schedule? Do they ask foreverything up front? I think that would
be a super important question for everyone, regardless of who you work with or
(27:53):
what company you hire. I wouldhighly recommend making sure that you have full
access to the back end of yourwebsite, even if you never go on
the back end, even if youget there already have no idea what to
do. And the last thing thatI will say, Alissa, back to
the idea of telling a story.I know how hard providers have worked to
(28:17):
get to the point where they havea business. Their home is open,
They've passed all the inspections, everythingis moving as it should. They've worked
so hard to get there It's soimportant to reward yourself and that story and
that work with a website that canreally share that with other people, because
I know it's a labor of lovefor so many providers, no doubt about
(28:38):
that. Thanks Amy, I meaneverything that you just shared with us.
What a benefit to anyone who's listening, who is thinking about doing this,
from enhancing their own website or startingfor the first time. I feel like
I've been totally educated here in theshort conversation. So I just thank you
for that so much. It's justgreat. And for anyone who is listening
and interested in getting in touch withyou, Amy, how would they best
(29:00):
do that? The best way isthrough email For me. My email is
Amy at amy Clark dot com.Amy is spelled Amie, so if you
spell at Amy, I don't thinkI'll get the email. But it's a
M I E at am I EC l A r K dot com.
Thank you so much, Amy.You know we really truly appreciate your expertise
(29:25):
and appreciate you being a guest onthe podcast. Thank you for having me.
It was fun. This has beencare home conversations with your hosts Matt
Gannon and Alyssa Eltingmaguire produced by oregoncareHome Consulting and Training. Engineering by Roger
Smith, music by Brandon Elting.Have a question or a comment for us,
or a show topic that you'd recommend, Email us at podcast at oregoncarehome
(29:48):
dot com. If you haven't already, please sign up for our weekly newsletter
by visiting oregoncare home dot com.Be sure to join us next time,
and thanks for tuning in.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com