Get blogging!

Blogs are an essential part of online marketing, and are an excellent way of building your practice ‘brand’ online. Not only that, but a well-run, regularly updated blog will also help to boost your ranking on Google. Search engines absolutely love new content, and blogs provide a simple and effective way to add new content and so boost your practice website’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Picking your subject

Your practice blog can cover any subject matter relating to dentistry, though ideally should be geared towrads the treatments and services that you offer. Oral health topics are a great way of stimulating conversation and can also help educate patients on good oral hygiene habits. You may also choose to write on relevant stories in the press, or even practice news. All of these things help make your blog personal, and show that you and your team are real people as well as dedicated dental professionals.

Points to note

Any blog post your write should be a minimum of 350 words, supported by an image wherever possible. Your tone should be friendly yet professional, and the content you write should be unique. Never copy and paste material from another source as search engines hate duplicated text, and you will not be doing your practice brand any favours by copying material produced elsewhere.

To optimise your blog in searches it can help to include the associated keyword and location (if used) in the title as well as the body of the text. So for example if you are writing about dental implants, make sure that ‘dental implants’ features somewhere in the title. However, at the same time be careful not to overuse any particular keywords you are featuring in your blog post. Keyword stuffing is no longer an effective way of boosting search ranking and can be extremely off-putting to the reader!

Keeping things fresh

To keep your blog varied and interesting for your readers, you don’t always have to post just text and pictures. Infographics are a particularly good way of sharing information, and you could also consider adding interviews or videos to mix things up and keep your content fresh.

You might also like to consider writing blogs around testimonials. Instead of just posting a quote from a patient, why not build the testimonial into a news story about the patient’s journey to show how you helped them. You could even add in ‘before and after’ photos to support the story and show your readers the quality of the dentistry you can provide.

Get blogging!

If you haven’t set up a practice blog already, now really is the time to get one. A Google-friendly blog will not only help raise your profile online, but it will also help you to educate and engage with your patients in ways unlike ever before.

To help you make the most of your practice blog, it can be useful to work with a team of experts with experience in dental online marketing. Dental Focus ® ‘Websites for your profit’ can guide you on every aspect of blogging from setting up your blog to link building, content ideas and social media.

For more information call 020 7183 8388, or visit www.dentalfocus.com

About the author:

Naz Haque aka the Scientist is SEO Project Manager at Dental Focus ® ‘Websites for your profit’. Naz has a background in mobile and network computing, and has experience supporting an A-Z range of blue chip brands from Apple to Xerox. As an expert in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Naz is passionate about helping clients build strategies to enhance their brand and increase the ROI from their dental practice websites.