Blogging For Dentists – Still A Good Idea?
5 reasons why your dental practice blog is still a great investment
Dentists often ask me “why do I need a blog” when we are discussing the recommended tools any small business needs to start making headway with their presence on the internet.
This is a very valid question and so popular that I thought it would be useful to list the five main reasons why a small business blog is so useful….
You need to engage your patients with useful, fresh information
A professional website is one thing, but capturing your patients’ attention with interesting blog articles is also beneficial. Your web page content typically won’t change very often but you can use your blog to bring useful, new information to your web domain on a regular basis. This can be practical information as well as more “human” information – so one week you may cover the latest implant technology; the next you may cover the practice manager’s latest charity fund-raiser.
Demonstrate that you are an authority on your subject
Posting good quality information about the world of dentistry will help to illustrate to existing patients and potential new ones, that not only do you know what you’re talking about but that you’re passionate about your subject too. If I’m searching for a new supplier, this is exactly the type of activity that helps me choose.
The cornerstone for your content marketing
A quick reminder about what content marketing is and the benefits here. Whilst it is perfectly reasonable to distribute useful information from other sources via your social media channels, you do need to supplement this with your own unique material. This is where your blog can really help. Every new article you post can then be distributed via social media and periodically re-posted too. Not only will this help to keep “social” momentum but also generate traffic back to your website when, hopefully, users click on the blog links you embed in your social posts.
The Google advantages
I saw an article recently which suggested that “if you are blogging for search engine optimisation then you are doing it wrong”. This is actually incorrect – you need to be blogging for user engagement and for SEO. Here are a few of the ways that blogging can assist your search ranking and your overall website traffic:
- Google favours fresh, high quality articles which will rank in their own right
- Adding new content to your domain over time, via your blog, will improve your domain authority and improve your ranking chances
- Blog article are a great way to target “long-tail” search phrases, for example treatment ‘x’ in location ‘y’
- Inter-site links from your blog pages to your main site headline pages will be beneficial for search ranking
- If your article is good enough, it may be linked from a third party website – hopefully a very useful back-link!
Useful to promote team involvement
Bringing the team together to participate in the overall practice promotion is always beneficial. One of the ways of keeping the team “on message” is to share the blogging task or, as a minimum, asking for ideas at weekly team meetings. Generating suitable ideas is often where dentists stumble with their blogging efforts, but you will be surprised what useful information surfaces if you share the workload. It’s also quite motivating when the new dental nurse sees her blog idea appear in print on the practice website (as long as it’s good enough of course!)
Summary
delivers numerous benefits with the top five detailed above.
Yes, there is some commitment involved with getting your blog moving and then maintaining momentum but it is extremely worthwhile.
If you would like to know more about dental blogging and the benefits it brings, please call our team for no-obligation advice on 01332 672548. If you are already committed to blogging but struggling to generate content, please ask about our professional copy-writing service where we can take over blogging on your behalf.