5. Description

Your Description is what care seekers will read first and it gives visitors to your profile a snapshot of your setting, including what services you provide, what facilities residents can enjoy and how your activities benefit their wellbeing. Description contributes 10% towards Profile Completeness.

How to add a Description

To add a Description to your carehome.co.uk profile go to your Control Panel and click on Description on the right hand side.

Alternatively go to the left hand menu and navigate to:

1. Profile

2. Profile Details (Care Homes if in a group profile)

3. Update Profile Details

4. Then click the drop down arrow on the blue Description bar.

Remember to click Update at the bottom of the page when you have finished.

What’s Important

Your setting is unique, and your description should be too. Write your Description from scratch and try not to copy what you have on your website. Google likes original content and a unique profile benefits your visibility in search engine results.

Here are a few tips on what to include:

Location - Being more specific about your location can help the care seekers understand exactly where you are.

Overview - Outline what care services you provide, who they are for and what facilities and amenities are on site.

Here are some things you may want to talk about:

Who the service is for e.g. older people, disabled, dementia etc.

• Staff
• Bedrooms
• Communal areas
• Outdoor areas
• Activities
• Food and menus
• Community involvement
• Awards and CQC ratings

Before you submit, go over what you have written to check spelling and grammar and to spot anything you may have missed.

Remember to click Update at the bottom of the page when you have finished.

Rules

When it comes to your care home’s Description we do have a few rules…..

Keep it unique

Each profile must have a unique description. Do not copy and paste text from your website or use the same text for multiple profiles. Unique descriptions are essential to increasing clicks on your profile. You can reword or rephrase the same content but the words must be different.

Writing style

Text must be written in third-person tense. That means saying ‘the home’, ‘the team’ ‘they’ rather than ‘our home’, ‘us’, ‘we’. This is to maintain carehome.co.uk’s impartiality when presenting options to care seekers.

Avoid text that may quickly become dated

Groups must have a unique description for each member. Please also refrain from mentioning the number of care homes in the group or the names of any other homes in the group as this may go out of date.

Keep your information current

Including recent or upcoming events can mean your information quickly goes out of date. For that reason, we ask that:

• Do not include timely calls to action/events or promotions/special offers. Please submit a Press Release or an Upcoming Event instead.
• Any references to CQC reports or awards should be dated with month/year.
• Any references to new or recent renovations should be dated with month/year.
• Do not include staff names. Please use the ‘Meet the Team’ feature instead.
• No testimonials or quotes.
• No links to websites, contact or address details.

Example description

Below is an example of a description to help you generate ideas for your own profile. Please don't copy and paste it as yours will need to be unique.

[Your setting] delivers quality care packages to adults with specialist residential and nursing needs. All provision is personalised, including respite, convalescent and palliative care, for young, physically disabled people and neurological conditions. Reminiscence and physiotherapy are also key parts of the care itinerary.

The home is located in scenic surroundings where wildlife can often be seen. Residents are welcome to personalise their rooms, with rooms available for both dual and single occupancy.

Nutritionally balanced meals are made using fresh ingredients, suiting different food preferences and dietary needs, with cold and lighter choices also available.

Strong community links help the home to organise events and activities, while a dedicated enthusiastic activities co-ordinator ensures that personal interests and hobbies are provided for.

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Try look at a few other care home profiles to get an idea of the type of message you can include.

All descriptions are personally checked by our team and anything you submit should appear on your profile within 48 hours.

We don't mind amending spelling or grammatical errors but if your text does not comply with our guidelines, it may be rejected, and you may be asked to resubmit.