In the humble beginnings of the digital age, websites were successful if they effectively told a company's story (built brand image) and easily disseminated information. But with the proliferation of search engine marketing and social media, first generation websites are now lost in cyberspace.

Even worse, they can be a hidden parasite that can eat away at an agency's bottom line, leaving many unaware of the root cause of a decline.

A recent study showed people age 34 to 59 — the primary age for caregivers — make 88 percent of their decision through research on the web. Home care companies must be aware of External Site Motivators (ESM) and Internal Site Motivators (ISM) that point customers' business to you. ESM includes search engine results, links from other sites, mentions from bloggers, and other tools that help bring customers to your site. ISM includes all of the content on your site that helps maintain a client's interest once they get there.

Your agency has to know how to successfully build both ESM and ISM and keep customers coming back to your site. Home care companies haven't capitalized on perhaps the most vital way to maintain ESM and ISM: interactivity. That means content produced should not only start a conversation about your product through brochure copy, it should also be able to continue the conversation through feedback on blogs, Facebook wall comments, message boards and other ways to drive up interest.

Generating that feedback is vital. Some 78 percent of consumers trust only peer recommendations, and 34 percent of bloggers post opinions about companies.

That's why utility content, as opposed to the brochure content that dominates most home care sites now, is so important. Utility content, which includes those blogs, message boards, and areas for feedback, continues the conversation and drives up results in Google, Yahoo!, and other search engines. At least 25 percent of search results for the world's Top 20 brands are links to user-generated content.

Social media can be a big part of that for home care companies. Facebook has gained 100 million users in nine months, and the fastest growing segment on the site is females age 55 to 65. Social media outweighs all e-mail interaction 20 to 1, and continues to grow exponentially each day.

Growth is what every home care agency strives for. Your website is a vital ingredient to make that happen.