While the healthcare industry was initially slow to embrace websites and digital marketing, an inviting website is now essential for all medical businesses. One of the best ways to enhance and drive traffic to your medical website is to add a blog.
1. A Blog Adds Interest to Your Website
A lot of websites for healthcare businesses and medical practices just a fancy directory listing. If you only want your website to provide an address and directions, that’s fine, but it’s better to have a website that actually attracts prospective patients and gives them something to read. Google tracks how long visitors stay on your website so the more they have to read, the better is for your websites Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
2. A Good Blog Improves Trust
Selecting a healthcare provider is a fraught decision for many people. The service is so important people are afraid of making a mistake. They’ll examine your website for signals that indicate they will like and trust you. Superficially, photos of your office will help, but a blog will do a great more. Articles about your specialty will make them more informed patients and increase trust – especially when you link to well-respected health and medical websites, like the National Institute of Health and Johns Hopkins University, to validate the facts in your blog.
A good blog also improves Google’s assessment of your website. Google uses E A T – Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness as a way to determining whether visitors will have a good user experience and that factors into your website’s Google search ranking.
3. It Provides Content to Share
Tasteful social media content for a medical practice is difficult to create and can easily become repetitive. Having a blog on your website provides content to tweet/post and, even more importantly, is much more likely to be shared than hour changes, office photos, a list of services, etc.
4. A Good Blog Can Improve Your Search Rankings
As this analysis from Search Engine Journal explains, there’s a bit more to it than “fresh content boosts your Google search ranking.” That said, SEJ does ultimately confirm that regularly updating your site regularly with relevant, high quality content will help your search rankings in comparison to competitors.
5. Answer Frequently Asked Questions and Common Concerns
While you never want a medical blog to be mistaken for diagnosing issues, it can be used to address questions your practice gets all the time and address topical issues. For example, a blog could address why it’s important not to eat (or to eat) X hours before a specific test. During the pandemic a blog could have clarified misunderstandings about mask guidelines. A pediatrician’s blog could cite the symptoms to monitor if your child has a fever so parents can better understand when getting medical assistance is important. This can be a valuable resource for your patients to build trust and loyalty, as well as help them avoid less reputable websites
Efferent Media Is the Expert in Medical Marketing
A well-written, SEO-optimized blog can enhance your social media, website traffic, and your business – but it also takes time you could be spending with your patients. Let our content marketing team do the work for you. Efferent Media specializes in medical marketing and will work with you to create blogs that accurately represent your practice and your expertise If you need blog writing services or general SEO services, call Efferent Media’s marketing experts at (631) 867-0900 to get started.