Why writing a dental blog is beneficial
The primary reason for any dental practice to exist is to benefit the patients in the local area, we all want them to have improved dental health and to enjoy their smiles, teeth and life in the way they choose.
As clinicians we are trained to deal with the dental problems that patients present and we can facilitate that process if we are able to inform, educate and motivate patients either before they come to the dentist or in between their routine health check appointments.
And this is where we find blog posts can be incredibly useful.
You know those questions patients continuously ask?
- Do dental implants hurt?
- Does it matter if my gums bleed when I clean my teeth?
- Why do I need to see the hygienist?
- And the list goes on…
These kind of regular questions make fabulous blog posts, they inform, educate and motivate patients to understand more about their dental health problems and begin the process of building trust-based relationships with the dental practice.
So, writing a dental blog is beneficial to the patient, but how is it beneficial to the practice?
Google absolutely loves blog posts. Writing a blog is a sign to Google that your site is active, lived in and regularly updated. Google wants to return search results to its customers that are relevant, writing a blog post is a great way to create relevant content which can be found in those searches.
Rather than try to cram huge amounts of information onto a single page of your website it’s far easier for the patient to digest if it is broken down into a series of blog posts.
Google is then able to pick out those precise questions that people search for and send them to your blog.
For example, rather than try to put lots of information about every possible question that patients could ask about dental implants on the dental implants page of your website, we try to break this down into a series of blog posts such as the following:
- do dental implants hurt?
- Family dental implants will I need?
- How long do dental implants last for?
- What’s the difference between a dental implant add a dental bridge?
- Should I have a bridge or a dental implant?
- What is a dental implant made of?
With these questions broken down into blog posts Google is far better at understanding what your website is about.
BUT…
The biggest advantage for your website when writing a blog is one of search engine optimisation.
If you create really good content that genuinely answers people’s questions then Google will find your blog and show it in the search results. If people then like this blog post they will have a tendency to share it on forums and social media.
Google can see all of these links back to your website that people place when they talk about you on these forums and other websites, each time Google notices a link it counts it as a vote, to put it simply, the more votes your website has (links from around the Internet pointing back to it) the higher it will rank in the search results.
We then end up with a snowball effect, the more people that see your great content, the more people that share it, the more shares it gets the more votes it gets, the more votes it has the higher it will rank in the search results and the more people will see it… The process then goes round and round and round.
So, don’t worry about trying to sell anything in your blog posts, simply hand out the very best quality content you possibly can. Make sure it is engaging, make sure it answers the patient’s questions in detail and avoid the temptation to talk about yourself.
This will help the patient and at the same time get shared around the Internet which will help your website by garnishing links from around the Internet.
Blog posts really are one of the best ways to build traffic to your website and help the local people, they truly are a win/win marketing strategy.
Author details:
Mark Oborn MBA www.markoborn.com
Mark spent 25 years as a dental technician working exclusively within the high quality sector of the private market, after 15 years of running his own laboratory he now also has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) majoring in marketing, innovation and creativity. Mark is also a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Master Practitioner of Hypnosis which further assists him in the skilful art of marketing communication.
He now works with a select handful UK dental practices developing their online marketing, website conversions and social media marketing helping them to attract patients in to their practice.