No dentist (well, maybe a few) wants to write blog posts. But traditional marketing has shifted to digital marketing over the past 20 years, and blogging has become an important part of finding new patients through SEO (search engine optimization). Here I share simple steps to write blog posts quickly and painlessly. I’ve included seven customizable blog post templates to get you started.
Why SEO and Blogging are Critical to the Success of Your Practice
If you want to grow, one of the most effective ways to grow your patient database is to make sure patients can find you online. This should be part of your firm’s overall marketing efforts, along with social media, referral programs, email marketing, local advertising, partnership efforts, and any other crazy ideas you can think of. .
Are you old enough to remember the Yellow Pages, the big yellow book that lists all the local businesses? Everyone’s business was listed in the Yellow Pages because it was the go-to source for local business information. Today, the reference sources are Google, Yahoo and Bing, but especially Google. Dental SEO means being found by potential patients who not already know who you are. If someone already knows the name of your firm, they will easily find your website, so you don’t need to do a lot of SEO. But if they search for a dentist using phrases like “best dentist near me” or “dentist open right now,” they’ll only find you if your SEO is up to par with your competitors.
How Blogs Help New Patients Find You
If your city or town is like most of the country, there is competition for the first page of search engines. Ninety-two percent of all internet users do not click on the second page of search results. This means that if you want to be found by new patients, you need to be on the first page of search results. There are mainly two things that Google looks for when considering search engine rankings: new, original content and link authority. Blogs are one of the best ways to create new, original content.
How to write an SEO blog post in 15 minutes
Step 1: Add a blog to your website
Yeah, I know. You wouldn’t think I would include this as a step, but many dental websites I’ve looked at don’t have a blog. If you have a WordPress site, adding a blog is a piece of cake. If your website is not on WordPress, you should contact your website host or the dental marketing company that created your website. You want the blog on your domain rather than a separate domain. Blogging on a separate domain won’t help SEO as much. And, if your website business is going to charge you more than an hour for work, consider working with someone else. You shouldn’t be squeaky clean because adding a blog post only takes a few minutes.
Step 2: Decide which keywords you want to rank for
About 80% of the search phrases that patients use to find a dentist are listed in Figure 1. I created this list using a platform called SEMRush. Volume is the total monthly search volume in the US, while Difficulty is the measure of how hard it is to rank for that keyword.
If you have access to a keyword research tool, you can get a little more granular and searchable phrases with geo-locators, such as “dentist in (city) (state)” or “cosmetic dentist in ( city, state)”. A good free keyword research tool is the ahrefs keyword generator. This does not mean that you should only search for the keywords in this list. You need to consider the value of a patient searching for that keyword. For example, a potential patient searching for “teeth whitening near me” would not have as much value as a potential patient searching for “dental implants near me”. A good strategy is to optimize for some of the keywords listed, but also include keywords that are profitable services or specialty services. Generally, the more specific your keyword, the easier it is to optimize.
Step 3: Create an idea archive
It’s hard to think of a blog topic, but don’t get stuck on this step. Create a spreadsheet to help you brainstorm. I recommend doing this in a team meeting. Ideas will flow easily when you can bounce them off others. Use the following worksheet headers to help you (Figure 2).
Step 4: Gather information on the subject
It shouldn’t be very difficult. Use some of these ideas to help you.
- Find out who is already ranked. Do a search on the keyword you are looking for and read the best articles. What is already filed is a good example of what you will need to write. Check text length, number of links, headings and format. Don’t copy an article as it may hurt your rankings, but use it as a template.
- Include questions and your own answers in the section People also ask for search results. The People Also Ask section shows you related questions and phrases that people are looking for. This idea works great for local SEO and it’s possible your post will be picked up as the source (snippet) for that search phrase. Here is the People Also Ask section from a search for “dental implants in SLC Utah” (Figure 3).
- Use the Socrates answer to help create additional questions, titles, headers and content.
Step 5: Create a catchy title
Since I’m not very smart, I like to use a title generator like SEOPressor. Try to include your keyword in the blog post title as much as possible. For example, if you search for “emergency dentist,” your title might be “Answers to 3 tough questions about an emergency dentist.”
Step 6: Use a proofreading tool
I recommend using Grammarly. This tool is awesome. Not only does it check your grammar, but it will also rewrite sentences and paragraphs according to the style. If I had this tool in English 101, I would have gotten an A-plus.
Step 7: Post, sit back and relax!
If your website is built on WordPress, you should be able to easily post a blog. If you don’t know how to do this, go to YouTube and search for “how to post a blog on wordpress”. You will get about a thousand videos that show you how to do it. If you happen to have a site built on private website software, you’ll need to call your web hosting company and see if you can get help publishing.
Launch Your Blog With These Seven Templates
Once you go through this process, you will find that writing a blog post will become easier and easier. To help you get started, we’ve included 7 customizable blog templates in this download pack.
Website and Related SEO Articles
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Ultimate Cosmetic Dental SEO Guide
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