AGED CARE WEBSITE MIGRATION FROM GODADDY TO WORDPRESS
In February 2019 I provided marketing consultancy on a short term contract basis for a private aged care service provider who wanted to improve their digital marketing activities. When they first contacted me it was about getting regular social media management, but I quickly made them realise how important it was to have a more robust marketing strategy that included;
- A professional looking website.
- Clearly communicated unique selling propositions.
- Improving their local area marketing using a Google My Business profile.
My marketing execution delivered measurable results in a very short space of time and left them with a solid platform to build on.
GODADDY SITE BUILDER MIGRATION
NEW WORDPRESS WEBSITE DESIGN
WEBSITE SEO DEVELOPMENT
BRAND USP
DEVELOPMENT
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS OPTIMISATION
CONTENT
CREATION
WHAT WAS THE MARKETING BRIEF?
Review the current marketing activities.
Like many small business owners in Australia, this aged care service provider didn’t have the resources to put time and energy into their small business marketing execution. They were attending local community events to promote their brand and they had set up a Facebook and Instagram profile but these weren’t actively being used, most of their business was being generated by existing clients and referrals. They did attempt to have a website set up which was created on a GoDaddy free website builder but they didn’t really know if it was working for them or not. Read my article about Using Free Website Builders. So essentially they were generating new enquiries from word of mouth, existing clients and referrals from local hospitals, doctors and other healthcare services, but they weren’t getting found by people searching online to be discovered by new customers.
They had been ripped off by a website designer
Sadly, this aged care business had committed over $1,000 to have their website professionally developed but were left waiting for 6 months to see just a mock up. Even then, the designer had simply reformatted their existing site without any deeper marketing development or SEO strategy applied to it. So this aesthetic makeover would basically have made little to no difference to their results and be very poor return on investment.
So they felt stuck, frustrated and not sure what to do considering the time and energy that had already been invested in the project.
WHAT MARKETING CHALLENGES DID I DISCOVER?
THE CURRENT AGED CARE WEBSITE WAS CREATED USING A FREE WEBSITE BUILDER
They had attempted to present their aged care service by using a GoDaddy's free website builder tool. It looked and felt very generic, the text was hard to read while the imagery used didn't represent what they did. Worst of all, it wasn't generating any visitor traffic with no technical SEO implementation at all.
POOR SEARCH RANKING PERFORMANCE FOR THE WEBSITE
I did an analysis of their search ranking performance by setting up Google Search Console & running Semrush reports. This would help uncover what the site was being seen as and the keywords they ranked for. Unfortunately all it was getting discovered for was their own brand name and no other variations relating to their services. This is quite common for many business owners.
THERE WASN'T A CLEAR POINT OF DIFFERENCE OR USP FOR THE AGED CARE SErvice BRAND
Everything that was presented on their website or social media was just very plain, matter of fact with no real differentiator. Aged Care is one of the most competitive industries in Australia and very people orientated. Royalty Scope didn't even have profiles of their staff on their website to try and build trust and show off their expertise. Even if they tripled traffic it wouldn't necessarily convert to leads without a solid USP.
THEY DIDN'T HAVE A GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PROFILE ACTIVATED
I did analysis on their existing customer base to find out their reach was around the Sutherland Shire up to Kogarah. Although they didn't have an active Google My Business Profile to help them with local search results.
THERE WEREN'T ANY VISIBLE CLIENT REVIEWS
Even though this business had been operating for many years but didn't have a process for collecting Client reviews or testimonials. Having a Google My Business profile can help make this easier to do & helps with local SEO as reviews are used as a ranking factor.
POOR QUALITY AND INCONSISTENT SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
They had Facebook and Instagram profiles set up which they had done based on advice from friends and family that it was important to do. Although they didn't have a strategy in place to keep it up to date or relevant. One of their nursing staff claimed to be an expert but both profiles had less than 100 followers & very little reach for any of the posts that had been put up. So in other words it wasn't helping them engage their existing community or useful to convert curious visitors. Instead their empty and irrelevant content was detracting from their brand presentation.
WHAT WAS MY SCOPE OF WORK?
It was decided that I should focus on improving the website first so that it would give them a platform to work from and at least begin attracting potential new clients who were searching locally for aged care nursing options. The strategy was to start from scratch and forget about the work the previous web designer had come up with, remove the site built using GoDaddy and start with a fresh site that had the right framework to be built on over time.
- Website migration from GoDaddy Free Website Builder to WordPress using Elementor Page Builder.
- New copywriting for the website to describe all the services.
- Competitor research to identify keywords and topics that were helping them rank online in the aged care categories.
- Consumer research to see what they were researching for online to use this for creating content and crafting the copywriting.
- Content creation for educational pieces related to aged care popular topics.
- Develop a unique selling proposition and brand positioning statement that could be used across their online profiles.
- Set up new profiles on Google My Business, LinkedIn and aged care search directories to help with online citation building.
- Edit a testimonial video that was shot by the aged care business
- Create a workflow for eMails, Invoices and Client follow ups to request review write ups on Google My Business
- Clean up their existing social media profiles to remove irrelevant content pieces.
- Craft staff biographies to place on the website to help showcase their experience.
- Source stock imagery to help showcase their range of services more accurately and reflect Australian people.
- Provide direction on how to take photos during a client visit to use the images for the website.
- Design and build the new website using Elementor Page Builder
- Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console to ensure Sitemaps were re-submitted to begin collecting data.
- Provide an action plan around content creation using consumer keyword research
WHAT MARKETING RESULTS WERE ACHIEVED?
The impact of my digital marketing efforts was almost immediate. Within the first few weeks the brand was getting exposure from local searches using their Google My Business profile. The new website was super responsive on mobile phones, bright, vibrant, fresh & modern with a really strong value proposition that was crystal clear. For the first time the brand was showcasing their range of skills and experienced team with a personal, professional style they hadn’t thought of before.
Best of all I set up an ability for them to create content that could include patient stories, their insights on current aged care topics and information relating to the key areas people were searching for. For the first time in their history they had a platform to present their brand and grow from with the Google Analytics and Google Search Console reporting tools at their disposal.
RECORD ONLINE KEYWORD SEARCH VOLUMES
The way I set up the website it included a solid mix of on page and technical SEO development to ensure it had a foundation to win various keyword phrases in the local area. Over 10,000 search impressions have been delivered in the last 12 months from hundreds of different keyword search phrases relating to aged care. They no longer relied on their own brand name to generate search traffic.
WEBSITE VISITOR TRAFFIC GROWTH
The improved keyword search performance has meant they now enjoy the most website traffic they have ever had before. Over 1,900 page views in a few months were delivered with people spending just over 2 minutes on the site reading the information. The bounce rate was below 60% indicating a highly engaged visitor interested in the information on the site.
A HIGH RATE OF ORGANIC VISITORS TURNING INTO LEADS
Their Google organic search traffic became their largest source very quickly with around 20% of people eventually heading to the contact page to leave an enquiry, call or email the team to get a quotation or ask a question about their services.
CLEAR, CONCISE PRESENTATION & NAVIGATION
The whole style of the site was set up to make it easy for adults to read and digest easily on mobile phone or computer. I used lots of white space so that information could be presented deeply without being overly cluttered or too overwhelming for visitors. The website visitor performance data shown above highlights how effective this was with organic traffic spending nearly 3 minutes on the site & a bounce rate as low as 50%. The rich content stories and video of the team going about their daily activities helped keep people engaged and on the site for longer.
AGED CARE CONTENT CREATING USING CONSUMER SEARCH INSIGHTS
I conducted keyword research covering various topics which was turned into an action list for the aged care service business for their team to work from to think of ways they can tell their story and showcase the great work they can do. To get things started I wrote a number of pieces to help provide a framework they could follow and each of these was aimed at securing long tail keyword phrase searches. These longer forms of search words can typically attract a more engaged consumer who want something very specific and can be quite a powerful tool to generating awareness online.
GOOGLE TOP 10 KEYWORD RANK POSITIONS
The content strategy paid off and comparing year on year performance for an example of 'Can a person be forced into a nursing home' the brand had achieved top 10 search ranking positions as high as no#3 which is where 85% of clicks go for most searches done online. In fact the site ranks for hundreds of different phrases based on the breadth of content I wrote. Although many of these do not have high positions which I explain below.
GOOGLE SERP FEATURED SNIPPET RESULTS
When I built the website I made sure to go into detail when it came to things like optimising the images for search by naming the files, adding alt-text and ensuring the right headings, sub headings and text was on each page. Schema Mark Up was also added to relevant pages and as demonstrated in the example below, the brand began to win featured snippets on search results - so featured answers before organic results were shown.
ENGAGING VIDEO CONTENT CREATION
I provided guidance to the business on how to capture different video clips and a testimonial from one of their clients. I used the footage they created to make a short video that could help explain what they do. With a duration of nearly 1 minute the early results were very positive with an 87% retention rate of people watching it to the end. This was also making the About page more 'sticky' and increasing the average viewing time which aids search ranking page authority.
a new website that was optimised for use on mobile devices
Google now ranks most websites based on their mobile performance which makes sense given how many Australians use their mobile phone to find products and services. Although many business owners have no idea if their site works well on mobile phone screens. Using Elementor's Page Builder I was able to ensure everything worked well and was fast, the site performed well on the Google PageSpeed Insights Test with a 79/100 score.
a NEW GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PROFILE
Using the content created from the website I then set up and optimised their Google My Business profile which began to demonstrate results within the first few weeks for relevant search queries.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE WEBSITE DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS?
Quite often it is the small details that go into designing a website that can make the difference to SEO results and even converting visitors into enquiries / sales or leads. Different elements have to work together to help generate traffic but once a person has arrived you then have to have the right information to convince them.
Their original website was very matter of fact, meaning, they simply put headings about what they did. This is the same as thousands of other websites, therefore they had little chance to rank on Google and even less to convince people to use them.
strong visuals that are relevant & credible
This business didn't provide any images to be used on the website so part of my task was to source stock photos that were representative of Australian locations and people. The images they had used on their old site were quite dated, irrelevant in many instances and looked and felt like they were American. Each image was also edited slightly as well as named for SEO purposes to give them relevance to the website. The mix of photos across the website instantly provide relevance to any visitor.
VIDEO & PHOTO CONTENT
The website was built so that the brand could continue making more videos and have them placed in different areas or sections of the site. The page layouts were created to make it easy for these to be added or changed as required. Using Elementor's Page Builder makes this a simple task.
BRINGING THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE TO LIFE
One of the biggest gaps for this brand was not showcasing any type of key differentiator or point of difference. I helped them create a number of points that were placed onto a single page to make it simple & easy for visitors to find & for the business to add to over time.
CREATING CREDIBILITY & AUTHORITY
During the discovery phase of this website project I made sure there was exploration around the skills, qualifications or industry accreditations the business had. Their old site didn't display these very well and presenting qualifications can help build trust with visitors to help convert them to enquiries.
BESPOKE CONTENT CREATION
There wasn't a budget for professional photo shoots & the business didn't feel comfortable taking photos themselves. Using stock photos I created various images to help portrait the brand in different ways from their safety practices to mobile service offering.
ONLINE CITATION BUILDING
Generating online citations across different credible websites is a powerful way to build website authority & potentially search engine rankings. For this aged care service provider I either located or updated profiles they had online to ensure they were consistent, on brand and presented keyword rich information.
WHAT AREAS REDUCED THE POTENTIAL RESULTS?
For every project there are always areas that can be improved on or that I recommend a business owner should undertake to maximise results. In some situations these things don’t occur and they impact the potential results in different ways. For some business owners it may not be consequential but if the investment is being made then it would make sense to get things done properly.
Here are the items for this project that needed attention.
MORE AND REGULAR CONTENT CREATION
Even though the site was set up to present lots of great stories & the team was given direction around the topics with a template to use to write with, unfortunately they found it too time consuming to do. Even though they had hundreds of great stories about how they treat different patients and the common areas they experience weekly, they didn't have the time to write about them. On face value it may not seem a big deal, but this would have given them an opportunity to win an even wider array of keyword search results to drive website traffic, brand credibility & of course potential leads.
July 2021 update - As of July, so approximately 18 months after the site was completed no new content had been added. In fact elements were removed from the website pages which were providing context to the site.
CLIENT REVIEWS
After the team was provided a unique link to get reviews on their Google My Business profile they didn't use it to ask for any client reviews or testimonials. Consumers in 2021 are looking for aged care provider reviews to compare services so it helps to create leads but also helps with local SEO via Google My Business. Going against the advice I have provided the owner even wrote their own fake review which is something you shouldn't really do.
July 2021 update - As of July, so approximately 18 months after the site was completed there is still only 1 x review displayed on the Google My Business profile that was written by the owner. This impacts local SEO efforts and reduces potential client conversions.
PROFESSIONAL STAFF PHOTOS
The photos of the team were taken at the office without proper lighting & not all team members were wearing uniforms. In fact one of them wore a leopard print top. I edited each of the images to try and create some consistency & uniformity but they don't look very professional. From a brand perspective every element that is visible to potential clients should be thought about. So having your team look professional with high quality photography can add to that perception.
July 2021 update - As of July, so approximately 18 months after the site was completed the old photos are still being displayed and haven't been updated. This reduces brand credibility potentially.
IRRELEVANT SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
I provided direction to take behind the scenes photos while on location with patients, at hospitals or while attending various aged care service locations to showcase some of the work being done. Although the recommendations weren't followed and at one stage a photo of a park was placed on one of the profiles with little thought given to the relevance or value it provided.
removal & changes made to page content
After the site was handed over the team decided to move elements around, change wording, remove content pieces & change some of the titles. These changes would have impacted the SEO performance of the site, but also its ability to convert visitors into potential leads as each element is designed to attract, convince and convert.
WHAT ELSE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS?
On face value there was a significant improvement made for this brand. Although the owners decided not to continue with ongoing help and development as they didn’t have the resources and wanted everything done for them. Unfortunately for this project that wasn’t possible, but what are the implications of this course of action?
LIMITED ABILITY TO GET TO THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS
More than 80% of organic search clicks go to the first page results of a Google Search. It is very rare for people to scroll beyond the first page. In the aged care sector every business is competing with Government information sites, healthcare brands and thousands of other businesses for a small subset of services. Therefore without ongoing content development focussed around different niches it becomes really difficult to generate a wider breadth of winning search phrases that can generate traffic to the site.
traffic vs quality leads
With every website project that includes SEO development there will ultimately be a mix of visitors to the site that are searching for information about a topic that aren't necessarily going to be turned into leads. One of the benefits of regular monthly SEO getting done on the site is to look at the data provided from keyword search trends provided by Google Search Console, overlay that with website visitor behaviour information from Google Analytics & then look at the quantity of enquiries or leads generated. This information can help create a barometer around how or what information or content should be added or changed on the site to attract the right type of visitor that will become a lead.
BUILDING BRAND AUTHORITY AND EXPERTISE
To truly stand out in today's crowded marketplace each brand has to build strong brand authority and demonstrate how they are an expert in their field. This can be communicated on digital platforms from the website to social media profiles to not only aid SEO efforts but also build brand credibility. The information in this situation can then add value into the community to help parents or carers about finding the right solution for their aged care needs. They can bring to life their motto of 'person centred care'. Unfortunately in this scenario the owners didn't have the time or resource to be able deliver this.
HOW DID THIS BUSINESS UPDATE THEIR WEBSITE & MAKE IT WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL?
In July 2021 I was contacted by the marketing co-ordinator because they were attempting to install a HTML Code plugin to set up Google Analytics. What was very strange is that this had already been installed, was working, active & the management team already had access to the reporting.
Installing the plugin has caused the site to become unstable. I went to the site and this is what I discovered;
- They had attempted to make changes to the website without performing the due diligence needed to have it backed up or to create a testing environment first.
- Multiple plugins were installed on the WordPress site that offered no tangible benefits to the site’s functionality.
- Based on the person’s LinkedIn profile the individual making changes to the site doesn’t have any digital marketing experience.
- The updated site had broken links, images missing, menu bars that didn’t function, poorly formatted content on desktop and mobile phone and other new usability issues.
- Some of the content that had helped the site achieve its traffic volumes had been removed.
- The website now fails Google’s PageSpeed Insights Test, at a time when Google are releasing a new algorithm that focusses on speed and usability.
Content removal
Even areas like the news and content sections had been altered which changed the site from a visually pleasing place to be and reverting to a very text heavy layout. Navigation had become more difficult and the pages more difficult to read. This will lead to higher bounce rates, people leaving the site & reduce the chances of people making an enquiry.
Brand presentation
General presentation across the whole site was changed dramatically and as you can see it impacts the impression it provides any visitor. When you think about it, if they weren't prepared to spend the right amount of time and due diligence to update or make changes to their website, then how does that reflect on the rest of their general business practices?
When you combine this demonstrable activity together with lack of reviews, poor quality staff photos and the general presentation of the business it makes it more difficult for them to compete with larger, more established organisations. This is a mistake many business owners make and it leads to reduced brand credibility & makes it harder to build trust quickly.
In this case they are competing with large private home care companies in a very competitive space, so every little detail becomes crucially important to build brand equity.
Speed performance issues
The site now fails Google's PageSpeed Insights test which is due to the mix of themes, plug ins and other items installed on the website that have impacted performance. The heading area is no longer responsive and would be too difficult for most people to press the buttons.
Search performance impact
So when it comes down to it there has been time, energy & money spent on building a new website that has now been pulled apart with a large reduction in brand presentation, poor operating performance, reduced user experience and content removed. Sometimes this can make sense to do if the goal is to improve the quality & level of presentation for a brand to reach more consumers.
Although as you can see from the Google Search Console data below, the site was showing a growth trend in search impressions after the new site was launched. Although the recent changes have impacted its visibility greatly.
I did share the results with the client in the hope it would help them understand the potential impact to their business. They will have to rely on local advertising, referrals and existing customers to generate new business if they can't be found online.
