December 17, 2021 | Tannus Quatre, PT, MBA

3 Minute Read

5 Ways to Improve Your Physical Therapy Blog in 2022

A good carpenter will always tote around a truckload of tools, ready and prepared to tackle most any job. And yet when the carpenter steps from the truck and onto a job site, the one tool we all envision dangling from his or her tool belt is universal: a simple, solid, well-used hammer.

When it comes to improving the SEO of your physical therapy website, you, like the carpenter, have a whole truckload of tools at your disposal. But the one tool that offers the greatest, most universal potential — your SEO hammer, so to speak — is your physical therapy clinic blog.

Blogging can have a significant impact for a physical therapy clinic’s online presence. An active blog located on your website contains many search engine optimization (SEO) advantages. A blog on your PT website provides an opportunity for more content. Every blog post counts as an additional page on your site, so the more posts you have, the bigger your site gets. And greater content has its rewards. Having more pages and more physical therapy-related content can add more value by showing search engines that you have a relevant physical therapy website.

As you go into the new year, look at how to successfully put your physical therapy blog to work for you … and your marketing strategy:

Five PT Blogging Tips That Help SEO

Tip #1: Have a Relevant PT Clinic Blog

Your blogging strategy should be relevant to your ideal audience. For example, as a physical therapy clinic, your blogging should be more suitable to patients and the content they are looking for. If you use lots of medical terms and your writing style is more suited for a medical journal, then your content is not relevant to your audience, and you will likely lose visitors. Or, you won’t attract any to begin with because your patients aren’t searching for the medical terminology, but rather the keywords they know.

Instead, consider writing for the layperson, using (and repeating) words and phrases your patients are most likely to search for. Strategically plan on using keywords that you want to rank for on search engines. Use important topics that are in line with your physical therapy services. For example, if you are a sports clinic and your typical patients are athletes, then blogging about sports injuries will serve you well.

Physical-therapist-SEO-Graph

Tip #3: Blog Regularly, but Quality Over Quantity

A good blogging strategy starts with consistency. But for most PT’s and business owners, this can be the largest hurdle. But you don’t want to water-down the quality of your content just so you can get something posted. A good blogpost is interesting, relevant to your audience, and represents your clinic’s website and business. Always consider the following when posting to your blog:

  • Goal. Having a goal in mind while writing a blogpost allows you to write with a purpose. For example: “After a PT reads this blogpost, my goal is for them to understand that blogging is essential for SEO purposes.”
  • Research. By this, I don’t mean referring to the latest research in knee rehab, but instead researching a topic that’s relatable to your audience. Another example for a sports clinic is to blog about a sport that’s in season. Skiing or golf can garner quick interest from your audience.
  • Personality. Writing with your own style can be more engaging to your audience. If your content is stale, then visitors are more likely to be uninterested and may look elsewhere.

Finding a trending physical therapy-related topic, then quickly writing a blog post about said topic, is a great way to extend your audience and get new traffic to your blog and website. “Trending” can mean a lot of things:

  • Timely. If the topic is hot, then try to get your content posted quickly.
  • Local News. Watch your local news and pay attention to what’s current. Referencing a news piece within your blog post shows relevance.
  • Seasonal. Paying attention to seasonal events is a great way to blog. Sports is obvious, but even a blogpost about arthritis pain in the winter time can be a trending topic.
  • Trending Internet Tools. What’s Trending, Google Trends, Twitter Trendsmap, Buzzfeed, Yahoo … these are just a handful of online trending content tools available.

Tip #5: Promote Your Post

Expecting immediate traffic after your first blog post is probably not going to happen. If you want people to read your content, you need tell them about it. Consider these channels:

  • Social Media. Posting your blogpost on your social channels is a great to get readers and followers. Hint: Sharing on Facebook or LinkedIn or retweeting on Twitter is optimal for SEO purposes.
  • Email Campaign. Including your blogposts in a newsletter is a must. Another good tactic is to do targeted email campaigns for current and previous patients. For example, sending a blog post about strength exercises to those experiencing or who have experienced ACL/MCL tears is a great email/blogging strategy.
  • Respond. Be thankful and respond to all comments. The more engagement, the better.

As you look at your marketing strategy for 2022, keep your blog and SEO at the top of the list. It’s easy to brush your blog off because it may seem like a time-suck and you don’t always see immediately results. But SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. The rewards are there for those persistent enough to seek them.

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