Yes.
Technically we could just end the blog there, but then what help would that be? Simply put, blogging is one of the most important parts to getting your website’s engagement levels up and traffic flowing, but it’s often overlooked in the healthcare space. If you’re unsure of why it’s so crucial to your online marketing campaign, here are some helpful tips.
Blogging means conversation
Pages that you build out for a website are usually filled to the brim with information and built around keywords (if you have the right SEO team working with you), and that will forever be important. This is primarily because when people are searching through an actual website, they’re typically looking for detailed information about a service or procedure, or even formal information about the practice itself. Blogs are a bit different in the fact that they’re conversational and meant to be found based on long tail or question style searches.
For example, let’s say I’m looking for someone to do sinus surgery in the city of Charlotte. My search will probably look something like “sinus surgeon in Charlotte NC” and will ideally lead me to a page about that surgeon and his or her overall qualifications. However, if I’m looking for a way to stop a sinus headache I may search “how can I get rid of a sinus headache?” Notice that one of these is a question while the other is a direct series of words. Because they’re two different styles of searches, they’re making up two different groups of people. While person A may know that he needs sinus surgery, person B might become a potential patient if they notice you have a blog about remedying headaches with a simple surgery. Either way, you’ll want to direct that traffic to your site, and a blog is an easy way to do just that!
Blogging means national reach
Locality is and will always be necessary to your site’s optimization in order to reach your target market. However, it’s not a bad thing for your brand if you happen to gain some national exposure. Because blogs have much more reach based on their overall search volume, it’s not rare to see one of your blogs bring some extra traffic to your site in a given month.
You may have heard of the term “click bait.” This essentially means that you’re creating a term or phrase that’s going to force a viewer to click on your site, photo, video, or whatever it may be. While a blog is certainly not click bait, it does allow you to capitalize on some traffic that you may not have gained from your site’s standard content by using a catchy phrase or question. For example, you may have a page on “fibroid treatment” that ranks well locally, but your blog about “foods that can affect fibroids” gains national traction. Although that blog may not translate well into a localized page because it doesn’t have ample conversion opportunity, it’s still a fantastic read for someone on your site. By turning it into a blog and allowing it to index, Google will pick up on it and potentially even give it higher placement on SERP simply because a) it’s directly answering the question asked and b) it’s attached to a site that’s relevant to the topic. In this instance, there’s no need to put “foods that can affect fibroids in Charlotte NC” since simply answering the question gets the blog ranking well without the locality. And just like that, your traffic, impressions, and clicks are up!
Blogging means humanization
In the healthcare industry specifically, there’s an outright need for a human element both during the search for a doctor and while at the office. An easy way of helping add some humanization to the search process is to consistently blog. As we mentioned above, a blog is essentially a piece of a conversation. Unlike a lot of the more formal copy within a site, someone can tell that a blog is written by an actual human, and that can substantially help your brand.
In talking with doctors, one of the biggest frustrations is that people go to the internet to diagnose themselves. Sometimes a hangnail can turn into a serious infectious disease with the quick click of a mouse. But in reality, that’s a resource that people are going to use. You have the ability to combat this online fear mongering by writing blogs that level with people. For example, some might be frightened by the thought of a colonoscopy. Although yes, they would like to know all about how the procedure will go and what you need to do in preparation, many users are looking for a more soothing tone when this information is presented, and a blog can do just that. Perhaps writing less about what a colonoscopy is and more about “why not to stress about a colonoscopy” is a great way to go. Not only does it portray what type of communication the person coming in for the procedure can expect, but it will also allow you to attract both types of searchers, thus helping you attract more patients.
Blogging means ranking
If any of the benefits above didn’t help get you intrigued, hopefully this does the trick! Want to be number one for a specific search? Well, a blog can act as another piece of prime real estate on a SERP, and that’s what you need.
By focusing on creating a blog that’s both conversational and keyword rich, you can easily begin to fill up top spots for the searches that people make. For example, let’s say you have someone searching for “flu shots in Charlotte NC.” First, you’ll certainly want to have a strong page about flu shots, but you may also have a few great blogs that talk about what a flu shot is and how it works. By sprinkling in a little locality, and making sure that the article is prominently featured on your site and social, you’re helping Google recognize your site more and ideally gain some noteable rankings. Now, people can find your blog to read about the topic and your site to book an appointment. The best of both worlds!
Hopefully by now you understand the power in a blog, but if not then we’re here to help! Give us a call today at (704) 887-5300, or contact us online to get started in blogging for your practice. The best part, you don’t even have to lift a finger! We’ll do all the writing for you.
