Have you seen blogs pop up on social media with titles like, “Why You Shouldn’t Blog,” and “Blogging Doesn’t Work Any More”? They say don’t judge a book by its cover, and neither should you judge a blog by its title. When I click through on the anti-blogging articles, the gist is usually that blogging works well if it’s done right.
If you spend time (or money) blogging for your dental practice, it just makes sense that you maximize your investment. But how?
I want to share 7 ways you can improve your dental blog, starting today. These tips are easy to implement. Even better, they’re based on years and years of practical experience in the dental marketing industry.
1. Don’t settle for stock content.
I cannot count the number of times Google has advised bloggers to post only original content. Google is a search engine. It knows everything on the web. A primary goal for Google is to provide users with the most relevant, original, informative content in response to a query. This means, if you search for “Denver dentist,” Google should show the best response content in top positions in results. If your blog contains text that can be found anywhere else online, your efforts are in vain. Some marketing companies will provide clients with a free blog, but the content is merely a feed that’s pushed to all of their clients’ websites. You do not want this. You want original blog content.
2. Keep it fresh – blog every week.
Often, dentists will call me and say that one blog per month is sufficient. My question is, sufficient for what? If you’re blogging to help your website rank higher in Google Search results, before we know how many blogs are necessary, we must do a comprehensive competitive analysis. What are your peers posting? What’s the competition for your target keyword phrases – the terms your potential patients query Google for? Once we answer these questions and a few others, we can determine optimal blog frequency and length. Usually, a weekly post works well. In some cases, twice weekly is better. For rural areas, twice a month may be fine.
3. Visual interest is imperative.
Video is crazily popular. Memes and photos catch peoples’ interest. The same is true of blogs. While the words draw attention from Google, the photo often pulls in readers. However, it is copyright infringement to copy and paste pictures from the web. You’ll need to use original photos or subscribe to a photo site, like Shutterstock, for photos to use legally.
Tired of blogging?
If you need help with blogging – whether you struggle to keep up or simply would rather do other things – Identiwrite’s team of copywriters is on hand to help you. Learn more about why you should blog here, and give me a call at 940-395-5115.