Blogging is the best way to keep your practice web site fresh with updated relevant content- a strong ranking factor for staying on top of the search engines. An effective blog can also increase your exposure and promote your expertise in the field of optometry, giving you a trusted reputation that can bring more clients. It may even generate inbound links to your site if active users like what you have to say.
In this series, we will provide some how-to tips on blogging and profile a few eye care professionals in the industry doing it right.
Easy Tips for Great Blogging:
Know your audience. Before you get started, you need to define your goals and your audience. Are you blogging to improve your SEO, share your expertise, gain exposure? To target patients, you will want to blog about eye care or product related topics in lay terms as opposed to an audience of industry peers where you would project a professional voice about more advanced topics.
Use your experience. Write about stories or insights that you have experienced, showing your human side. This will engage readers and enable them to connect with you as a person.
Don’t pressure yourself. Each post doesn’t need to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. You can share the work by getting regular contributions from staff members related to their positions (opticians can write about new products, office managers about a new way to schedule an appointment) and link to and comment about optometry related news or articles written by others.
Keep it short. Your readers aren’t looking for an essay. Keep to a 300- 500-word limit, breaking up text into shorter paragraphs. Use subheadings, bullets or numbering to make the text clean, readable and interesting.
Provide visuals. Enhance your posts with photos and images and change it up by posting a video periodically. Don’t think a blog has to be all writing.
Be casual. Don’t take an overly formal tone in your writing. A blog is a place to show your human side and let readers get to know your real personality and your sense of humor (if you have one).
Acknowledge comments and respond. Making sure you respond to comments not only encourages interaction, but it shows your readers that you appreciate them. This will keep them coming back to read more.
4Post at least once a week. You will quickly lose readers if they keep coming back to find nothing new.
This article was reprinted with permission from EyeCarePro.