Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

featured 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

Have you ever wondered how Sunflower Hospice compares to Rivercross, Clear Path, Serenity, Progressive, and Compassion hospice when it comes to Google?

First thing you need to realize is that when people are searching for hospice care, they don’t always search simply for “hospice.” In fact, I’ve tracked down the most common search words and phrases for people looking for what you do. These are the keywords people are searching for thousands of times each month just in Wichita!

 

volunteer hospicehospice facilitiesdefine hospice
kansas hospicewhat is hospice care at homehospice care near me
hospice volunteernon profit hospicepallative care
hospice addresshospice care facilityhospice care vs palliative care
hospicehospice care at homemedicare hospice
hospice househospice care definitionhospice home care
hospice locationsinpatient hospicewhat is hospice care
hospice hospitalsigns of deathhospice care meaning
volunteer hospice caresymptoms of deathend of life
hospice facilityhospice vs palliativedefine hospice care
hospice servicesactively dyingstages of death
hospice locations near mepalliative vs hospicehospice care costs
hospice wichita kansasdifference between palliative care and hospicewhat is hospice
nearest hospiceend of life signswhat is pallative care
hospice wichita ksdefine respitedifference between hospice and palliative care
hospice in my areawhat is included in palliative care?signs someone is dying
hospice providers near mehome health care servicespalliative care
hospice care of kansas wichita kswhat is a hospicepalliative care definition
kansas hospice carehospice carewhat does palliative care mean
final stages of deathterminally ill definitionrespite care definition
who pays for hospicesigns of end of lifewhich type of plan normally includes hospice benefits?
respite defineis hospice for the dying onlyhospice and palliative care
palliativehospice and community careembrace hospice
body shutting down how long does it takehospice vs palliative carehow to qualify for home health care
does medicare cover hospicehospices at homesigns of dying
compassionate care hospicewhat is the difference between palliative care and hospicehow does hospice work
define palliativeend of life symptomsbest hospice
palliative meaningwhat is palliative carehopsice care
respite carepalliation meaningin patient hospice
hospice definitionpalliative care vs hospicelast 24 hours of life symptoms
pallativedefine respite carehospise care
end of life carewhat does hospice meancommunity hospice
definition of respitehospice centerdoes medicare cover palliative care
palliative definitionhospice end of life signssymptoms of dying
palliative care vs hospice carestages of dying

When tracking the results for you and other competitors, the numbers break down like this:

1 8 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

VISIBILITY:                   When these words and phrases are searched, even the highest result of Rivercross Hospice is merely being seen 0.64% of the time, that’s only 1 in 156 searches. Overall visibility is not great for any largely because the websites are pretty thin (not much content) and getting pushed aside by the likes of Harry Hynes, Amedisys and Encompass.

AVG. POSITION:          The GREAT news is that Sunflower has a higher average overall visibility for all the above search terms. While Rivercross is right behind you, you are doing light years better than Compassion and Clear Path. But unfortunately, with an average location of 17, that’s toward the bottom of the 2nd page of Google. This is a real problem since hardly anyone searches beyond the first page of results.

The challenge is, as I am sure you know, when it comes to Google, the spoils largely go to the handful of sites at the very top of the first page. This guide will break down exactly HOW to get you there!

We are going to touch on 8 areas that are CRITICAL to ranking well on Google and how your presence stacks up in each of them.

  1. Your profile on Google
  2. Your website
  3. Site speed
  4. Reviews
  5. Content
  6. Backlinks
  7. Citations
  8. Call to Action

Let’s jump in!

#1 – Your Profile on Google

Of course, when it comes to having a clear, strong presence on the web, the first place to start is how your profile looks on Google. Is it complete? Claimed? Verified? Good photos added? Recent posts? Video? Are your hours listed? These all make it easy for Google to “see” who you are, what you do, and why you deserve to be #1.

When somebody finds Sunflower Home Health & Hospice on Google, the red box below is often the “face” of your business.

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Having just a couple of photos on your Google profile is making it very hard for Google to ‘see’ who you are, who you serve and where you are! This is step ONE when it comes to putting your online presence to work for you!

Photos currently on your Google profile:

Screenshot 1 10 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower HospiceScreenshot 2 7 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

So what does a good Google profile look like? Here is an excellent example of the Google profile for Patton Termite and Pest right here in Wichita, a company that we have worked with:

3 7 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

I am sure you would agree these 105 photos really help to show off their history, their connection to Wichita and their BIG team of people who all have a great deal of experience at killing pests!

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#2 – Website feedback

Your website is the foundation of making your phone ring and putting your online presence to work. It’s home base.

The Sunflower website has a lot going for it. The biggest piece that I see missing is ‘heart’. You show that with people, community, and the behind-the-scenes story that makes Sunflower a great place to work and do business with.

Almost without fail, the highest viewed page of our clients’ websites is the ABOUT page. People want to do business with people they can relate to, who are good at what they do, people who care and have real experience.

 

Stock photos just don’t inspire trust or warmth. In fact, they will significantly decrease the chance a visitor to your website will reach out.

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Personally, I would rather see an unfinished website page then an impersonal, cold cookie-cutter image like this one below – https://www.chot.org/about/hospice-team-members/

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Smiling, culturally-sensitive cookie-cutter images don’t build trust and encourage website visitors to stick around. https://www.crossroadshospice.com/locations/kansas/kansas-city-ks/

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Here is another example of a stock photo, an image that people are savvy enough to know isn’t genuine to the business.http://www.asanahospice.com/

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I was not able to find several REALLY good examples of hospice facilities showing their team, a positive culture, spirit, and pride in what they do. I was really surprised at how hard I had to look. I came across dozens of Hospice websites that pretty much all felt cold and impersonal and full of stock photos.

http://www.hospiceplus.net/

https://www.vitas.com/tx/dallas-fort-worth-hospice

https://www.comforthospice.com/

http://onecommunityhospice.com/about-one-community/

 

At least in these examples they have photos of real people (although no bios)

https://www.amityhospice.com/amity-staff

 

Not great but way better than most!

http://cchnet.net/why-compassionate-care/

 

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So which hospice website is doing it well?

I found this suburb example from Kansas City, with images of real staff and patients and some amazing videos of their location and service!

https://www.kchospice.org/about/

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This site is full of great, local content: Community events, genuine testimonials, FAQ, grief programs.

This website is WORKING for them. The proof is that it’s ranking pretty consistently at #1 for hospice in KC!

The great impact and success of using actual images and telling your business’s real story cannot be overstated. I have seen for myself with the companies I have worked with – HVAC, plumbers, body shops, pest control companies, dentists, etc. – that they have ALL seen measurable impact by putting a face to their business. If showing this level of personality and heart can be so effective for an HVAC company, just imagine how important it would be for someone who’s trying to determine which hospice organization to work with during a loved one’s last days.

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I am proud to have helped create gorgeous websites for such local companies as Hanna, Fenix, Treescapes, Hensley Insurance, Patton Termite & Pest, Autocraft, and Alexander video productions

I would never say building websites is our passion, but we do it to help save our clients a TON of money. To us, a website is a tool that should be accomplishing several things.

  • Help Google to understand who you are, where you are, and why you deserve to be at the top.
  • Draw potential customers to your site, provide them VALUE, and lead them to take action (pick up the phone and schedule a free estimate, ask a question, etc.).

#3 – Site speed

Why is it important?

This one is a no brainer. We have all visited a website and had it load sooooo slowly. You know how quickly you move on when you run into a website like this.

This is definitely one of the EASIEST wins for our clients. It’s amazing what a snappy website can do for rankings, the amount of traffic, how long visitors stay, and what pages they view.

Does Google provide a free tool that you can use to check the speed of your website?

They sure do! You can visit – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

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Here’s another free tool that you can use to check your website speed – https://gtmetrix.com/

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Currently, your site speed is a SERIOUS issue that could be having a significant impact on the traffic you are currently receiving.

#4 – Reviews

Reviews are invaluable to today’s service-oriented businesses, so it’s hard to overstate just how important this section is!

Customers are becoming increasingly reliant on reviews before making a buying decision. Facebook and Google are constantly encouraging its users to review businesses they visit and even to become “local guides.”

Reviews are a ranking factor to Google, which means it can impact the amount of traffic a website receives and, ultimately, how many phone calls you receive.

When I first began this case study for Sunflower Hospice, you had only 1 review on Google. Having only one review on Google can be enough of a real turn-off to some folks, but when the ONE review is only 2 stars, this is definitely enough to turn many more folks away.

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Recently I checked and saw that you have picked up another review, one that’s 5 stars! That’s truly fortunate, as now your rating is up to 3.5. However, considering that it would greatly benefit you to have an even higher average score and that it would only take one more bad review to bring this number back down, your Review rating is an area of concern that needs to be focused on.

We have had tremendous success helping clients collect reviews and would love to share some success stories in this area!

#5 – Content

If you were to search Google for the phrase, “content is king,” this is what you would find:

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Good content is the answer to people finding you among the many different ways they are searching for the services you provide. If your mission is to be #1 on Google, then it’s vital that the content on your website (text, images, videos) references who you serve, what you do, and why you are great.

In your case, if you look at the sample list of keywords at the top of this guide there is a LOT of searches for ‘the difference between hospice and palliative care.’ There is clearly a lot of confusion around this and that means it’s a great opportunity for you! The first hospice facility that creates useful content around this subject will start coming up #1 for this type of search!

#6 – Backlinks

BACKLINKS are a VERY important factor in showing up at the top of the first page of Google. A backlink is anything you click on another website that takes you to YOUR website. In other words, that site is “linking” to you.

I will explain it this way:

Let’s say Sunflower Home Health & Hospice sponsored an event for Riverfest this coming year. You also donated some money to Thunder Hockey in exchange for a banner and your name being announced between innings, and you also said something great about Matthew (the guy who created this case study).

In exchange for you doing those three actions, this is what happened:

The folks at Riverfest added you to the bottom of their website as a sponsor.

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Thunder Hockey did the same thing.

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I love adding new testimonials to my site and always link back to the person who said something nice. This provides “proof” the testimonial is real and helps whoever gave it to me.

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To Google, links are basically votes of confidence. The more relevant, authoritative, and local links you have, the “stronger” your website will be. Links are all about QUALITY – NOT QUANTITY.

Using a powerful tool called Ahrefs, we can see you how “strong” your domain is, how many links you have, and a number of other important stats about your online presence.

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  • DR is your “domain rating,” or how strong and authoritative the sunflowerhomecare.com domain is. Your score of 0.1 lets us know that something’s preventing your website from having any trust. This could be toxic links from other websites pointing to your site, or technical issues preventing Google from crawling your site.
  • Backlinks refers to how many times other websites point to the sunflowerhomecare.com domain.
  • Referring domain refers to how many individual domains or websites are linking to you. For example, you could have dozens of links pointing to your website all from the same domain, such as an industry association.
  • Organic keywords refer to how many keywords you are currently ranking for. Keywords are simply what word or words people are typing into Google that lead them to your website.

Figuring out WHY your DR (domain rating) is so low would be my top priority. That alone is costing you hundreds of visits.

To put it in perspective, here are the results for several other hospice companies:

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To summarize, from this small sample of hospice service providers, Serenity is doing the best with Domain Ratings while Rivercross and Progressive are about neck-and-neck for having the best results with Backlinks, albeit that’s still not many.

Screenshot 7 3 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

Nobody in Wichita is doing well in this area!

This is a MASSIVE opportunity for one hospice company, and I guarantee it would pay off BIG TIME. Backlinks is the single MOST powerful ranking factor there is!

#7 – Citations

A citation is simply any mention of your business name, address and phone number anywhere across the web (with or without a link back to your site). The most common sources of citations are the thousands of directories that all claim to have thousands of leads just dying to do business with you (complete BS).

Citations are important to your rankings, traffic and ultimately phone calls because Google is looking for CONSISTENCY among the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of references to your business.

If business A tells Google that they are located at 123 N. Main in Wichita, KS., and there are 80 references of them being on Washington, and 30 on Crestway, and 40 more on Main but with a different phone number – this doesn’t inspire much confidence that this is a reputable business doing what they say.

Currently, Sunflower Home Health & Hospice has a citation score of 21/100. This is how many citations through the top directories are complete and accurate.

Only 1 of the top citations is correct and 11 have errors (both of these numbers are very low, and the amount of errors is a concern).

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#8 – Call to Action

My final point is about something that is missing from so many websites today: a clear and friendly invitation to REACH OUT! We need a strong “What’s next?”

A powerful Call to Action is important because it allows us to measure what percentage of your visitors are going to the contact page, how many are going past the first page, and how many are looking at your photos or recent jobs.

We can’t determine success if we don’t have a way to measure it!

 

Here are some good Call to Action examples from hospice companies:

Screenshot 7 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

Summary

Google profile – Your profile is claimed but there are only two photos. This is easy and free to update!

Website – I was surprised to see how DIFFICULT it was to find real people, company history and culture across dozens of hospice websites. This is a huge opportunity!

Site speed – This is definitely impacting your rankings and traffic. Google penalizes websites that load very slowly. This is often an easy fix.

Reviews – Having just 2 ratings with one of them being a 2 star review on Google is bringing your overall number down. Fortunately, it can very often be fixed without a lot of effort!

Content – The content on your website is very thin (as you know). Creating content around the keywords that your potential families are searching for is a huge opportunity for you!

Backlinks – You don’t have many backlinks but neither do any of your competitors! When it comes to being #1 on Google, you don’t have to be a super star in 100 different areas. You just have to be better than the other guy! 😊

Citations – These build trust and make it easy for Google to see who you are, where you are, what you do and that you are good at it. When your citations show different names, addresses, phone numbers this hurts that trust. With a score of 21/100 this is a red flag for sure!

Call to Action – It’s down the list of priorities but yes, an enticing call to action on your website would be a great idea.

The potential to increase your online visibility, rankings, website traffic and make your phone ring is tremendous.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about TRUST. We need to make it easy for Google to see why Sunflower Home Health & Hospice is the best hospice facility in all of Kansas!

 

So, who am I and how do I know we can help you?

Back in 2010, I owned a local service business right here in Wichita. I hired several companies to help us come up high on Google, but I might as well have been throwing my money out the window. I got fed up and spent months figuring out how to do it myself. I applied what I learned to my business website and managed to increase our sales by almost 40% a year for the next 3 years in a row – while spending less and less on “traditional” advertising. That led to helping a couple of friends with their business websites and eventually getting out of the party rental business and into helping local service businesses, like yours, make the phone ring.

Today, I run an exclusive agency right here in Wichita. I say exclusive because we only work with clients we are a great fit with and we only work with ten clients at a time. Our clients aren’t just a number to us.

The Wichita companies we’ve worked with include Autocraft, Fenix Heating & Air, Patton Termite & Pest, Cambridge Family Dentistry, Treescapes, Hanna Heating and Cooling, US Logo, Overhead Garage Door, Decker Electric, and Trinity Rental.

I have also presented to hundreds of business owners at Million Cups, WSU, Center for Entrepreneurship, Chamber of Commerce, and Kansas Family Business Forum.

Read more about us here.

LET’S CHAT

I get it. You could care less about links, citations, useful content and any of this (none of our clients do). You want the phone to RING. You know the web is important and you need somebody smart, that you trust, to help carry the ball and make things happen.

That’s what we do.

We only work with ten clients at a time and are very selective. We don’t do cookie cutter solutions or surface work. We dig deep and make things happen for our clients.

If you would like to have a chat and see if we are a good fit, you can reach me at 316-312-8181 or localseo@matthewrupp.com

Have a fantastic day!

 

Matthew

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A few of the kind words said about us:

33 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“I want to express how pleased I am with Matthew Rupp of Matthew Rupp Consulting. He and his company recently redid our old web site (Cambridge Family Dentistry located in Wichita, KS). Wow, were we ever pleased. Matthew is smart, easy to get along with, a hard worker, and knows his stuff. I would highly recommend him to any person who wants to see their Internet business take off and bring in more customers.”

Dr. M Dean Wright
President and Founder
Cambridge Family Dentistry

 

35 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“4Media is a media buying service. We are essentially the gatekeeper for our clients marketing budgets. I found Matthew after 4 years of searching for somebody smart, reliable, and ethical to help our clients with their digital needs. When it comes to web design and SEO I just don’t think you can beat the model Matthew brings to the table. He stands behind his work and has a way of delivering value every day. When you talk about online marketing and web design it can easily drag out for months and begs for leadership, Matthew brings that leadership to the table. He just makes the process easy and effective.”

Mike Macomber
4 Media Advertising

 

34 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“Matthew is creative, authentic, and truly cares abut his clients success. His passion for what he does comes across in everything he does. We have seen a noticeable increase in business since we began working with him. “

Gina Terry
Director
Mount Hope Nursing Center

37 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“I really enjoy our monthly meetings with Matthew. He brings a fresh perspective and a great deal of value to the table. I was really surprised at how thorough Matthew has been in all his interactions with Auto Craft. He is truly a part of the team.”

Jaden Randle
Vice President
Auto Craft Collision Repair

 

36 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“With Matthew you don’t just get a website, you get a relationship. Matthew and his team have done a great job driving traffic to our website.”

Dave Martine
Owner
Treescapes

 

38 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“Matthew’s extensive knowledge of web and S.E.O., along with the fresh perspective he brought to the discussion, proved to be just what our team of creatives needed. Our new website reflects many of his insights and the performance continues to grow. My hats off to Matthew Rupp Consulting!”

TJ Smith
President
US Logo, Inc.

First thing you need to realize is that when people are searching for hospice care, they don’t always search simply for “hospice.” In fact, I’ve tracked down the most common search words and phrases for people looking for what you do. These are the keywords people are searching for thousands of times each month just in Wichita!

 

volunteer hospicehospice facilitiesdefine hospice
kansas hospicewhat is hospice care at homehospice care near me
hospice volunteernon profit hospicepallative care
hospice addresshospice care facilityhospice care vs palliative care
hospicehospice care at homemedicare hospice
hospice househospice care definitionhospice home care
hospice locationsinpatient hospicewhat is hospice care
hospice hospitalsigns of deathhospice care meaning
volunteer hospice caresymptoms of deathend of life
hospice facilityhospice vs palliativedefine hospice care
hospice servicesactively dyingstages of death
hospice locations near mepalliative vs hospicehospice care costs
hospice wichita kansasdifference between palliative care and hospicewhat is hospice
nearest hospiceend of life signswhat is pallative care
hospice wichita ksdefine respitedifference between hospice and palliative care
hospice in my areawhat is included in palliative care?signs someone is dying
hospice providers near mehome health care servicespalliative care
hospice care of kansas wichita kswhat is a hospicepalliative care definition
kansas hospice carehospice carewhat does palliative care mean
final stages of deathterminally ill definitionrespite care definition
who pays for hospicesigns of end of lifewhich type of plan normally includes hospice benefits?
respite defineis hospice for the dying onlyhospice and palliative care
palliativehospice and community careembrace hospice
body shutting down how long does it takehospice vs palliative carehow to qualify for home health care
does medicare cover hospicehospices at homesigns of dying
compassionate care hospicewhat is the difference between palliative care and hospicehow does hospice work
define palliativeend of life symptomsbest hospice
palliative meaningwhat is palliative carehopsice care
respite carepalliation meaningin patient hospice
hospice definitionpalliative care vs hospicelast 24 hours of life symptoms
pallativedefine respite carehospise care
end of life carewhat does hospice meancommunity hospice
definition of respitehospice centerdoes medicare cover palliative care
palliative definitionhospice end of life signssymptoms of dying
palliative care vs hospice carestages of dying

When tracking the results for you and other competitors, the numbers break down like this:

1 8 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

VISIBILITY:                   When these words and phrases are searched, even the highest result of Rivercross Hospice is merely being seen 0.64% of the time, that’s only 1 in 156 searches. Overall visibility is not great for any largely because the websites are pretty thin (not much content) and getting pushed aside by the likes of Harry Hynes, Amedisys and Encompass.

AVG. POSITION:          The GREAT news is that Sunflower has a higher average overall visibility for all the above search terms. While Rivercross is right behind you, you are doing light years better than Compassion and Clear Path. But unfortunately, with an average location of 17, that’s toward the bottom of the 2nd page of Google. This is a real problem since hardly anyone searches beyond the first page of results.

The challenge is, as I am sure you know, when it comes to Google, the spoils largely go to the handful of sites at the very top of the first page. This guide will break down exactly HOW to get you there!

We are going to touch on 8 areas that are CRITICAL to ranking well on Google and how your presence stacks up in each of them.

  1. Your profile on Google
  2. Your website
  3. Site speed
  4. Reviews
  5. Content
  6. Backlinks
  7. Citations
  8. Call to Action

Let’s jump in!

#1 – Your Profile on Google

Of course, when it comes to having a clear, strong presence on the web, the first place to start is how your profile looks on Google. Is it complete? Claimed? Verified? Good photos added? Recent posts? Video? Are your hours listed? These all make it easy for Google to “see” who you are, what you do, and why you deserve to be #1.

When somebody finds Sunflower Home Health & Hospice on Google, the red box below is often the “face” of your business.

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Having just a couple of photos on your Google profile is making it very hard for Google to ‘see’ who you are, who you serve and where you are! This is step ONE when it comes to putting your online presence to work for you!

Photos currently on your Google profile:

Screenshot 1 10 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower HospiceScreenshot 2 7 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice

So what does a good Google profile look like? Here is an excellent example of the Google profile for Patton Termite and Pest right here in Wichita, a company that we have worked with:

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I am sure you would agree these 105 photos really help to show off their history, their connection to Wichita and their BIG team of people who all have a great deal of experience at killing pests!

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#2 – Website feedback

Your website is the foundation of making your phone ring and putting your online presence to work. It’s home base.

The Sunflower website has a lot going for it. The biggest piece that I see missing is ‘heart’. You show that with people, community, and the behind-the-scenes story that makes Sunflower a great place to work and do business with.

Almost without fail, the highest viewed page of our clients’ websites is the ABOUT page. People want to do business with people they can relate to, who are good at what they do, people who care and have real experience.

 

Stock photos just don’t inspire trust or warmth. In fact, they will significantly decrease the chance a visitor to your website will reach out.

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Personally, I would rather see an unfinished website page then an impersonal, cold cookie-cutter image like this one below – https://www.chot.org/about/hospice-team-members/

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Smiling, culturally-sensitive cookie-cutter images don’t build trust and encourage website visitors to stick around. https://www.crossroadshospice.com/locations/kansas/kansas-city-ks/

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Here is another example of a stock photo, an image that people are savvy enough to know isn’t genuine to the business. – http://www.asanahospice.com/

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I was not able to find several REALLY good examples of hospice facilities showing their team, a positive culture, spirit, and pride in what they do. I was really surprised at how hard I had to look. I came across dozens of Hospice websites that pretty much all felt cold and impersonal and full of stock photos.

http://www.hospiceplus.net/

https://www.vitas.com/tx/dallas-fort-worth-hospice

https://www.comforthospice.com/

http://onecommunityhospice.com/about-one-community/

 

At least in these examples they have photos of real people (although no bios)

https://www.amityhospice.com/amity-staff

 

Not great but way better than most!

http://cchnet.net/why-compassionate-care/

 

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So which hospice website is doing it well?

I found this suburb example from Kansas City, with images of real staff and patients and some amazing videos of their location and service!

https://www.kchospice.org/about/

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This site is full of great, local content: Community events, genuine testimonials, FAQ, grief programs.

This website is WORKING for them. The proof is that it’s ranking pretty consistently at #1 for hospice in KC!

The great impact and success of using actual images and telling your business’s real story cannot be overstated. I have seen for myself with the companies I have worked with – HVAC, plumbers, body shops, pest control companies, dentists, etc. – that they have ALL seen measurable impact by putting a face to their business. If showing this level of personality and heart can be so effective for an HVAC company, just imagine how important it would be for someone who’s trying to determine which hospice organization to work with during a loved one’s last days.

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I am proud to have helped create gorgeous websites for such local companies as Hanna, Fenix, Treescapes, Hensley Insurance, Patton Termite & Pest, Autocraft, and Alexander video productions

I would never say building websites is our passion, but we do it to help save our clients a TON of money. To us, a website is a tool that should be accomplishing several things.

  • Help Google to understand who you are, where you are, and why you deserve to be at the top.
  • Draw potential customers to your site, provide them VALUE, and lead them to take action (pick up the phone and schedule a free estimate, ask a question, etc.).

#3 – Site speed

Why is it important?

This one is a no brainer. We have all visited a website and had it load sooooo slowly. You know how quickly you move on when you run into a website like this.

This is definitely one of the EASIEST wins for our clients. It’s amazing what a snappy website can do for rankings, the amount of traffic, how long visitors stay, and what pages they view.

Does Google provide a free tool that you can use to check the speed of your website?

They sure do! You can visit – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

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Here’s another free tool that you can use to check your website speed – https://gtmetrix.com/

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Currently, your site speed is a SERIOUS issue that could be having a significant impact on the traffic you are currently receiving.

#4 – Reviews

Reviews are invaluable to today’s service-oriented businesses, so it’s hard to overstate just how important this section is!

Customers are becoming increasingly reliant on reviews before making a buying decision. Facebook and Google are constantly encouraging its users to review businesses they visit and even to become “local guides.”

Reviews are a ranking factor to Google, which means it can impact the amount of traffic a website receives and, ultimately, how many phone calls you receive.

When I first began this case study for Sunflower Hospice, you had only 1 review on Google. Having only one review on Google can be enough of a real turn-off to some folks, but when the ONE review is only 2 stars, this is definitely enough to turn many more folks away.

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Recently I checked and saw that you have picked up another review, one that’s 5 stars! That’s truly fortunate, as now your rating is up to 3.5. However, considering that it would greatly benefit you to have an even higher average score and that it would only take one more bad review to bring this number back down, your Review rating is an area of concern that needs to be focused on.

We have had tremendous success helping clients collect reviews and would love to share some success stories in this area!

#5 – Content

If you were to search Google for the phrase, “content is king,” this is what you would find:

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Good content is the answer to people finding you among the many different ways they are searching for the services you provide. If your mission is to be #1 on Google, then it’s vital that the content on your website (text, images, videos) references who you serve, what you do, and why you are great.

In your case, if you look at the sample list of keywords at the top of this guide there is a LOT of searches for ‘the difference between hospice and palliative care’. There is clearly a lot of confusion around this and that means it’s a great opportunity for you! The first hospice facility that creates useful content around this subject will start coming up #1 for this type of search!

#6 – Backlinks

BACKLINKS are a VERY important factor in showing up at the top of the first page of Google. A backlink is anything you click on another website that takes you to YOUR website. In other words, that site is “linking” to you.

I will explain it this way:

Let’s say Sunflower Home Health & Hospice sponsored an event for Riverfest this coming year. You also donated some money to Thunder Hockey in exchange for a banner and your name being announced between innings, and you also said something great about Matthew (the guy who created this case study).

In exchange for you doing those three actions, this is what happened:

The folks at Riverfest added you to the bottom of their website as a sponsor.

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Thunder Hockey did the same thing.

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I love adding new testimonials to my site and always link back to the person who said something nice. This provides “proof” the testimonial is real and helps whoever gave it to me.

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To Google, links are basically votes of confidence. The more relevant, authoritative, and local links you have, the “stronger” your website will be. Links are all about QUALITY – NOT QUANTITY.

Using a powerful tool called Ahrefs, we can see you how “strong” your domain is, how many links you have, and a number of other important stats about your online presence.

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  • DR is your “domain rating,” or how strong and authoritative the sunflowerhomecare.com domain is. Your score of 0.1 lets us know that something’s preventing your website from having any trust. This could be toxic links from other websites pointing to your site, or technical issues preventing Google from crawling your site.
  • Backlinks refers to how many times other websites point to the sunflowerhomecare.com domain.
  • Referring domain refers to how many individual domains or websites are linking to you. For example, you could have dozens of links pointing to your website all from the same domain, such as an industry association.
  • Organic keywords refer to how many keywords you are currently ranking for. Keywords are simply what word or words people are typing into Google that lead them to your website.

Figuring out WHY your DR (domain rating) is so low would be my top priority. That alone is costing you hundreds of visits.

To put it in perspective, here are the results for several other hospice companies:

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To summarize, from this small sample of hospice service providers, Serenity is doing the best with Domain Ratings while Rivercross and Progressive are about neck-and-neck for having the best results with Backlinks, albeit that’s still not many.

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Nobody in Wichita is doing well in this area!

This is a MASSIVE opportunity for one hospice company, and I guarantee it would pay off BIG TIME. Backlinks is the single MOST powerful ranking factor there is!

#7 – Citations

A citation is simply any mention of your business name, address and phone number anywhere across the web (with or without a link back to your site). The most common sources of citations are the thousands of directories that all claim to have thousands of leads just dying to do business with you (complete BS).

Citations are important to your rankings, traffic and ultimately phone calls because Google is looking for CONSISTENCY among the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of references to your business.

If business A tells Google that they are located at 123 N. Main in Wichita, KS., and there are 80 references of them being on Washington, and 30 on Crestway, and 40 more on Main but with a different phone number – this doesn’t inspire much confidence that this is a reputable business doing what they say.

Currently, Sunflower Home Health & Hospice has a citation score of 21/100. This is how many citations through the top directories are complete and accurate.

Only 1 of the top citations is correct and 11 have errors (both of these numbers are very low, and the amount of errors is a concern).

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#8 – Call to Action

My final point is about something that is missing from so many websites today: a clear and friendly invitation to REACH OUT! We need a strong “What’s next?”

A powerful Call to Action is important because it allows us to measure what percentage of your visitors are going to the contact page, how many are going past the first page, and how many are looking at your photos or recent jobs.

We can’t determine success if we don’t have a way to measure it!

 

Here are some good Call to Action examples from hospice companies:

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Summary

Google profile – Your profile is claimed but there are only two photos. This is easy and free to update!

Website – I was surprised to see how DIFFICULT it was to find real people, company history and culture across dozens of hospice websites. This is a huge opportunity!

Site speed – This is definitely impacting your rankings and traffic. Google penalizes websites that load very slowly. This is often an easy fix.

Reviews – Having just 2 ratings with one of them being a 2 star review on Google is bringing your overall number down. Fortunately, it can very often be fixed without a lot of effort!

Content – The content on your website is very thin (as you know). Creating content around the keywords that your potential families are searching for is a huge opportunity for you!

Backlinks – You don’t have many backlinks but neither do any of your competitors! When it comes to being #1 on Google, you don’t have to be a super star in 100 different areas. You just have to be better than the other guy! 😊

Citations – These build trust and make it easy for Google to see who you are, where you are, what you do and that you are good at it. When your citations show different names, addresses, phone numbers this hurts that trust. With a score of 21/100 this is a red flag for sure!

Call to Action – It’s down the list of priorities but yes, an enticing call to action on your website would be a great idea.

The potential to increase your online visibility, rankings, website traffic and make your phone ring is tremendous.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about TRUST. We need to make it easy for Google to see why Sunflower Home Health & Hospice is the best hospice facility in all of Kansas!

 

So, who am I and how do I know we can help you?

Back in 2010, I owned a local service business right here in Wichita. I hired several companies to help us come up high on Google, but I might as well have been throwing my money out the window. I got fed up and spent months figuring out how to do it myself. I applied what I learned to my business website and managed to increase our sales by almost 40% a year for the next 3 years in a row – while spending less and less on “traditional” advertising. That led to helping a couple of friends with their business websites and eventually getting out of the party rental business and into helping local service businesses, like yours, make the phone ring.

Today, I run an exclusive agency right here in Wichita. I say exclusive because we only work with clients we are a great fit with and we only work with ten clients at a time. Our clients aren’t just a number to us.

The Wichita companies we’ve worked with include Autocraft, Fenix Heating & Air, Patton Termite & Pest, Cambridge Family Dentistry, Treescapes, Hanna Heating and Cooling, US Logo, Overhead Garage Door, Decker Electric, and Trinity Rental.

I have also presented to hundreds of business owners at Million Cups, WSU, Center for Entrepreneurship, Chamber of Commerce, and Kansas Family Business Forum.

Read more about us here.

LET’S CHAT

I get it. You could care less about links, citations, useful content and any of this (none of our clients do). You want the phone to RING. You know the web is important and you need somebody smart, that you trust, to help carry the ball and make things happen.

That’s what we do.

We only work with ten clients at a time and are very selective. We don’t do cookie cutter solutions or surface work. We dig deep and make things happen for our clients.

If you would like to have a chat and see if we are a good fit, you can reach me at 316-312-8181 or localseo@matthewrupp.com

Have a fantastic day!

 

Matthew

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A few of the kind words said about us:

33 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“I want to express how pleased I am with Matthew Rupp of Matthew Rupp Consulting. He and his company recently redid our old web site (Cambridge Family Dentistry located in Wichita, KS). Wow, were we ever pleased. Matthew is smart, easy to get along with, a hard worker, and knows his stuff. I would highly recommend him to any person who wants to see their Internet business take off and bring in more customers.”

Dr. M Dean Wright
President and Founder
Cambridge Family Dentistry

 

35 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“4Media is a media buying service. We are essentially the gatekeeper for our clients marketing budgets. I found Matthew after 4 years of searching for somebody smart, reliable, and ethical to help our clients with their digital needs. When it comes to web design and SEO I just don’t think you can beat the model Matthew brings to the table. He stands behind his work and has a way of delivering value every day. When you talk about online marketing and web design it can easily drag out for months and begs for leadership, Matthew brings that leadership to the table. He just makes the process easy and effective.”

Mike Macomber
4 Media Advertising

 

34 2 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“Matthew is creative, authentic, and truly cares abut his clients success. His passion for what he does comes across in everything he does. We have seen a noticeable increase in business since we began working with him. “

Gina Terry
Director
Mount Hope Nursing Center

37 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“I really enjoy our monthly meetings with Matthew. He brings a fresh perspective and a great deal of value to the table. I was really surprised at how thorough Matthew has been in all his interactions with Auto Craft. He is truly a part of the team.”

Jaden Randle
Vice President
Auto Craft Collision Repair

 

36 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“With Matthew you don’t just get a website, you get a relationship. Matthew and his team have done a great job driving traffic to our website.”

Dave Martine
Owner
Treescapes

 

38 1 - Step-by-step guide to increase the website traffic, online visibility and Google rankings for Sunflower Hospice“Matthew’s extensive knowledge of web and S.E.O., along with the fresh perspective he brought to the discussion, proved to be just what our team of creatives needed. Our new website reflects many of his insights and the performance continues to grow. My hats off to Matthew Rupp Consulting!”

TJ Smith
President
US Logo, Inc.