HOTH X: Ranking Keywords Increase 4,000% With Senior Living SEO
The senior living industry can be competitive and that’s why it’s imperative to have an SEO strategy that is both effective and consistent.
Providers need to rank high on Google to stay competitive because potential residents have so many options to choose from.
A simple search of “senior living centers” will deliver many viable options in your city and multiple Google Ads at the very top of SERP.
Most online users don’t navigate to the second page of Google so it’s important to grab a potential resident’s attention right away.
In this case study, we’ll discuss how we helped a Kentucky-based senior living center grow its ranking keywords by 4,000% thanks to HOTH X. By doing this, we also grew their traffic by 2,338%.
Keep reading below to find out exactly how we did it.
Background
One of our long-term clients decided to enroll in HOTH X at the start of 2019. They are a senior living center in Kentucky offering independent living, assisted living, short-term rehab, and hospice care for the elderly.
This client wanted to expand web traffic to reach more potential clients and improve its ranking to build brand awareness.
SEO optimization could help with both of these goals!
For about a year they had been using HOTH products a la carte but decided they were ready to commit to our fully-managed SEO program.
Their target market is adults 45-65 seeking assisted living centers for elderly parents or relatives. Patients were one audience but so were their younger children or relatives who were researching facilities online.
We noticed they had a functional website and a blog that had been launched a year earlier. Both of these items would make our job easier.
Once enrolled in HOTH X, we were able to conduct a complete audit on the client’s site and find out exactly what holes needed to be plugged in their senior living SEO game.
The SEO Audit
Effective marketing is all about data. We couldn’t build the client a winning SEO strategy until we understood what was happening with their traffic, keywords, and links.
Therefore, we started by conducting a complete SEO audit of their site. We do this with every new client so we can build a customized approach.
When they first signed up for HOTH X in January 2019, the client’s website was averaging about 150 monthly visitors. It hadn’t grown substantially over the previous three years.
We know that more visitors equals more potential clients so our priority would be to increase their traffic.
Ranking keywords were a different story. In May 2018, they had managed to increase ranking keywords from about 100 to 300 but it soon dropped.
At the beginning of our HOTH X campaign, they had an average of 420 ranking keywords. That was another reason for the slower traffic.
The last metric we examined was backlinks. Getting a link from an authoritative site is the key to boosting your senior living SEO.
This client had maintained around 45 links over five years. They would need many more before their traffic and rankings would turn around.
The “Easy Wins” Keyword Analysis
After collecting all of the key data on the senior living center, we were ready to identify “easy win” keywords.
The client was already ranking for about 420 keywords. Our task would be to find keywords they were already ranking for in positions 4-30.
Most likely, these keywords started ranking naturally based on their blog posts and web copy.
Once we found them, we could place them more strategically across the site. It’s considered an easy win because we take what they already have working for them and expand it.
What’s the result of finding “easy win” keywords? A quick boost in traffic to help tie a client over until our senior living SEO strategy powers up.
Some of the keywords we found included “signs of failing health in elderly,” “when is memory care necessary,” “when to choose hospice,” and “choosing a rehabilitation facility.”
As you can see, these are long-tail keywords with three or more words that are also framed as questions to find a specific answer.
After compiling a list of “easy win” keywords we could strategically add them to the client’s content.
Competitive Gap Analysis
Senior living centers need a state license to operate. Therefore, we knew exactly how many assisted living centers were competing with our client: 256!
Not all of these centers provide the same care and service as our client but many are vying for the same potential residents.
Websites, on the other hand, compete for the same keywords. A similar center in a neighboring city or state could be a top competitor. But not always because Google does take search location into account.
We learned that this client has 49 online competitors or domains trying to rank for the same keywords.
For example, one competitor had 1,141 keywords in common with our client. They only ranked for 93 unique keywords. It would be safe to say that this site is very similar to our client’s.
Others were on the opposite side of the spectrum, one ranking for 19,163 unique keywords that our client didn’t have.
Examples of the keywords we found included:
- “alzheimer’s care”
- “nursing homes near me”
- “types of dementia”
- “bed rails for seniors”
- “walkers for elderly”
What do we do with this information? Our senior living SEO team will look through competitor domains and select keywords that will help our client rank higher.
The Senior Living SEO Strategy
All of the necessary data and information were collected, and finally, it was time to create a new SEO campaign for our client.
Here are some of the HOTH X services they accessed:
- HOTH Blogger
- HOTH Guest Post
- HOTH Boost
- HOTH Web Copy
- HOTH Press
- HOTH Syndication
- And More!
We literally threw the kitchen sink at this client’s SEO campaign!
As a member of HOTH X, they had full access to all of our products. Otherwise, each of them would have to be purchased separately and they wouldn’t have the added benefit of an experienced campaign manager to coordinate it all.
Our team did a ton of work for this client. Where to start?
First, we developed their existing blog using HOTH Blogger, one of our most popular products that offer SEO-optimized blog posts ranging from 500 to 2,000 words.
Blogs provide visitors with important information about products and services, and they can also be ranked by Google.
The SEO team also optimized some of their existing pages using HOTH Web Copy. Many clients use this product to freshen up their sales pages with the latest keywords and optimize them for conversions.
Another one of our content products, HOTH Press, is a secret weapon to growing your brand and landing some links. Clients get professionally-written press releases that we send to 300+ news outlets.
It’s perfect for special events or important announcements!
We also offer content syndication. This means we can take your most popular blogs or published news stories and spread them out to our network of authoritative publishers.
HOTH Syndication means more eyes on your content and some natural links.
Speaking of links, we started growing the client’s backlinks using HOTH Guest Post. This product is similar to Blogger except we publish the piece on an external site with higher domain authority or more traffic.
Our guest posts are the most effective way to get high-quality backlinks.
There were also a few times when we used HOTH Boost to improve existing links.
Some natural links don’t give you as much “link juice” as you may like but our product will help boost that up to increase traffic and rankings.
Once the client’s senior living SEO started heating up we assisted them with setting up some paid advertising to bring in more leads directly to optimized landing pages.
HOTH PPC is a good short-term option for delivering qualified traffic to your site.
Of course, you wouldn’t be working with The HOTH if you didn’t get special discounts and promotions along the way.
This client took advantage of our special deals to maximize SEO while saving money.
They even tried out HOTH Bulk to earn discounts on services they were already paying for.
We post many case studies but this one is a perfect example of a client who used nearly all of the products we offer.
And it paid off for them in the end! Keep scrolling to find out what happened next.
Results
After all of the hard work we put in for this senior living center through HOTH X, we were proud to present them with these amazing results!
What they needed was more traffic and that’s exactly what we delivered!
By the start of 2020, we had increased their traffic from 150 to 1,632 monthly visitors. Today, the client is getting 3,658 monthly visitors.
Check out their growth below!
How did we grow their traffic so much? First, all of our senior living SEO efforts resulted in more ranking keywords.
The more keywords a website ranks for, the more likely it’ll appear in a search.
In the chart above, you can see how the number of ranking keywords spiked at the end of January 2019.
If you look at January 2022, you can see how we’ve also started gaining more competitive keywords in positions 1-3. It takes time and effort, but it can be done!
All of the guest posts we produced for this client also resulted in additional referral traffic and a higher domain rating.
Google sees all of the backlinks leading to a client’s site and knows it can be trusted. Authoritativeness and trustworthiness are important in the algorithm.
The total number of backlinks grew from around 45 to 433 today, and the client’s domain rating doubled (from 20 to 42).
Everything we did to help this client’s SEO worked beautifully. They continue working with us on growing their business and we can’t wait to see what happens to them next.
Takeaway
The HOTH has a full suite of effective and affordable SEO products to grow your business.
Our services are bulletproof when used together as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy. That’s something you get when you enroll in HOTH X.
In our managed program, you can choose as many products as you want. You can be like this client and use nearly all of them!
Another benefit of signing with us to put your marketing on autopilot is being paired with an experienced campaign manager who can look through all of your data and recommend the best course of action.
How would you like to learn more about HOTH X and whether it would work for your business?
Schedule a phone call with one of our consultants to get started!
