Does your veterinary practice have a blog? While most have some level of social media presence, many don’t maintain a blog because they lack the resources or don’t understand the benefits of doing so. Luckily, running a blog doesn’t have to be time or resource-intensive. These 5 best practices can help your veterinary practice make the most of this simple, but high-impact tool.
Start With The Basics
The most important part of running a blog for your veterinary practice is creating the type of content that will drive traffic – and, ultimately, clients – to your site. Specifically, you want to develop authoritative, evergreen content because those are the types of posts that other websites will link to. Known as backlinks, links to your site from other pages help to boost your visibility on search engines and make it easier for clients to find you.
Create Content Clusters
As a veterinary professional, you know exactly what types of questions clients come in asking over and over again. You’re also well aware of your practice’s overall scope – whether, for example, you only treat cats and dogs or if you see exotics or farm animals. Based on this information, one of the best things you can do is create content clusters on your site. This makes it easier for clients to find the information they’re looking for and it will also give you an SEO boost.
Speaking Of SEO
If you’re not familiar with website design, SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s one of the most important tools at your disposal. Of course, you also have a veterinary practice to run, and SEO is a specialty all its own, which is why you’re better off working with a veterinary marketing firm to improve your site’s performance. They can ensure your site is in alignment with today’s best practices and that you’re not being demoted for technical issues.
Don’t Overlook Video
Over the last few years, major media sites announced that they were “pivoting to video,” meaning that they planned to reduce written content and share more videos. They were on solid footing with this; research shows that people spend more time on pages that feature video. It’s still important to make sure you include text with your video as this will help search engines pick up your content, and don’t worry about getting too fancy. While you want it to look nice, you’re already working at an advantage since animal videos are so popular on the internet.
Consider Case Studies
Depending on the type of clientele that your practice attracts, you might consider including case studies on your blog. Case studies can be excessively technical for some clients, but if you’re a specialist practice, they may be valuable, particularly for attracting referrals. Additionally, case studies offer your veterinary practice an opportunity to brag about innovative interventions and successful treatments that set your practice apart from the competition. Just remember that if you’re going to share this content, be sure that you’re adapting it to be easily understandable and focus on the types of cases that you often see. This can provide insight into your practice style, while also demonstrating your overall expertise.
As a veterinary practice, no one expects you to be sharing new blog content every day or even every week, but what clients do want to see is a practice that is engaged with its community, alert to major concerns of pet owners, and willing to offer a glimpse behind the scenes. If you can accomplish those three aims, you’ll have successfully created a blog that is both engaging and authoritative, the ultimate aim of any business blog.
