Blogging is an important element in an effective strategy to grow a business online. It’s the practise of communicating stories and information to your audience about or related to your business.
Blogging might sound really informal and not something a dentist would want to do - but put simply, this is all about creating content to answer questions your clients and potential clients would be interested in.
The field of dentistry is unique. At the click of a button, one can find information about solutions for any kind of mouth-related ailment or symptom.
Consider this search for "How to treat sensitive teeth".
Notice that Google Answers has a pull-out of quick information from the Mayo Clinic? Google has determined the Mayo Clinic to be a reputable source that can provide a near-perfect answer to the query. This is thanks to them fulfilling many of Google's 200 ranking factors, which we'll talk about later in this post.
The first organic listing is from Colgate. Both Mayo Clinic and Colgate are reputable in Google's eyes and they have another big thing in common: They both blog regularly! You'll soon find out that publishing content regularly is critical to doing well in search engines.
I’ve done a lot of blogging and content marketing work for dentists. Heck, our entire ElementIQ team has! We know that dental blogging works and we know HOW it should work.
In this blog post, I’ll talk about why dentists should blog and what kind of benefits you’ll see if you invest enough time.
[elementor-template id="11472"]
Patients Research Before Making Decisions
Patients rely on their family dentist for sound dental advice. Think about the process: If there’s a problem, the dentist diagnoses it. They suggest options to fix the problem and communicate these options with the patient.
Now, that hasn’t changed over time. BUT, who people get information from and how they do it has varied. These days, when you need a dental implant, patients do their research. They type their question into Google and dig deep for some answers.
Dental practices should educate with their blog-writing. That’s the goal. Your dentists and associates already do this in-person. The next step is to use that advice and education as a marketing tool. One of the best ways to do this is with fleshed out, optimized-for-web, blog posts.
Pro-Tip: How To Know When A Patient Wants To Get Work Done On Their Teeth...
When someone wants information, they’ll type a keyword into Google. However, when someone wants a place to get a service done, they’ll type that same keyword and a location (city) beside it. (Example: dental implants Vancouver).
Typing a location implies you want to find a place where a service is done or offered at.
Do People Still Read Blogs?
I’ve heard business owners question whether people read blogs anymore. The terms “blog” and “blog posts” are synonyms. Blogs are places for content and blog posts are the articles themselves.
That article you read on Huffington Post about the “Top Yogurt-Related Tweets” – that is a blog post. If you read a post on the “10 Things You Can Do With Bacon”, that too is a blog post.
So people may not go to a blog to get information but they do get information from blog posts.
Patients Like Hearing ‘Inside’ Knowledge (From Dentists)
Dentists should be personable, in-person and in writing. There’s value to this in your writing. People like receiving ‘inside’ knowledge. It’s as if the dentist is talking to you
Of course, no blog post is a substitute for a dentist appointment or for direct advice from a dentist. Blog posts should answer patient questions. Dentists can reveal uncommon information such as process and costs in their blog posts.
It’s clear that blogging has plenty of benefits for patients. So what’s in it for dentists and dental offices? For starters, it builds trust. Patients will see you as an authority when you answer their questions. People like receiving candid information.
Furthermore, blogging builds up your website authority in Google’s eyes.
Google Likes Blogging
As digital marketers, we know that Google loves publishers. It rewards fresh content and recognizes those who are authorities in any industry.
Google wants to serve people with the most relevant search results possible. They’ve determined what factors impact relevancy. How you rank in search results depends on over 200 factors!
For you publishing dentists out there, content freshness is high on the list. If you blog and blog well, you’ll get lots of organic visits to your website. This means people type in a query, a result from your website shows up and they click-through.
If you’re a dentist and you’re not blogging or blogging, you’re missing out. You’re missing out on improving keyword rankings for your business. You’re missing out on increasing organic visits to your website. Most of all, you’re missing out on opportunities to get new patients.
Starting (Your Dental Blog) Is The Hardest Part
If you’re a business owner or marketer and you’ve decided to start blogging, what’s the first thought that comes to mind? I’ve found that it’s “what do I write about?”
Here’s my first piece advice: Don’t think about the topics before you think about your customers and what they care about.
Good blogging starts with knowing what your patients and customers are curious about. In your dental office, it’ll be important to have whoever handles content strategy and writing to communicate with the dentists, associates, and dental assistants. These 3 groups of people will be your library for topics.
Above all? Patients ask you questions every day! So note down what you’re constantly asked, and start from there.
Got any questions or comments? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below!
