If you’re a practice owner, you understand how important it is to keep patients coming through the door. While this was never easy, the task has only grown more challenging with the vastness of the internet. With unlimited information available at a patient’s fingertips, it’s important to stand out in the crowd as a provider who has the answers. However, that’s the challenge – the internet holds a plethora of information, health websites, other clinics, and Dr. Google.
How can you rise above the noise? Start with a great website, and then write a blog that helps show off your expertise, and shows Google that you’re an active business that should show up first in local search results.
Why is a blog important for your practice?
A blog can keep your website updated and fresh; the more often you update it, the more frequently your site can be found when people search for information. Why is that a big deal? A patient may find your clinic when they look for “knee pain after running” and you’ve conveniently written an article about that topic. This brings up the next topic: search engine optimization, or “SEO.”
What is SEO, and how will a blog help?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is how a site can move its way up into top search results. This is achieved by (thoughtfully) using words and phrases in your website content that you think people might use when they look up a topic.
In our previous example, a patient looking for “knee pain after running” would see dozens of pages of possible websites. How do they choose? Most people don’t go beyond the first page of a Google search. If your blog article has all their search terms in your title, headings, and throughout the article – and the content itself is high quality, by Google’s standards – there’s a better chance they can find it before scrolling away. Plus, the more often you update your blog with relevant, quality content, the more search engines will recognize your site as active, and it will show higher on the list.
What should you write about?
Imagine the types of content you’d like to read as a patient or a practitioner. There’s a wealth of information and insights you could explore that might be helpful to different visitors of your site, which can be especially valuable when tapping into your staff’s particular experience, expertise, or perspectives.
Some potential topics you could write about in your blog:
1. Patient Success Stories: This category could showcase the stories of patients who have successfully recovered from injuries or improved their health thanks to your services. Each post could detail the patient’s initial condition, the customized treatment plan, their progress, and their state after therapy. For example, a post titled “From Injury to Marathon: John’s Journey.”
2. Injury Prevention: These posts can provide readers with tips and techniques to prevent injuries related to sports, workplace activities, or daily life. A potential blog post might be “Preventing Common Workplace Injuries.”
3. Local Community Health: Focusing on health concerns specific to your local area will provide relevant content for your community. An example post could be “Prevent the Oh-So-Common Snow Removal Back Injury in [Your Location].”
4. Home Exercises: Here, you can share tutorials or step-by-step guides for exercises targeting specific muscles or conditions. A sample blog post might be “5 Easy At-Home Exercises for Lower Back Pain.”
5. Physical Therapy FAQs: This category answers common questions about physical therapy. An example post could be “What to Expect on Your First Visit to Our Physical Therapy Clinic.”
6. Spotlights on Services and Specialties: These posts could highlight a different service or specialty your clinic provides. For example, a blog post titled “The Benefits of Aquatic Therapy at [Your Clinic’s Name]” could detail what aquatic therapy is, the conditions it can help with, and what a typical session looks like at your clinic.
So…why do your therapists need to talk about it?
This is a way to rise above the noise. Current patients can be directed to the blog by your staff. No one will read it if they don’t know about it, and current patients are a great way to get the word out. It can be a simple conversation piece during a session – “Hey, I wrote a blog article about this exact issue, check it out!” Patients who are happy with your services are more likely to go and read it. The more they read, the more clicks your website site gets, and the higher up your site appears on search engines. Cool, right?
Conclusion
A blog doesn’t need to be the next great American novel. Short articles (300 to 500 words) about topics in which you’re the expert do well and can help more people find you. Just think about the kind of content that’d be most helpful for you if you were in their situation. Therapists can then push things along by talking about it with patients – which can help your content, your website, and your business as a whole get positive attention and leave a lasting impression.
About the author:
Laura Vroman is a physical therapist, health content writer, and creator of The Humanist PT, a new continuing education source for therapists. Follow her on LinkedIn (Laura M. Vroman PT DPT) and visit www.humanistpt.com.
