By Stephen Tweed

This week I was doing some home care industry research for a Strategic Business Coaching client, and I came across this list of the Top 10 Marketing Sources for home care companies from the HCP Home Care Benchmarking Report. I realized that three of the top five sources are related to internet digital marketing. 

While word of mouth marketing is the leading source of new clients by a significant margin, others in the top 5 are Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Google Ad Words, and Internet Lead Sites. That caused me to think about the new developments in SEO, Ad Words, and Internet Lead Sites that will affect our ability to reach new clients on the web.

For more insights, I reached out to our Home Care CEO Resource Partner, MediaStead, to learn more about how they see digital marketing shifting for home care companies. Michael Rapino, Creative Director and Senior Partner, has a great article on Google’s new SGE – Semantic Generation Engine – which is a new AI-powered technology that will change the way people search for information online.

In his article, Michael shares some very interesting insights about how SGE will affect you and  your home care company web site:

With SGE, users will be able to ask Google questions in a natural language conversational format. Google will then use its AI to generate answers to the user’s questions. This type of interaction will make it much easier for people to find the information they are looking for, and it will also make Google Search more powerful and versatile.

According to Google, the following types of content will be given more prominence with SGE:

• Facts: SGE will generate summaries of factual topics, such as historical events, scientific discoveries, and geographical features.
• Definitions: SGE will provide definitions for words and phrases.
• Comparisons: SGE will compare different products, services, and ideas.
• Summaries: SGE will summarize long pieces of text, such as news articles, blog posts, and research papers.

Local SEO will remain a valuable tool for businesses, and it is not likely to be completely replaced by Google SGE.

Here are some tips for Home Care Companies to improve their SEO in the wake of Google SGE:

• Create a strong online presence by creating a website, social media profiles, and Google Business profile(s) for your business.
• Optimize your website for search engines by using SEO best practices.
• Create high-quality content on your website that is informative and engaging.
• Build backlinks to your website from high-quality websites.
• Promote your website on social media and other online channels.

How Does This Affect Your Home Care Company?

Thinking about all this AI and SGE caused me to question what home care companies are doing to incorporate these new technologies into your web site, SEO, and digital marketing.  Are you keeping up to date with these trends in technology, or is your website a static electronic brochure?  Are you tracking the results you are getting from your digital marketing and recruiting, and how is it working for you?

These insights caused me to consider these questions for Home Care CEOs:

What are you doing to attract more new clients by expanding your digital footprint?
What are you doing to reach more new caregivers by expanding your digital footprint?

Let Leading Home Care be your resource for Home Care Facts, Data, and Trends.