I look at the blogging habits of clinic-style medical professionals like dentists, plastic surgeons and podiatrists because these are the topics and fields that interest me.
I’ve noticed these 3 mistakes keep popping up and wondered if medical professionals know they are costing them clients.
If you’re in private practice and have a blog, make sure you aren’t making these three BIG mistakes.
1. Leaving a Visibly Abandoned Blog
If you aren’t getting the results you want with your blog, and want to stop blogging, that’s understandable.
However, you don’t need to leave your blog “as-is” for search engines and potential clients to find.
Even with changes to search engine algorithms, age is still a factor for page rank. So, it may not rank highly when you quit blogging, but a year or two later, its age may put it in the top 30.
One of the easiest things you can do to fix this mistake is take the dates off your blog posts.
Without dates, your potential clients won’t know the blog is abandoned. It will continue to draw an audience, and if there is enough content, it could draw you new clients.
You could delete it altogether, but I don’t recommend this. People look for health professionals to have a web presence that gives them information before they ever make that first appointment.
Of course, the best option is to get someone (Chrislyn Pepper ) to post content for you.
2. Using a Free “Dot-Something-Dot-Com” Blog
I’ve run across several health care professionals who put their blogs on Weebly.com, Blogspot.com, or WordPress.com.
It’s great you know to be blogging, but you need to do it under your business domain. Even if you link from your professional website to one of these free content hosts, the free dot-coms are going to rank higher than your new business site initially.
Potential new clients see chiropractor.weebly.com or dermatologist.blogspot.com and may never see your professional website. They think, “This doctor must not be very good, because he can’t afford to buy a website.” Then, they click on DrClearSkin.com instead of coming to you.
The easiest fix for this mistake is to register a domain. For a small yearly charge, you can keep your blog on the free hosting, but drop the extra “dot-something”.
If you have your own hosting site, then install a free content management system like WordPress or Joomla. You’ll get more traffic to your website, and it’s easier to add new content.
Here’s another option.
Use your registered domain, and link to your content on the free “dot-something” domain using a form of URL forwarding that hides the name of the free host.
This is called domain masking.
Domain masking directs your newly registered domain to all of the content you have added to your “dot-something” pages without showing their location.
Be warned though, that this can have an adverse affect on your ranking with search engines. The great information on the “dot-something” domain benefits that website and not your brand.
3. Blogging for Colleagues Instead of Clients
The third mistake is blogging on your educational level.
Yes, clients want you to be smarter than whatever health issue plagues them, but they want to understand what you’re saying more.
You’re a health professional with more education than most of the population, but you can’t write like it on your blog.
Your future clients are not going to know AMA style or the technical jargon related to your specialty. Further, less than 10% of patients you attract online are going to be colleagues that do understand your jargon.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy says the population majority reads below an 8th grade level. So, it’s up to your blog to explain it to that majority in a way they can understand.
To reach a larger audience and to get more clients, you need to write what they can read. Plus, you need to write it in a way that they want to read it – blogging style. More about that in another post.
Get more clients by correcting these three blogging mistakes. With a domain matching your brand, a steady stream of good content and a blog written in a way the majority of the public understands, you can increase your traffic and your clientele.
Are you a health-care professional who needs help with a business blog?
Do you need a solution for an issue on your business’ blog?
I want to help you. Contact me now at 404-860-BLOG (2564) or info@chrislynpepper.us to get the SEO blog content your business needs. Hurry, so you don’t miss another potential client.
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