WEBSITE ANALYTICS 101: WHAT HOME CARE AND GERIATRIC CARE AGENCIES NEED TO KNOW

Written by Paul C Bastante, CAPS, BDM, for The Agewise Institute & Sponsored by 101 Mobility North Jersey

If you run a home care agency, a geriatric care management practice, or any healthcare-adjacent business with a website, chances are someone told you at some point to “check your analytics.” Maybe you nodded, made a mental note, and never opened the dashboard again.

You are not alone. Most healthcare providers did not go into this field to become marketers, and the tools involved often use overlapping names for very different things.

There are three tools worth understanding: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and your website platform’s native analytics (Wix, Squarespace, and similar builders all have one). They are not competitors. They answer three different questions and knowing which one to check will save you time and help you understand whether your website is actually bringing in referrals, families, and inquiries.

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE: ARE PEOPLE FINDING YOU ON GOOGLE?

Google Search Console (GSC) tells you how your site performs specifically inside Google search results, before anyone clicks.

It answers questions like:

• What search terms are bringing people to my site? (For example, “home care agency near me” or “geriatric care manager discharge planning”)

• How many people saw my site in search results, and how many actually clicked?

• Is Google having trouble reading or indexing any of my pages?

• Is my site mobile-friendly according to Google’s standards?

For a home care agency, this is where you would discover that families are searching “24-hour home care for dementia patients” and finding your site or discover that they are not finding you at all for that phrase, which tells you something about your content.

GSC is free, and every website owner should have it connected. It requires verifying ownership of your site (usually a quick process through your website platform) and, once connected, you submit your sitemap so Google can crawl your pages efficiently.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER PEOPLE ARRIVE?

Google Analytics (GA4) picks up where Search Console leaves off. Once someone lands on your site, from any source, not just Google, Analytics tracks what they do.

It answers questions like:

• Where are my visitors coming from? Google search, Facebook, a referral link from a hospital discharge planner, a direct visit because someone typed your URL?

• Which pages do people spend the most time on?

• Do visitors fill out a contact form, or do they leave after one page?

• What is the age and geographic breakdown of my visitors?

This is the tool that helps you understand whether your website content is actually working. If your “Services” page gets a lot of traffic but almost no one fills out your inquiry form, that is a signal worth acting on, maybe the page is confusing, maybe the call-to-action is buried, maybe the phone number is hard to find.

Analytics requires a small piece of tracking code (a Measurement ID) connected to your site. Most website builders make this a simple copy-paste process.

NATIVE ANALYTICS: THE BUILT-IN DASHBOARD YOU ALREADY HAVE

If your site is on Wix, Squarespace, or a similar platform, you likely already have a built-in analytics dashboard, no setup required. This shows you visitor counts, top traffic sources, and basic session data right inside your website’s admin panel.

Native analytics is convenient because it is already running.

The tradeoff is that it is generally less detailed than Google Analytics and stays within that one platform. If you ever change website platforms, you lose that history. Google Analytics data, by contrast, is tied to your Google account and travels with you.

For most healthcare and home care providers, native analytics is a fine starting point for a quick pulse check, but Google Analytics and Search Console together give a far more complete picture.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR HEALTHCARE AND HOME CARE PROVIDERS SPECIFICALLY

Families searching for home care, hospice support, or geriatric care management are often doing so during a stressful, time-sensitive moment, frequently right after a hospital discharge or a difficult diagnosis. Understanding how they find you and what they do once they arrive is not just a marketing exercise. It directly affects whether the right families reach you when they need help most.

Referral sources matter too. If a hospital discharge planner or an occupational therapist is sending families to your site, Analytics can help you see that pattern and understand which relationships are actually converting into contact.

A SIMPLE WAY TO REMEMBER THE DIFFERENCE

• Search Console: how Google sees you before the click

• Google Analytics: what happens after the click

• Native analytics: a quick built-in snapshot, always available, less detailed

You do not need to become a data analyst to run a home care agency or a geriatric care practice. But an hour per week checking these three dashboards can tell you whether your website is doing its job, connecting the right families to the right care at the right time.

This content was developed by Paul Bastante, a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) and founder of The AgeWise Institute™.