The Internet has evolved into a place for not only knowledge, but also communication. According to California Healthcare Foundation, 80% of Internet users gather health information online. Even with its popularity, many physicians are apprehensive about starting a blog. Here are a few reasons why you should start blogging.
A blog, when used properly, functions as the voice of the practice, or more specifically, the physician. When blogs are used within the medical arena and are written by medical professionals, they provide accurate medical information to the masses. As previously stated, people are going online to find health information. Unfortunately, what they find is often unreliable. Medical providers have a duty to ensure their patients are armed with accurate information. Blogging helps achieve this.
Blogging has been directly linked to increased patients. When you write and post your blog on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, there is a chance that your content can go viral. This means that it is viewed by large amounts of people. Keep in mind that every time one of your fans comments or retweets something you have posted, that information is spread to their friends and followers. This creates a chain effect. This is also a perfect example of why bloggers should write about topics that are important to your audience. If people find your content interesting, they are going to want to share it with others.
Blogging is a great way to improve search engine rankings. Search engine spiders like websites that produce new content and rank these sites higher than those that are not updated regularly. The best way to do this is by blogging. When written correctly, the content in a blog will link back to specific pages on the parent website creating stickiness. This means that people are not leaving the site right after getting there. A successful blog has certain words that are tagged to help search engines find the content. According to Hubspot, people who blog have 434% more indexed pages and 55% more website visitors than those who do not. That means you have a 434% greater chance of being found online!
Blogging helps not only the practice grow; it helps people grow by filling them with good medical knowledge. If more physicians would begin blogging, there would be fewer people brandishing inaccurate information. If we want people to become more active in their healthcare planning, we need to armor them with information that is written by someone with the knowledge and experience to do so.