Physician Websites and Marketing
By Jonathan Catley, Online Sales & Marketing Manager, MD Connect
Twitter: @MDConnectInc
Twitter: @JonathanCatley
Most physicians are well aware that having a website is important for attracting clients to their practice. Once a physician has taken the important step of establishing a website presence, however, it may be time to step up their marketing game.
Establishing a physician blog can be a great way to drive additional traffic to your website and improve your conversion rate. Here are three compelling reasons why you should incorporate a blog into your physician’s website.
1. The rules of SEO are constantly changing
Content marketers are forever chasing Google results. The eponymous search engine is the gold standard, and physicians want to see their pages highly ranked.
Because Google is constantly tweaking their algorithm that dictates page rank, it is important for physician marketers to stay on top of the SEO techniques that work. With Google’s most recent release of Panda 4.0, content marketers will find that Google is demanding fresh, relevant, meaningful content in order to remain high in their search rankings.
A physician blog is an excellent way to produce this type of high-quality, unique content. An on-going blog allows marketers the ability to tailor their content to the ever-changing demands of Google, thus, securing a high page rank for their physician clients.
2. Blogs establish trust
While the main function of a blog is to drive traffic to a website, a blog has many other functions. One of the most important is that it establishes a rapport between the physician and patient before the patient ever steps foot in the office.
Blogs build trust in two ways:
- They establish the physician as an authority
- They provide meaningful information before the patient’s visit
Many patients seek information regarding their condition before they seek a doctor’s help. Providing blog content that addresses common patient concerns will organically lead patients to a physician’s website from search results. Establishing the physician as an authority and providing high-quality information to patients will lead to increased conversions from your website.
3. Blogs build your physician’s brand
Creating a physician website is usually the first step in the physician marketing playbook. Building a brand, however, involves a more holistic approach to marketing, taking into consideration every aspect of the physician’s digital marketing strategy.
The blog platform is an excellent way to promote the physician’s other marketing channels, and should be used in tandem. For example, a blog can link to a social media website (and vice versa) or to the physician’s YouTube channel.
Finally, a blog can be an excellent way to generate repeated website visits. Offering patients and information seekers the opportunity to subscribe to blog updates can be an effective way to generate additional traffic to your physician’s website. Patients will be compelled to visit the site more often is they are reminded periodically through an email blast. Blog subscriptions also allow marketers to garner more useful data from potential patients when they sign up to receive blog updates.
About the author: Jonathan manages the sales and marketing efforts for MD Connect, Inc; a 100% healthcare focused digital marketing agency. With over 10 years experience in the industry, Jonathan is a senior marketing and demand generation leader, focused on building market awareness and increasing exposure that generates new revenue for the business. He has been building agile, streamlined and efficient marketing channels, with much of that experience involving: digital marketing, inbound marketing, SEO, web marketing, social media growth and PR. This article was originally published on MD Connect and is republished here with permission.