Dental Blog – 10 Fundamental Reasons Why Your Practice Website Needs One

So you’ve heard that having a dental blog is great for attracting new patients, converting leads and boosting your SEO efforts.

Yet…you’re still on the fence.

If that’s true in your case, let’s run through 10 undeniable reasons why you should write a dental blog post today.

1. Improve your SEO

Search engine optimisation, otherwise known as SEO, is a lot more sophisticated than it used to be. Nowadays, to keep Google satisfied, you need to be publishing quality content and do it consistently.

Why?

Google wants to see that your website is current and constantly providing valuable information to web surfers. By writing a regular dental blog post, Google will see your site as both valuable and authoritative. In other words, the more indexed pages you have, the better chance you have at ranking high and being found on the first page of a search engine result.

2. Earn a great reputation

This links in nicely with reason number 1. Without a doubt, your dental blog should be viewed as a valuable resource for building credibility, authority, and influence in your field.

Simply put, the more you provide informative blog posts on oral health and answer topical questions, the more the search engines will like it. So when a searcher puts in a particular dental-related keyword term, the search engines are more likely to return your site as the most relevant.

3. Prove your engagement

Remember, when you blog, you’re essentially creating a two-way conversation with potential and current patients. So when you focus on improving the way people interact with your website, you’ll deliver an all-around better user experience.

This, in turn, increases website traffic and ultimately helps grow your patient base.

What’s more, a dental blog proves your online presence and shows that your business is alive and kicking rather than just ‘lights on but no one’s home’. Take the time to reply to comments on your posts and directly interact with your readers. Doing so will create some seriously great PR.

4. Boost your social media

Once you’ve got awesome new content on your blog, social media is a platform where you can re-purpose it. In other words, your blog is the content source, and your social media account is a form of distribution.

Your followers can also then pass that information on to friends and family who are interested too. The real bonus, though, is that sharing your posts on Twitter or Facebook will count toward your SEO efforts as well. So you help to strengthen your existing followers while opening your practice up to an entirely new audience all at the same time.

TIP – Make sure your website has social media sharing buttons, that way, your readers can easily share your content with others.

5. Bond with your existing patients

Although a dental blog is great for attracting new leads, let’s not get too caught up with fishing for new patients and casting aside existing ones. Bearing that in mind, it’s important to keep strengthening the bond with your current patients too.

So how does a blog help do that?

Well, if a patient has a question, they can head to your website or blog to find the answer. What’s even better is to email your subscribers as soon as you’ve written a new dental blog post. That way, they’ll be notified of your new content straight away.

Don’t forget, educating patients helps to nurture your relationship with them, which of course, cements retention and, ultimately, this means more referrals!

6. Allow patients to learn more about you

Consider your blogs as an introduction to your patients, where you welcome them and entertain them.

It’s always worth remembering that a blog is meant to be more relaxed and informal than other areas of your website. It’s a place where you can voice your personal experiences and opinions and really showcase your individuality.

So next time you’ve got an opinion on a new oral health fad, share it. Or maybe you could write a blog post on ‘a day in the life of a dentist’ or ‘what inspired you to become a dentist’. Doing so helps readers get a real feel for what it would be like to be one of your patients.

TIP – Always use ‘I’, ‘You’ and ‘We’ in your articles to make them appear more conversational.

7. Reduce your marketing costs

Regardless of whether you hire a dental writer or produce the articles yourself, blogging is definitely the number one cost-effective marketing tactic. It’s proven to deliver great results time and time again with hardly any risks.

Of course, I’m not wanting to rub traditional advertising’s nose in it, but blogging reaches a much wider targeted audience, all at a fraction of the cost! What’s not to like about that?

8. Make announcements

The vast majority of your patients visit you only twice if not once a year…and a lot can change in that time. That’s where a blog comes in handy. Use it to post the latest updates or timely information about your practice to keep your patients in the loop. For example, have you just hired a new member of staff? Introduce them in an article. Taking part in a charity event? That’s brilliant; let’s post about it.

9. Convert leads

For most dentists, blogging is the number one way in which they drive traffic to their website. The trouble is, just getting them there isn’t enough. The main goal is to convert these viewers into paying patients. By including an inspiring call to action at the end of every dental blog post,  you can encourage your readers to take that all-important action, such as downloading your free E-book or subscribing to your newsletter.

10. Gain long-term results

Often a marketing effort can be a one-shot campaign with short-term results. Not so with blogging. What’s great is that once you post a blog, it’s out there for the world to see for many years to come. In other words, it will keep working for you long after you’ve forgotten about it. Now that’s magic!

So, now you know the fundamental reasons why you really should be blogging, the question is… are you ready to start?

At Dental Writers, we’re an experienced team of dental bloggers and copywriters who can help you get your dental blog off the ground. To find out more, contact us on (0034) 605 45 73 42 or visit our website at www.dentalwriters.com.