Who is reading, and what they already know
The person on your site is usually a daughter, son or spouse. A parent fell, had a stroke or is coming out of the hospital, and a discharge planner just handed them a list of names. They have a few days, sometimes a few hours, to choose.
They are not starting from zero. Medicare tells families to research homes in their area, compare quality on Care Compare, visit in person and bring a checklist to each visit. That advice is on Medicare's own how to choose a nursing home page, and the checklist it points to is the CMS Questions to Ask When You Visit a Nursing Home form. If you want to know what families will ask you, read that form. It is the closest thing to a script they have.
So your website is not the first thing they see and not the last. It sits between the hospital list and the tour. Its job is to answer the checklist questions honestly enough that a tired family member picks up the phone.
1. Real photos of real rooms and real people
The first thing people do is look. They want to see a resident room, a bathroom, the dining room, the therapy gym and the outside of the building. They are trying to picture their mother there.
Stock photos of smiling models hurt you here. Families can tell, and the CMS checklist asks them to judge things a photo can show: whether the home looks clean and well kept, whether there are quiet places to visit, whether doorways and rooms work for wheelchairs, and whether residents can bring their own furniture. Show those things.
- A private and a semi-private room, made up the way a resident would have it
- The bathroom, including grab bars
- The dining room set for a meal, and a sample menu
- The therapy gym, if you take short-stay rehab patients
- The memory care neighborhood and its secured outdoor space, if you have one
- The front entrance and parking, so a first-time visitor knows where to go
Photos of residents need a signed authorization before you use them. That is covered in our guide on HIPAA and marketing websites. Staff photos, outdoor shots and empty rooms are the easy place to start.
2. Which kinds of care you actually provide
Families often do not know the difference between skilled nursing, long-term care, assisted living and memory care. They do know what Mom needs right now: therapy after a hip, a locked unit because Dad wanders, or round-the-clock nursing.
Give each care type its own page and say who it is for in the first two sentences. Short-term rehab and long-term care are different decisions with different payers, so do not blend them into one page. If you offer dementia care, say what training staff receive. The CMS checklist asks families to find out whether the home offers specialized dementia training for staff, so they will ask you anyway.
Also say what you do not do. If you cannot take ventilator patients or bariatric residents, a short, plain line saves everyone a wasted call.
3. How the bill gets paid
Money is the question families are most nervous to ask and most grateful to see answered. Most of them believe Medicare will cover a long stay. It will not.
Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing facility care on a short-term basis after a qualifying hospital stay of at least three days in a row, up to 100 days in a benefit period. For 2026, Medicare lists $0 per day for days 1 through 20 after the Part A deductible, and $217 per day in coinsurance for days 21 through 100, according to Medicare's skilled nursing facility coverage page. Medicare says it does not pay for long-term care, and points people to Medicaid if they qualify in their state.
Medicaid covers nursing facility services only in homes that are licensed and certified by the state as Medicaid nursing facilities, according to Medicaid.gov. The same page notes that a resident in a home certified for both programs can usually stay put when Medicaid becomes the payer. That is one of the most useful sentences you can put on your site, because it answers the fear behind the question: will we have to move her when the money runs out?
- Say plainly whether you are Medicare-certified, Medicaid-certified, or both
- List the Medicare Advantage and other insurance plans you accept, and keep it current
- Explain private pay in one paragraph, and say who on staff can talk through costs
- Say whether a private room stays available if the resident later moves to Medicaid, since the CMS checklist tells families to ask
4. Staffing, stated honestly
Families ask about staff more than almost anything else. The CMS checklist tells them to ask how many nurses and aides are on duty during the day, at night and on weekends, and whether the same staff will care for their parent from day to day.
Certified nursing homes already have to post daily nurse staffing data at the start of each shift, including the number of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nurse aides and the hours they worked, along with the resident census. That requirement is in 42 CFR 483.35(g). Families can also see your staffing star rating and turnover measures on Care Compare, which CMS builds from payroll data, per its Five-Star Technical Users' Guide.
Your website does not need to repeat those numbers. It should tell the story behind them: how long your director of nursing has been there, whether you use consistent assignment, how you train new aides, and who a family calls at 9 p.m. Names and faces of your leadership team do more for trust than any paragraph about compassion.
5. Inspection results and star ratings
Many families will look you up on Care Compare before or after they visit your site. The CMS checklist asks them to check your overall star rating and your health inspection, staffing and quality measure ratings, whether the latest inspection report shows problems, and whether you corrected them.
Federal rules already require certified homes to post the results of the most recent survey where residents and families can see them, and to make three years of survey and complaint reports available on request, under 42 CFR 483.10(g)(11). Your website is a natural place to point to the same information.
Link to your Care Compare listing. If your rating is strong, say so and show the date. If it is not, do not hide it. Families will find it. A short note that says what was cited, what you changed and who to call with questions reads as honest. Silence reads as hiding. Our guide on Care Compare ratings covers how to write that note.
6. A way to reach a person, fast
Every page should show a phone number that a person answers, and it should be tappable on a phone. Most of these visits happen on a phone, often from a hospital.
Put your admissions contact by name. Say whether you take admissions on weekends and how fast you can respond to a hospital referral. Offer a short tour request form for families who are not ready to call, and keep it to a few fields. Do not ask for a diagnosis on a web form. You do not need it to schedule a tour, and collecting health details on your website brings privacy obligations of its own.
Add your address, a map link, visiting hours and parking notes. Families visiting for the first time are often stressed and running late.
What tends to lose the family
A few patterns show up again and again on nursing home sites that do not get calls.
- A home page that talks about the company's mission but never says what care is offered
- No mention of Medicare or Medicaid anywhere
- A phone number only in the footer, or a number that goes to a corporate call center
- Photo sliders that rotate before anyone can read them
- Testimonials with no name and no context, which read as made up
- A news page last updated years ago, which makes people wonder if the building is still open
On testimonials: the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, effective October 21, 2024, prohibits fake reviews and testimonials and undisclosed insider reviews. Use real quotes from real families, with their written permission, and nothing else.
Checklist
- Real photos of a resident room, bathroom, dining room, therapy gym and entrance
- One page per care type, each saying who it is for in plain words
- Medicare and Medicaid certification stated clearly, plus accepted insurance plans
- A short, honest explanation of how short-stay and long-term stays are paid for
- Leadership team names and photos, and how staffing works day to day
- A link to your Care Compare listing, with context if your ratings need explaining
- A tappable phone number on every page, answered by a person
- A short tour request form that does not ask for medical details
- Address, map, visiting hours and parking notes
- Testimonials only from real families who gave written permission
Questions
Should we put our star rating on our website?
Link to your Care Compare listing either way, because families will look it up. If your rating is strong, show it with the date it was current. If it is weak, a short, factual note about what you are doing to improve does more good than leaving it out.
Do we need to list prices?
You do not need a full rate sheet online, but you should explain how care is paid for and who can talk through costs. CMS tells families that Medicare and Medicaid certified homes must give them services, charges and fees in writing before move-in, so be ready to send that quickly.
What is the most important thing to fix first?
Make the phone number easy to tap on every page and make sure a person answers it. Then add real photos and a clear page for each care type. Those three changes help families more than a redesign that leaves them out.
Can we show photos of our residents?
Only with a signed HIPAA authorization from the resident or their legal representative. Until you have those, use photos of rooms, common areas, outdoor spaces and staff who have agreed to be photographed.
Sources
- Medicare.gov: How do I choose a nursing home?
- CMS-12130: Questions to Ask When You Visit a Nursing Home (Nov. 2022)
- Medicare.gov: Skilled nursing facility care coverage
- Medicare.gov: Long-term care coverage
- Medicaid.gov: Nursing facilities
- eCFR: 42 CFR 483.35 Nursing services
- eCFR: 42 CFR 483.10 Resident rights
- CMS: Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System Technical Users' Guide (Sept. 2026)
- FTC: Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, Questions and Answers
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Confirm regulatory and legal questions with your compliance officer or counsel.
