According to the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. has nearly 1 million beds spread across almost 30,000 senior living communities.¹ And each one is vying for the same residents you are. So how do you set your community apart? That’s where your senior living website design comes in.

Sure, you have excellent reviews, top-notch staff, and all the boxes on your marketing to-do list ticked off. But in an industry as competitive as yours, excellence and thoroughness aren’t always enough. Research shows that 68% of consumers have high expectations for businesses they find online.²

One way to enhance your existing promotional efforts and gain new resident leads is with effective senior living website design. What you display online is the first impression—one they make in a half a second—for most prospective residents.³ A website can be the deciding factor when they’re narrowing their search for a senior living community.

5 Elements of Effective Senior Living Website Design

A sub-par website isn’t a risk you can afford to take. We recommend evaluating your website based on five elements of effective website design. 

1. Mobile-friendly

We’ve crossed the tipping point of mobile internet use, and there’s no going back. Fifty-five percent of internet users access the web from their smartphones.⁴ Potential new resident leads are viewing your website on their phones more often than on a computer, so shouldn’t your website be designed accordingly?

In the past, we’ve advocated for simply developing a mobile version of your site. But that’s not enough anymore. With the explosion of mobile use, the emphasis needs to change. Design your website for mobile first and compatibility with desktops second. If not, 48% of your potential residents will take your non-mobile-friendly website as a sign your community doesn’t care enough to keep up with current technology.⁵ 

2. Truthful Representation

Honesty is everything in senior living. Seniors and their families are looking for communities they can trust, because their welfare hangs in the balance. Show your integrity from the first impression by having a website that accurately represents your senior living community.

A word of caution—you have an uphill battle with trust. Almost 70% of people simply don’t believe businesses have integrity in using their data.⁶ So don’t be surprised if conversion using your website alone is difficult.

Your website is where you break the ice. When prospective residents visit your community, they want to confirm what they saw on your website. Seeing that you’ve honestly represented your community will go a long way toward building trust between you, your residents, and their families.

3. Simple but Attractive

Simplicity is fundamental in senior living website design. Use large fonts and self-explanatory graphics and keep most information in the original viewing window so users don’t have to scroll as much.

After viewing your homepage, about 86% of users will look for more information about your products and services.⁷ Make sure these details are well-organized and clearly marked so users can find them without difficulty.

But as necessary as simplicity is, users still want to see something attractive. An Adobe study found that most people would prefer to read content that is beautifully designed rather than just plain text.⁸ They also noted that 38% of people stop looking at a website if the content or layout is unattractive. And regularly audit your website to ensure you’re keeping up with visual trends.

4. Have the Need for Speed

Speed has emerged as one of the most important elements of web design. Most users expect sites to load in two seconds or less.⁹ Websites meeting that expectation see their conversions increase by as much as 74%.¹⁰

Load speed and views are directly connected as well. Websites that increase their speed by just 20% can also increase views by 20%.¹¹ In fact, increasing load speeds by just 0.1 seconds leads to between a 7 and 8% increase in page views.¹²

5. Include Contact Information

You may be surprised to learn that 51% of people believe thorough contact information is one of the biggest pieces missing from most sites.¹³ Providing a means to communicate with your business should be a primary function of every website. But, when working on their senior living website design, many communities neglect these all-important details. With 64% of people wanting to view contact information immediately after navigating to the home page, not having up-to-date contact information on your website is a considerable risk. Almost half of your website visitors will leave if they can’t find your contact information.¹⁴ Why risk losing potential leads by forgetting such a simple task?

Effective web design is a must-have to grow your community. A functional, dynamic website offers the best possible first impression to new resident leads and their families. Contact us today at 888.307.7304 to learn more about how we can help upgrade your website.

 

For a list of references, please contact us.