Families can’t choose senior living communities they can’t find online.
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in how your senior living community connects with families searching for care. Whether someone types “assisted living near me” into the search bar or looks for your community by name, your visibility in those results directly impacts occupancy.
For senior living, SEO is a strategic lever that you can use to bring in more qualified leads, increase trust in your brand, and reduce your reliance on expensive or mediocre lead aggregators. This guide is here to walk you through the core components of an effective SEO strategy built specifically for senior living communities.
Why SEO Should Be Your Strategic Priority
The decision to move into senior living is a deeply personal one, which means that families spend a lot of time researching their options before settling. Most often, this search begins online, long before they make a call or schedule a tour. If your community isn’t ranking on Google when those first searches happen, you’re already behind. Strong SEO helps ensure you show up where it matters, whether for your own name, specific care types, or location-based searches.
It also delivers real business value. Organic traffic converts at a higher rate than paid traffic, and SEO work continues to generate results long after a campaign has launched. Done right, it supports long-term growth, better brand control, and a stronger digital foundation for all your marketing efforts.
Start with Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) will likely be the first thing a family sees when they search for your community. It’s also one of the most powerful tools in local SEO. Optimizing it goes beyond filling in the basics. Your GBP should be aligned in every detail with your website and brand, so search engines and families trust what they find.
Specific Categorization
Choose the most accurate primary category, such as “Assisted Living Community,” and support it with secondary categories like “Memory Care Community” or “Retirement Community.” Use high-quality, current photos that reflect daily life in your community, like spaces, amenities, and real moments with residents and staff. These visuals help create an emotional connection while reinforcing credibility.
Accurate Information in the Description
The description should include your community name, location, care types, and a short branded message that reflects who you are. List each care type as a product and link directly to its page on your website, if available. Also, be sure your operating hours and contact information match your site exactly.
Optimal Linking
Finally, link your profile to your homepage, not to a lead aggregator or subpage. Adding a UTM parameter to that link allows you to track traffic from GBP separately in Google Analytics, giving you better insight into what’s working.
Use a Review Strategy that Builds Trust and Visibility
Reviews are no longer just a nice-to-have; they directly affect your rankings and your reputation. They also show up in AI-driven search tools like Gemini and ChatGPT, which increasingly reference online sentiment when providing answers. Consistent review activity sends strong signals to both search engines and prospective families. It shows you’re engaged, responsive, and trusted by the people you serve.
There’s no specific formula for making reviews happen, but your community will speak for itself. While you can’t force reviews, you can encourage families to leave them after tours, move-ins, or milestone moments. Make it easy, but authentic. When reviews come in, respond to each one in a timely, thoughtful way. Avoid canned replies, especially when addressing negative feedback. Remember, you’re not just replying to the original reviewer. You’re showing every future reader how you handle criticism and care.
The Importance of Consistency Across Online Directories
Your name, address, and phone number (NAP) need to be consistent everywhere your business appears online. Search engines cross-reference this information to confirm your legitimacy. When listings are inconsistent across platforms like Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, and senior care directories, it can damage your local SEO.
Start with a thorough audit. Correct any discrepancies you find. Then put a system in place to keep listings updated over time, especially if you manage multiple locations or have frequent operational changes. Directory consistency may seem minor, but it carries weight in how search engines rank your business locally.
Improve Your Map Pack Rankings
Appearing in Google’s “Map Pack” can significantly increase clicks and calls, especially for searches with local intent. To improve your placement, focus on three core factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. That means choosing the right categories, using targeted keywords in your GBP description and reviews, and maintaining consistent, high-quality activity, like posting updates, adding photos, and earning fresh reviews.
The more complete and engaged your profile, the more likely it is to rank above competitors in the map results.
Why You Need to Rank for Your Own Name
It may seem obvious, but many communities don’t rank first for their own name, especially in competitive markets. That’s a missed opportunity. If directories or competitors appear above your website for a branded search, you risk losing warm leads that already know who you are.
The fix begins with your homepage. Include your full community name in the title tag, H1 heading, and throughout the content naturally. Strengthen your internal linking structure so that care pages, blog content, and resource guides all link back to your homepage with your brand name in the anchor text. You can also support this with schema markup, which helps search engines understand that your site is the authoritative source for your brand.
What On-Page SEO Looks Like for Senior Living
Clear Distinction from Other Sites
Having on-page SEO means making sure each page on your website is built to inform, guide, and rank well in search results. For your homepage, this starts with including your full community name in key places like the H1 and title tag. The goal is to reassure visitors that they’re in the right place and give search engines clear signals about your identity.
Comprehensive Information About Your Services
Your care pages should speak directly to what families need to know: what services you offer, who they’re for, and what makes your approach different. Write clearly and conversationally. Avoid keyword stuffing. Mention your care types naturally and structure the page with helpful subheadings, FAQs, and clear calls-to-action like scheduling a tour or downloading a brochure.
Purposeful, Strategic Internal Linking
Throughout your site, use internal links to guide visitors between pages and help Google understand the relationship between your content. Strong internal linking supports both SEO and user experience.
Making Schema Work for You
Schema markup is a type of structured data that lives in your site’s code. It doesn’t change how your content looks, but it helps search engines understand what your content means. This can lead to enhanced visibility in search results through features like star ratings, FAQs, and service callouts.
For senior living communities, the most helpful schema types include LocalBusiness, Organization, Service, and FAQ. You’ll want to ensure that each care page includes schema for the specific service it offers, and that your homepage includes structured data for your name, address, phone, and website.
The Role of Content and Backlinks in Long-Term SEO
Search engines favor sites that are active, trusted, and linked to by others. That’s why ongoing content creation and backlink building are essential. Publishing helpful blog posts not only answers common family questions, but also gives your site more chances to rank. Each post creates a new entry point to your site, and when written with clarity and purpose, they keep families engaged.
Backlinks from reputable directories, partner organizations, or media coverage act as trust signals to Google. The more quality links you earn, the more authority your site builds. With that authority comes better rankings.
How to Know If Your SEO Is Working
Measuring your SEO performance involves tracking both rankings and results. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide insight into where your traffic comes from, what keywords you’re ranking for, and which pages are converting.
You should monitor branded searches (like “[Community Name]”) and non-branded searches (like “memory care near me”). Both matter, but branded searches often indicate warmer leads. Over time, track how your organic traffic grows, how long visitors stay, and which pages are most effective at moving them toward action. The right metrics will help you adjust your strategy, prove ROI, and keep moving forward.
What’s Next?
Ready to get a leg up in your SEO strategy?
At Tilladelse, we partner with senior living communities to deliver SEO strategies that drive qualified traffic, reinforce brand authority, and support occupancy goals. From technical optimization and local listings to ongoing content and analytics, we focus on what moves the needle in your market.
If you’re ready to refine your existing SEO efforts or scale results across multiple locations, we’re here for you.
