Editor’s note: This article was rewritten in July 2026.
Turning website traffic into senior living leads has always been a top priority for marketing and sales teams. But this priority has become even more urgent, given that so many Google searches now end before anyone clicks through to an external website. (We have AI to thank for this.)
Below, we discuss strategies for boosting traffic-to-lead conversions based on our decade-plus experience helping our clients do exactly that.
Executive Summary: Traffic-to-Lead Conversion Matters More Than Ever
- With more Google searches ending without a website click, senior living communities need to make the most of the traffic they do get.
- Clear navigation and strong CTAs help prospects quickly understand where to go next, whether that’s scheduling a tour, downloading a guide, or learning more.
- Lead magnets can turn anonymous website visitors into known leads, but only when the offer is genuinely useful and worth exchanging contact information for.
- Common friction points, especially around tour scheduling and pricing, can cause motivated prospects to drop off before they take action.
- Understanding the difference between MQLs and SQLs helps marketing and sales teams follow up appropriately based on where each lead is in the prospect journey.
Table of Contents
Make sure your website clearly directs prospects where to go next.
Create compelling lead magnets
Understand the difference between MQLs and SQLs
Make sure your website clearly directs prospects where to go next.
The way to make sure website visitors know where to go next is by having clear top-level navigation and engaging calls to action (CTAs) throughout the site. These tips fall under Website Design 101, but we still see plenty of senior living websites that fail at the basics.
Tips for better top-level navigation
- Keep it simple and standard. Website navigation isn’t the place to get clever or fancy. On desktops, people expect horizontal navigation. On mobile devices, a clear and easy-to-navigate menu is a must.
- Don’t overload the navigation. Our noggins can only handle so many options. Cramming the nav with too many items can lead to cognitive overload and decision fatigue. Always test assumptions and fix what doesn’t work.
- Use colors/contrast and font sizes that work with older eyes. Even if your core target audience is adult children, they’re likely north of 50 or 60.
- Make it sticky. As people scroll, the top navigation should still appear or “stick” to the top.
Tips for creating engaging CTAs
- Use action-oriented language: Instead of “download now,” say something like “Get our free financial guide.”
- Sprinkle ’em on the page: For longer landing pages, add one above the fold and then again at the bottom of the page. Experiment with styles. For example, try a lightbox pop-up that appears when someone is about to leave the page.
- Conduct A/B tests. Good marketing automation software, like HubSpot, lets you do this easily. The key is testing only ONE change at a time.
- Measure performance. One of the biggest mistakes we consistently see with CTAs is that people set them and then forget them. CTAs must be audited like any other piece of content.
- Keep primo CTAs on every page. By “primo CTA,” we mean the grandaddy of all CTAs in senior living: Schedule a Tour. That CTA should be in a prominent position on ALL pages of your site, most often in the courtesy link area above the main navigation.
Create compelling lead magnets.
Lead magnets (also called “offers”) are free assets you provide to website visitors in exchange for their contact information, starting with their name and email address. Once you have this contact info, the person goes from anonymous site visitor to senior living lead, and you can continue nurturing them.
Popular lead magnets include:
- Checklists
- Guides, ebooks, white papers
- Infographics
- Quizzes
- Webinars
The lead magnet itself lives behind a website form. (This is also known as “gated” content—the form serves as a gate.) Many people are willing to give some of their personal info if they think what they’re getting in return is valuable. In other words, the exchange must be fair. If your lead magnet is thin on content or hastily put together, you’ll have a tough time building trust with prospects.
Examples of good lead magnets for senior living:
- A guide on how to fund assisted living and/or memory care
- A helpful chart to understand if they qualify for the Veterans Aid & Attendance Benefit
- A checklist for downsizing a home
- A guide on different types of senior living (IL, AL, MC)
Remove common friction points.
What do we mean by friction points? A friction point is anything that causes website visitors to stumble. We’re not talking about user errors, either. We’re talking about points on the site that consistently cause website visitors to drop off completely or fail to complete the action we want them to take.
What causes friction on senior living websites?
- Broken promises. For example, a CTA that says, “Learn more about funding options,” but the page the person is sent to has nothing to do with the topic.
- Broken links or forms that don’t work. Nothing is more frustrating than links that go nowhere or buttons on forms that don’t work. Did our info go through? We’ll never know.
- Buried information. Don’t make people hunt for key information like addresses, phone numbers, or how to schedule a tour.
- Pricing carrot sticks. Don’t dangle “see pricing options” and then only give vague info. Think carefully about how your community positions pricing discussions. (More on this below.)
- Annoying chatbots. Just because you can add a chatbot to your site doesn’t mean you should. Be mindful about how and when you use them. Check out the pros and cons of chatbots on senior living websites.
- Repetitive forms. No one wants to keep filling out the same info on a form. It’s annoying to the prospect and doesn’t help the marketing or sales team either. Instead, use progressive form fields to capture better info. The form fields change each time the person downloads a new piece of content, giving you more insight into the lead.
The above isn’t an exhaustive list, either. You might have a friction point that’s unique to your community’s website, which is why monitoring analytics (like bounce rates on key pages) is wise.
Now, let’s talk about the two biggest friction points we consistently see: friction with tour and pricing pages.
Friction with tour pages
The biggest friction point we encounter on senior living websites, hands down, is on the tour page. The three issues we see are: difficulty finding the tour page, a tour page that doesn’t empower prospects to schedule a tour at their convenience, and lackluster tour pages.
Not knowing how or where to schedule a tour.
Often, the “schedule a tour” page is buried. It should be on every page, in a prominent place, ideally above the main navigation in the courtesy link area. You should also place other “schedule-a-tour” buttons throughout key pages, especially those with longer scrolls. Include it in the footer as well.
Not empowering people to schedule a tour at their convenience.
If someone clicks a button that says SCHEDULE A TOUR, the landing page better let the person do exactly that. Don’t give them a survey. (Yes, we’ve seen that happen.) Don’t make them call a number. Don’t make them fill out a form and then have to wait for someone to call them back. Empower them to choose a day and time that fits their schedule.
If your backend system can’t accommodate allowing someone to schedule a tour directly on your website, then change the wording on the button (which will help adjust expectations) to something like “request a tour.” And then make it clear on the landing page what people need to do to request a tour and how quickly they’ll hear back.
Not creating a vibrant tour page.
Your tour page will likely be one of the most trafficked pages on your community’s website. Is yours a snoozefest? Or have you taken advantage of the eager and captive audience to reinforce key messages, show off cool (non-stock!) photos, and include testimonials? Take a deeper dive into creating a stellar tour page.
Friction with pricing pages
Listen, we know the debate over whether to share pricing is ongoing in our industry. You need to decide what’s best for your community. But if you’re not going to be fully transparent, don’t say “click here for pricing” and then pull a bait-and-switch by directing people to a landing page that requires them to call a number.
If you don’t want to share pricing, the CTA could say something like, “Understand how our pricing works.” Then, you could provide some basic info before asking someone to call or fill out a form.
- PRO TIP: Better yet, add a personalized pricing estimator like SMARTPricing to your site. Our pricing estimator empowers prospects and educates them on how senior living pricing works, specifically in your community. Check out SMARTPricing here.
Understand the difference between MQLs and SQLs
Not all senior living leads are created equal. Some folks who visit your site will be in earlier stages than others. A widow thinking about downsizing and moving into assisted living in a year or two is in a very different place than an adult daughter whose 90-year-old mother experienced a health crisis and needs memory care ASAP.
The adult daughter’s circumstances put her in the sales-qualified lead (SQL) category. The widower who’s just beginning his journey fits squarely in the marketing-qualified lead (MQL) category. The idea is you’ll want to get SQLs to your sales team sooner rather than later, while MQLs need longer-term nurturing, usually via email sequences personalized to where they are in their journey.
Need help wrangling site traffic into senior living leads?
We’ve successfully worked with senior living communities of all sizes to improve their traffic-to-lead conversion rates. Get in touch and let’s discuss how we can help you get more senior living leads.
