Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Senior homes: Health or Real Estate?

A question of sorting: Are senior housing websites more suitably directory-listed under Health or Real Estate?

The major online directories have senior care and housing listings under Health. Housing easily associates with Real Estate but it's also hardly arguable these are specialized facilities (whether for-rent or for-sale) that cater to specific health-related needs of older adults.

The keywords that make senior homes associable to a Health category include senior care, continuing care, and assisted living. One can easily identify nursing homes, skilled nursing, and hospice listings along these. On another perspective, senior homes also mean residential facilities, seniors' villages, senior housing rentals, 50+ communities, retirement villages, and retirement vacation rentals. I understand web directories usually make use of the simple yet effective @link and See Also tricks. This trivial question of taxonomy is quite intriguing especially when viewed at an advertising stance.

In advertising, target keywords, audience, or categories need to be properly identified for efficiency. Consider advertising in paid web directories for example. The lack of a standard/strict category designation for senior home or senior care listings creates a problem -- or a dilemma at the least. Add to that the fact that most seniors-related websites are comprehensive. They compile information about care services, facilities, homes, communities, villages, and properties in one website. Without an established knowledge of target audience preference in searching for senior home-related items, a standard category designation is one issue that has to be looked upon.

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