How to Optimise Your Carehome.co.uk Profile
There are a number of care home directory and review sites in the UK, it’s worth signing-up and getting a presence on all of them, especially if you’ve just started your care home business.
With just under 1.4 million organic visits a month (data: Ubersuggest), one of the most popular care home review sites in the UK is carehome.co.uk.
This guide looks at the most important aspects of your carehome.co.uk profile and what you should do to optimise yours.
Creating helpful content that engages users
Before we look at ways to optimise your listing, here’s a quick overview of how the search function works on the site.
The top-level search, search categories and filters are:
- Type of Care
- Location
- Care Home Group or Manager Name
- Care Home Name
Additional search filters and categories include;
- A predefined CQC Rating category such as CQC Rating Outstanding
- Type of owner whether it’s Private, NHS, Not for Profit or Local Authority
- Care home facilities such as Gardens, Pet friendly etc
- Distance to Care Home from Postcode
- Postcode Area
The first thing to note here is that the more complete your information is about your care home the more likely you’re going to match one of the criterias in the filters and appear in the search results.
The most frequent kind of prescribed filtered search is Search All Care Types by Location.
Here is a breakdown of the search results page:
- Featured care home profiles: Up first are the paid-for featured profiles.
- Upgraded profiles: Next up are all those profiles on an Enhanced, Premium or Platinum subscription and, it’s important to note, the order of these is based on both your subscription and your review score.
- Basic profiles: And lastly are the free, basic profiles which are listed in a random order.
This guide is relevant whether you have a basic profile or have chosen an Enhanced, Premium or Platinum subscription.
Description
It’s wise to spend some time on your description, as it’ll be many people’s first experience of your brand on the carehome.co.uk website.
Make sure to include the services you provide, who your care home is for (older people, dementia sufferers etc) and any key features and amenities –.such as garden areas, activities, awards and CQC ratings.
Do make sure your description is 100% unique and is written in the third person, which means not using ‘us’, ‘we’ or ‘our care home’.
Don’t just copy and paste the text from your website or other directory listings.
Check for spelling and grammar, the easiest way to do this is to write your description in MS Word or Google Docs first.
While carehome.co.uk checks all descriptions and will advise you if there are any problems with yours, this will add a delay to you getting your care home listed.
Generating Reviews
It’s wise to spend some time on your description, as it’ll be many people’s first experience of your brand on the carehome.co.uk website.
Make sure to include the services you provide, who your care home is for (older people, dementia sufferers etc) and any key features and amenities –.such as garden areas, activities, awards and CQC ratings.
Do make sure your description is 100% unique and is written in the third person, which means not using ‘us’, ‘we’ or ‘our care home’.
Don’t just copy and paste the text from your website or other directory listings.
Check for spelling and grammar, the easiest way to do this is to write your description in MS Word or Google Docs first.
While carehome.co.uk checks all descriptions and will advise you if there are any problems with yours, this will add a delay to you getting your care home listed.
“The maximum review score is 10, which is made up of average rating of reviews (5 points) and number of positive reviews in the last 24 months in relation to the registered maximum number of service users at the care home (5 points).”
Essentially, there are 12 individual ratings in each review, and each one can be rated ‘Excellent’ worth 5 points, ‘Good’ – 4 points, ‘Satisfactory’ – 3 points, ‘Poor’ – 2 points or ‘Very Poor’ – 1 point.
- Overall Experience
- Care/Support
- Treated with Dignity
- Staff
- Management
- Rooms
- Facilities
- Cleanliness
- Food & Drink
- Activities
- Safety/Security
- Value For Money
What also matters is the timing of the reviews, as any care home that hasn’t had a review in the last 24 months doesn’t get awarded a review score.
It’s worth taking a look at the page on their website dedicated to answering this question as it’s quite an in-depth process.
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to take a more general look at how to generate more regular, positive reviews on carehome.co.uk.
It’s important for any business to build consistent feedback loops with customers.
Indeed, we’re finding that more and more care home businesses are taking time to build resident, friend and family feedback loops.
In these, all directly involved stakeholders are regularly asked for their opinions and suggestions of how to improve the care home.
This helps to empower all parties, giving them a deeper sense of involvement and belonging to the care home.
If a resident or a family member is happy and feels like their opinion matters within your care home, they are more likely to provide a positive review.
It’s worth noting that while review scores are important it’s sometimes the quality of your content on your profile that will make all the difference.
Adding Professional Photos
It really does help if you have professional photography and real genuine photographs of your care home and its residents.
You should aim to add at least 12 photos – do add more if you have them.
The subject matter of your photos makes a difference too.
Try to add a good range of photos that cover all the aspects of your care home and amplify its key features and benefits.
These might be photos of the front entrance, the garden, the bedrooms, the communal areas and any social activities.
That last one is really important, try to add photos that show the culture –.what it’s like to live there –.of your care home and not just the bricks and mortar.
Adding Videos
It’s much the same principle as your website.
Once you have captured the attention of a prospect, you need to keep them engaged so that they spend more time on your profile interacting with your content.
Adding videos is such a powerful way to showcase your care home brand and its offering.
Adding videos is such a powerful way to showcase your care home brand and its offering.
- Welcome video – A good welcome video should provide a clear and comprehensive overview of what your care home has to offer.
- Testimonial videos – A video of a resident giving your care home a positive review can help you build brand credibility and be highly influential in the decision making process of a care seeker.
Adding A Virtual Tour
Virtual tours are one of the fastest growing sales and marketing tools in the care sector for a good reason.
They give care seekers the opportunity to take a look at your care home without having to arrange, and then drive over, for a visit.
A really effective, impactful 360 virtual tour provides care seekers with a unique and engaging experience of your care home at its very best.
An experience that can make all the difference in the decision-making process.
