Best Assisted Living Websites: 5 UX Elements to Make Your Phone Ring

In the ever-evolving senior housing market, the landscape has undergone a seismic shift. Gone are the days when a mere doctor's referral sufficed for finding a trusted senior living community. Instead, the game-changer lies in harnessing the power of social media networks and search engines, where recommendations and online presence hold the key to success.

To thrive in this competitive and complex environment, a robust digital marketing strategy is imperative. Your senior living website must become a magnet, drawing in prospective residents and their family members through a seamless integration of search engine optimization, website design, PPC, social media pages, and reviews.

Are you prepared to embark on this transformative journey? In this blog, we'll explore the realm of professional digital marketing, equipping you with the tools and insights to position your senior living website at the forefront of the competition. Let's navigate this dynamic landscape together, carving a path towards success that resonates with both hearts and algorithms alike!

Empowering Your Assisted Living Facility: Capitalizing on the Digital Search Era

In today's fast-paced world, the search for a senior living community has evolved into a digital journey, shaped by tech-savvy and connected decision-makers—the adult children and family members of seniors seeking safer living options and life care communities for their beloved seniors.

As the dawn of this search era breaks, it's crucial to recognize that your community's success hinges on mastering the digital marketing world. The first step begins with understanding the habits of these decision-makers, who turn to social networks to find recommendations from friends and family. Hours of online research follow, exploring a vast array of articles, that cover everything from expert tips on choosing a senior living community to uncovering the best communities that specialize in memory care.

Once the research phase concludes, the family members stand ready to compare communities, eagerly seeking tours, and eventually, making this big life decision for their loved one.

In this dynamic digital landscape, the future of your assisted living community's occupancy rate lies within your grasp. Embrace the power of digital marketing to connect with and captivate your target audience. Join us as we unravel the secrets to leveraging this digital search era, let's embark on this journey together, where expertise meets technology, and compassion meets conversion, to keep your assisted living community thriving at its fullest potential!

Should You Partner with a Healthcare Marketing Agency or Hire a Website Design Freelancer?

As more senior care communities and life care communities are built to accommodate the growing silver tsunami across the US, the local senior living market is becoming more competitive. To reach potential residents and their families, it's more important than ever for assisted living facilities, nursing homes, retirement communities, and senior communities do everything they can to be visible online and stand out from the crowd. That's why the most successful local assisted living facilities need the help of a digital marketing agency experienced in senior living and healthcare marketing.

Assisted Living Website Design: The First Step to Standing Out in the Senior Care Industry

In the competitive world of senior care, managing your marketing budget requires careful consideration. Striking the right balance between engaging prospects, driving traffic, and converting leads is crucial. And if you're contemplating whether investing in a new website is worth it, the resounding answer is a definite yes, yes, and yes!

A professional senior living website forms the fundamental building block of your online presence. It serves as the first impression for families of prospective residents and offers a treasure trove of information about your services – making it the cornerstone of all your marketing efforts.

If you lack a website or have an outdated one, you're squandering the opportunity to effectively promote your services, showcase your values, and highlight the essence of what makes your senior living community exceptional.

Your website is not just a platform; it's an opportunity to shine. By showcasing your brand identity and the core values that set you apart, you'll capture the hearts and minds of potential residents and their families. Let's embark on this journey of crafting an irresistible online presence that elevates your senior living community to unparalleled heights of success!

What about DIY sites that use website templates?

While the idea of building your own website with a senior living template might seem cost-effective, the reality is that they often come with usability challenges, consuming valuable time better spent on growing your business. Your senior living website deserves a custom design that exudes uniqueness, aligning perfectly with your brand's identity. It should boast original content that not only aids visitors in choosing an assisted living community but also compels them to choose your facility above all others.

However, a visually appealing website alone is not sufficient. Search engines meticulously scrutinize websites based on specific criteria. At the very least, your website must be fast and sport a responsive design. Responsive websites ensure a seamless customer experience across all devices, adapting effortlessly to varying screen sizes, from large monitors to mobile phones and tablets.

Remember, your website is the face of your senior living community in the digital realm, and its excellence directly impacts your online success. So, let's unleash the true potential of your website, harmonizing design, content, and responsiveness to enthrall both your audience and the search engines alike. Together, we'll create an online sanctuary that resonates deeply with visitors, guiding them to make your facility their ultimate choice in the senior care journey.

User-Friendly Sites: A Crucial Element in Your Online Success

When crafting a new senior living website, it's imperative to ensure that it not only showcases your brand identity and captivates visually but also offers a seamless user experience. A professionally designed and developed website must be user-friendly and easy to navigate, effortlessly guiding visitors through their journey.

First and foremost, the contact information should be prominently displayed, making it obvious how to get in touch with you. Additionally, menus, call-to-actions (CTAs), and links should be crystal clear and concise, leaving no room for confusion. Each click should lead the user exactly where they intend to go, ensuring a frustration-free browsing experience.

For instance, your website visitors are likely seeking more information about your staff, senior living options, activities, meals, and floor plans. Your website should intuitively guide them to the next steps they need to take, whether it's filling out a form or making a direct call for additional information.

Remember, a user-friendly website not only delights visitors but also boosts engagement and fosters trust in your senior living community. Let's create an online sanctuary that leaves a lasting impression on every visitor, leading them effortlessly towards the warmth and comfort of your senior care haven.

5 UX Elements Every Assisted Living Website Design Needs to Earn Trust and Convert More Leads

When it comes to crafting high-converting senior living websites, opinions abound, with strategies ranging from behavioral science to client case studies. The truth is, senior living marketing isn't a one-size-fits-all approach.

However, amidst the diversity of opinions, most healthcare marketing experts agree on five critical elements that every successful assisted living website design must incorporate. Why? Because these elements align with user expectations, fostering engagement and conversions.

Take, for instance, the familiar placement of the logo on the left, the phone number on the right, and the page navigation above the banner – a time-tested formula that visitors intuitively expect. When you deviate from this established pattern, users may struggle to navigate your site, leading to frustration and ultimately, a higher bounce rate.

In truth, the key UX strategies for senior living website design mirror those used by most service industry websites. We are proud to present the five fundamental UX elements that form the bedrock of a thriving assisted living website. By focusing on these elements, you'll instill trust in your audience, deliver the right amount of information, guidance, and support, and create a digital sanctuary that resonates deeply with visitors. Take a closer look below for some best practices in assisted living web design.

Home Page

A well-designed home page seems like a pretty obvious UX element for senior community web designs. We chose to include it because there are disagreements on the ideal page length and what to have on it. As a top healthcare marketing agency, High Level Marketing is a fan of long-format web design for home pages. Why? Your home page will be the most visited page on your website.

Choosing a senior living facility for your mom, dad, or loved one is stressful. You have a fraction of a second to attract, engage, and persuade visitors to scroll, click, or call. It needs to provide enough information for search engines to find it relevant for search queries, but the information on the page needs to be skimmable, and the graphics should be easy to process. In other words, incite emotion and create a lasting impression. Don't make your potential clients think. Use bullets, accordions, callouts, testimonials, awards, and happy people to invoke emotion, earn trust, and guide the visitor down the page and into a decision to call you.

About Page

A well-planned about page will be your potential client's virtual tour. It should be light and informative, talking about your history, your philosophy for senior care, and how you choose your staff. It should include photos of happy residents with staff members helping them and pictures of activities they can expect their loved ones to participate in. And it should have content that will drive visitors deeper into your website. Create opportunities to send people to location pages (if you have more than one), a team bio page, a floor plan page, a gallery page, an event page, and anything else your potential clients regularly ask about by phone or during tours.

Original Blogs

As an experienced healthcare marketing agency, we highly recommend including a blog on your website. For some senior living communities, blog articles are the number one driver of traffic to the website. Relevant, informational articles get picked up by search engines. They are essential to gaining traction and visibility on search engine results pages. Posting original articles pertinent to caregivers and seniors will help ensure a broad audience will get exposure to your assisted living facility. Many of our clients include lifestyle articles as part of their senior living marketing plan. They promote events, feature residents, and highlight staff contributions and shout-outs, allowing potential clients to imagine what it would be like to live there.

Real Photos

That's right, real photos. Even less-than-perfect pictures are better than stock photos for communicating the real you. For most of the content areas on a website, taking pictures with a smartphone on the hi-res setting will be sufficient for a website. We recommend you professionally shoot banners and large background photos due to their large format. However, those would be the only shots where we may recommend stock photography.

Your website photos should be bright, welcoming, lively, and beautiful. The text that goes alongside your images should be clear and concise. These two things will allow people to get the answers to their questions visually- after all when it comes to websites, we are skimmers, not readers. Make sure people are happy, engaged, and inviting. Focus on shots that represent your senior living facility as a community and not just a home. Read a great article on how many photos your website needs.

Live Chat

Live chat is now becoming the norm for senior living websites. People want answers, and they want them immediately. We live in a digital world, and if you wish your assisted living website to convert more customers, you need to make sure people can get answers the way they want to. Live chat has gotten a bad rap. It stems from companies who offer it but then don't staff it. The worst experience you can create is a live chat with a series of questions and auto-generated answers.

Live chat with an actual live attendant can offer the assistance someone needs to take the next step. It shows your genuine interest in helping them at a difficult time. It is an excellent way to introduce yourselves as a valuable resource and a community that cares about people. Live chat can help you build a rapport that will differentiate you from your competition.

Taking the First Step

Should You Partner with a Healthcare Marketing Agency or Hire Website Design Freelancer?

Some industries would do just fine to hire a freelance website designer. The senior living and healthcare industries will not. You need to hire an experienced healthcare marketing agency like High Level Marketing for your nursing home or assisted living website because you are in a highly competitive industry. A lot is riding on your website design, the platform it's developed on, the content included, and the team of SEO, PPC, content marketing, and healthcare marketing experts that can provide a competitive analysis and custom plan to outrank and outperform them. Most freelancers are graphic designers who don't have access to the tools, technology, or experts needed for your facility to be competitive online. We do.