Posted on November 2, 2015
Blogs: Your Secret Weapon to SEO Success
You don鈥檛 have a blog on your website. Or maybe you do, but your practice just isn鈥檛 utilizing it- no big deal, right? Wrong.
Let me back-track. We talk about Google a lot here at Glacial Multimedia. You鈥檝e probably heard us say, 鈥淕oogle likes this鈥�, or 鈥淕oogle doesn鈥檛 like that鈥�. Maybe you鈥檝e even heard one of my co-worker鈥檚 favorites: 鈥渋t鈥檚 Google鈥檚 sandbox, and we鈥檙e all just playing in it.鈥� We spend a lot of time discussing and monitoring how Google works because it far outranks any other search tool, and chances are, your patients and prospects are searching for their medical needs using this behemoth of a search engine.
We鈥檝e learned a lot, and there鈥檚 one thing we know for sure: Google loves blogs.
If you aren鈥檛 using a blog, you鈥檙e missing out on a huge opportunity not only to personify your practice, but to boost your rankings and online visibility.
Here are five reasons why a blog is the secret weapon your practice needs to boost rankings and push past that pesky competitor:
Reason #1: Your Content Just Might Be Going Stale.
Your website is just how you want it. You鈥檝e outlined the ins-and-outs of cataracts, the pesky signs of dry eye, perfected your doctor bios and the verbiage of your laser technology page is just wonderful. As good as it feels to have your web content just how you want it, now that you aren鈥檛 updating your pages Google may just see this as you not caring about your site.
We know you care, and that鈥檚 where a blog comes in. Google loves to see fresh content on websites, and blogs are an easy way to show Google that you are making updates. By posting the occasional blog to your site (we recommend about two per month) search engines see that you are maintaining your website and keeping it current, just through one blog page! Content is king in search engines, and this can help online rankings and just could be the small factor that your competitors aren鈥檛 paying mind to.
Reason #2: That Keyword That Just Isn鈥檛 Ranking Well.
Rankings change all the time. Did a term you care about just drop a few spots? Blogs to the rescue.
Rankings change based off of a combination of things. For example, search engine algorithm changes, what your competitors are doing, and what you are doing are just some of them. So if your competitor starts pushing LASIK, that term may go up for them鈥� and down for you. This is where blogs come in.
If you want to push this ranking back up, blogs are a great resource to write keyword rich content that can begin to increase (or further solidify) your website鈥檚 ranking position. A few articles about LASIK technology, LASIK benefits, or a testimonial from a patient whose life changed thanks to LASIK surgery, and you just may see blogs making a difference in your website鈥檚 visibility.
Really. Blogs are the keyword tool you鈥檝e been hoping for.
Reason #3: You鈥檝e Got Personality, and Patients Like That.
Your practice is quirky, your employees are friendly, and what鈥檚 more- you have lives. You are members of the community. You did that huge charity, and people loved it. Why not share it? Don鈥檛 be a Bruce Wayne; let the world know what you and your co-workers are up to beyond your surgical prowess.
Blogs are a method of communication that give you control over how you are perceived. If you are able to keep readers engaged, even this helps your rankings by increasing the amount of time that people are navigating your website. Individuals will stay on your blog pages to read articles, and page view duration is another factor that search engines take very seriously.
Everyone loves a business with personality, a story, a likeable staff and community involvement. A blog is a perfect way to brand your practice and show the community that it鈥檚 not just 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥� at your location. Post pictures of a baby shower, share your involvement with charity, celebrate your victories in the community- and where better to do it than your blog?
Reason #4: Social Media is Trending.
Another thing Google loves? Social media. The more social signals coming to your website from sites like Facebook or Twitter, the better your ranking potential. With our social media packages, you can automatically feed your blog articles to Facebook or Twitter, vastly increasing the visibility of your posts, catching more readers, and bringing increased traffic to your website (and of course, traffic to your website is great for rankings).
If you have a well-designed website, a funny thing happens once people are directed to your site: they start looking around. Someone may see an interesting blog article on Facebook, and next thing they know they鈥檙e reading about your services and maybe even thinking about booking an appointment! The capacity to feed your blogs to social media vastly increase your chances of getting prospective patients right where you want them: on your website.
Reason #5: We Can Do the Work for You.
It鈥檚 what we do. Our coders will make your blog custom, coding and designing it to match and fit in with the look and feel of your website, and our blog system even provides tools to ensure that you鈥檙e tagging the correct terms that you want the article to help rank for.
Once the blog module is live on the site, we give you options. It鈥檚 your property, so of course we can show you how to use the system and post your own blog articles at your discretion. We also understand that at a lot of medical practices it鈥檚 far too busy to even think about your blog, let alone write a full-fletched blog article. Thankfully, we have Social Media experts that can do the work for you. Our social media plans allow you to decide; we can do scheduled postings twice a month (or more) in some packages, or we can post 鈥減er diem鈥� articles at your discretion.
In Conclusion…
There鈥檚 no silver bullet solidifying your practice at the top of ranking results, but we鈥檝e found that getting to the top takes a holistic approach. Blogs can鈥檛 do everything, but in our experience at Glacial Multimedia we鈥檝e found them to be a no-brainer as an SEO tool and method of boosting engagement.
My advice? Call us. It鈥檚 time to talk about blogging.