Today’s healthcare providers understand the importance of connecting with their audience. A growing number of healthcare practices have started setting up and maintaining a physician blog. While blogs can be great methods of helping you reach your patients, it can be challenging to develop blog topics. There are a few key points that you should consider before you even brainstorm topics, so let’s walk through that issue first. 

A Physician Blog Improves Patient Trust

Establishing a knowledgeable blog helps patients get a feel for your professionalism before they schedule their first appointment. Today’s market isn’t searching for merely the best doctors or healthcare staff, but they want to connect with their providers. Blogs are a great way to allow prospective patients to see what makes your practice different. 

Blogging Increases Your Visibility

While many physicians want to write blogs that help patients understand issues they may be facing, one of the side benefits is increasing your website’s ranking and visibility. SEO (or search engine optimization) is a strategy used to help search engines find relevant medical content. Creating blogs that cover topics that answer questions can increase your visibility and the likelihood that people will click on your website. Hopefully, the more people you have clicking on your website will translate to more patients walking through your door! 

Having a Physician Blog is Free but Takes Time

There are two different tactics that most marketing companies take to help drive traffic to your page. One of these is paid advertising, also called cost per click (or CPC). While CPC advertising can result in traffic coming to your website almost immediately, it can be expensive, and the benefits of utilizing this strategy don’t hang on forever. 

The second method of increasing traffic to your website is through organic traffic, and this is where your blog and website content is crucial. Google (and other search engines) utilize sophisticated algorithms to calculate which sites get ranked. The higher you’re ranked, the more likely you are to increase website traffic. While the Google algorithm is constantly changing (and the details are strictly confidential to prevent cheating), certain factors are known to help improve your ranking. Google utilizes over 200 different known factors to help weed out bad websites and increase websites that are more likely to answer somebody’s search query. 

However, without having extensive knowledge or training in SEO and the Google algorithm, you should blog about the questions that are asked. Additionally, you want to ensure that you give a great response that answers the original search term. 

While CPC methods will bring people to your site almost immediately, organic methods take a minimum of six months, but traditionally more along the lines of 9-24 months. This approach takes longer to build but its effects last longer than CPC methods. 

Getting to the Topics

Now that we’ve covered some of the background information, let’s get you on the path to creating great blogs! While you should always keep an ear out for the questions your patients are asking, if you’ve run out of some of that creative mojo for your healthcare blog, we’ll get you kickstarted. 

Business Updates 

Updating individuals on what is happening in your office is a great chance to create valuable medical content. You can include updates on new training or equipment, staff changes, office moves, or a new piece of research. These topics can help build rapport and offer some insight that patients might not otherwise notice. It’s an excellent opportunity to tout some of your recent successes. 

Industry Reviews and Updates

While this information can be great for your patients to know and understand, simply having relevant and up-to-date information on your website can show patients that you continue to be involved in the community. Some of these updates can help your patients understand the changing medical industry and how they may want to structure their care. 

“How To” Guides

Of course, not all of your patients need to come into your office for every issue they face. If you can tackle some generic issues or give some tips for your clientele, you’ll be on your way to establishing trust. Veterinarians could create blogs about general pet care and grooming. Chiropractors may target general exercises for joint health. 

Patient Stories

Patient stories are great to demonstrate your involvement with the community. You can also use these stories to illustrate your treatment and success in a more meaningful way. Of course, be cautious of HIPPA violations and be sure that your patient is aware that you are using their story. 

Conclusions

Building an excellent physician blog is a great way to improve your website’s visibility and build credibility with your community. However, this approach takes a significant amount of time and effort. If you’re considering starting a blog, but you’d like to have the help of a professional medical content writer, contact us today. We offer professional content that helps you focus on more important things — your patients.