Blog engagement is an important part of SEO and is something that can help you outrank your local competition.
Blog engagement is defined as the ways people interact with your post. For example, someone linking to your post, sharing your post on social or continuing to read other posts on your physician website.
Blog Engagement as an SEO Ranking Factor
Google sees all of the activity around each blog post you publish. The algorithms take note of people sharing and linking to a post, and when it leads to more website traffic, it’s a plus.
The bottom line, the more blog engagement you have, the more positively Google sees your content being, resulting in increased rankings.
This is where having a social media strategy that guides people back to your home base (your website) is so effective.
5 Ways To Increase Blog Engagement
So how do you, as a physician, help increase your blog engagement?
Here are five ways you can increase engagement on your blog posts.
Be Consistent In Posting
Blogging consistency is one of the most important aspects of successful online marketing.
You can set your own frequency, but stay to it. I currently blog once per week, posting on Thursdays.
Whatever you set as your frequency, it’s good to stick to it. You want to set the expectations of your readers properly. At the same time, it gives many people a way to engage you on their own initiative, because they become interested in what you’re sharing.
Because my blog posts currently publish on Thursdays, I have the most traffic to my site on those days. Many physicians check my site on Thursdays to see what new information I’m sharing.
You can and should create the same effect by publishing consistently.
Be Relatable To The Patient
If your goal is to rank well in Google and attract more patients, you need to write in a way that relates to them, not your physician peers.
Meaning, use terms patients understand, and explain what the medical terms mean when you use them.
Very rarely do patients search Google using medical terminology. So if you want to rank and relate, use the language they are using.
Be Yourself
One of the big advantages of having your own physician website is being able to let your personality shine through, attracting the types of patients you most want to serve.
You want to be authentic. How you come across online should be pretty much the same as who you are in person. This helps patients develop a comfort level with you.
Plus, your existing patients will see your posts on social, engage, and share their positive experiences with you.
Ask for Engagement on Your Blog Post
There’s nothing wrong with asking for engagement with your blog posts. You and do this by inviting people to comment on social when you post a link to your latest post.
Engage in the Conversation
If you invite people to engage, it’s a good idea to make sure you become part of the conversation in return.
Set aside a few minutes daily to review and respond to comments online. This will only help grow your marketing platform, as people see you engaging.
