How Blogging Can Boost SEO & Bring in More Patients | Ep. 119

"Does blogging actually help a clinic book more patients?" As a healthcare provider, you've probably wondered if spending time creating blog content is worth the effort when platforms like Instagram and TikTok seem to dominate the information landscape. The answer might surprise you.

Learn how to transform your posts into patient-booking machines.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Patient-focused topic sourcing from FAQs and Google’s “People Also Ask”
• On-page SEO essentials and smart internal linking
• How to use AI tools without risking your rankings
• Promotion tactics to amplify reach and keep content working for you

Tune in now and start filling your schedule with the patients who are already searching for you.

Episode webpage and show notes: https://propelyourcompany.com/blogging-seo/

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Transcript

Introducing Clinic Blogging Benefits

Speaker 1 1:10

Hey there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design, and you're listening to the Clinic Marketing Podcast, the show where busy clinic owners get bite-sized strategies to grow visibility online and help you book more patients. Today we're tackling a common request that I get from chiropractors, physical therapists, med spa owners and more, and it's does blogging really help and how does it translate into new patient bookings? So stick around with me and I will walk you through a clear framework to launch or relaunch a blog that ranks on Google and drives appointments. First, let's go big picture.

Speaker 1 2:05

Some clinics assume blogging is old school. Patients just go to TikTok for their information now, right? No, not exactly. See, google loves fresh, relevant content. Every new post is another indexed page that you can have on Google and other search engines. It's a fresh chance to rank for a symptom, a therapy, a question or a specific keyword phrase. That will help you grow your website traffic. You get to control the narrative.

The SEO Impact of Blogging

Speaker 1 2:46

Social media posts vanish after time or people just don't scroll all the way back to them, while a well-organized blog post can sit on your website and drive continual traffic for years to come. We see this all the time when clinic owners say, oh my gosh, I wrote this one blog post three years ago and it's still driving traffic to my website to this day. It also adds trust. Google rewards first-hand experience and expertise. A blog packed with clear, clinically approved guidance signals to both search engines and readers that you're the real deal and you can gain some local SEO fuel Blog posts. Let you weave in neighborhood keywords like sciatica relief in Plano or post-op massage tips in Sarasota, without stuffing your services pages and again giving you those additional pages that help you rank your website. Let's put a little bit of numbers behind this. Multiple studies have shown that healthcare practices with active blogs receive 55 to 70% more organic visitors than those without Better yet, nearly half of prospective patients review a clinic's blog post or educational content before they book their first appointment. In other words, this helpful content not only attracts clicks, it builds the confidence in people that are visiting your website, guiding them to either call you or schedule an appointment online.

Speaker 1 4:47

All right, are you ready to turn theory into action? Grab a notepad or voice memo app on your phone and jot this down. Here's what I want you to do. Pick the right topics. Start with patient questions. Think about front desk queries, your common consultation, faqs, even the DMs that you're getting. This stuff is pure gold. Dms that you're getting this stuff is pure gold. You can use Google's. People Also Ask by typing in your service or typing in a symptom that somebody that would be visiting you has. In episode 100 of the Clinic Marketing Podcast, we go into great detail about how to use Google's. People Also Asked to come up with some really amazing content. You also want to balance between evergreen and seasonal. Low back pain exercises works great year-round versus snow shoveling. Safety tips will spike in the winter and not be so popular during your summer month.

Blog Frequency and Content Creation

Speaker 1 5:55

You want to make sure that you're structuring your blog post for readability and searchability. In episode 41, we break down the anatomy of an effective blog post. I'll include the link to that and the other resources mentioned in this episode in the show notes, but you're going to want to go back and listen to that Again. It's episode 41. I don't want to go through that whole process again in this episode because I'm trying to keep it short, but make sure you listen to the anatomy of a blog post to help you make sure that you're laying out your blog post in a way that is going to really truly help you rank and serve the purpose of supporting your readers when they get to that post. Also, you want to optimize it, which means that you're going through and you're to optimize it, which means that you're going through and you're using SEO strategies, that you're making sure that you're including your meta title tag and meta description, that you're including internal links that relate to either a service that you're highlighting in the blog post or another piece of content, and then you want to promote it and repurpose it, so you want to send it out as an email blast to your list. You can also use it to create quality content on social media.

Speaker 1 7:19

Now, one of the most common questions I get asked is how often should I blog, and I really want to be clear on this. Quality beats quantity. One well-researched and well-planned out, 800 to 1200 word blog post every other week outperforms that daily stuff and it definitely outperforms the stuff that was derived purely by AI. Listen, I get it. You might not have the time to sit down and write one blog post every other week. So if you are tight on your bandwidth, aim for at least one blog post a month. One blog post a month, I know you can commit to that, and if you're thinking, well, I'm not a writer, well, then dictate to your phone and then polish it up. Or if you're thinking that you don't have enough time, block out time ahead of time. Maybe you block out a couple hours a month and you work on all of your blog posts one time. You can leverage AI, but do not rely solely on it, and I'll include links to other podcasts that we did about AI and how to use AI to assist you again, assist you with writing your blog post, not having AI simply write your blog post for you.

Action Steps and Conclusion

Speaker 1 8:51

It's also important that you give your blog purpose, meaning that it's not just content that you're putting together to try to rank. You also want to be sure that you're measuring your success. So check out Google Analytics and track a couple numbers. Track your organic sessions that are leading to your blogs overall and to specific blog pages. Check out your top landing pages, and check out your top landing pages and check out your conversions. Here are my suggestions for you as action steps for this week Brainstorm five blog topics using patients' frequently asked questions. Pick one and outline it and come up with three sub headers that go with.

Speaker 1 9:52

So we want to make sure again that that blog post is organized. If I were you, I would go back and listen to the anatomy of a successful blog post. That'll help you with the form thing. Block out time on your calendar in the next seven days to sit down and work on the blog post. Make sure you add calls to action when you are in the conclusion of that blog post and be sure to publish and share that blog post again through email blasts and social media. Blogging isn't about churning out words. It's about answering the exact questions your future patients are already googling. Do that consistently and I promise you Google will reward you. Thanks for tuning in to the Clinic Marketing Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a colleague or leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more clinic owners discover these tips.