As a therapist with a practice website, blogs can be a powerful tool for boosting your online presence and attracting clients to your services. However, if you have never blogged before, it can be difficult to know where to start, and how to get the most out of your blogs. Writing content that ranks well on Google and grabs attention isn’t easy. To help you out, here are five tips to help you when writing blog posts for your practice website.
Don’t Write Too Much
Ahead of writing a blog post, most people assume that writing as much as possible is the way to go. However, this can actually do more harm than good. It means you produce less blog posts overall, and also means that what you do write usually fails to capture the attention of your readers. Aiming too high often means that execution is poor, and as a result you won’t get the most out of your blog. Posts between 300 and 600 words are perfectly sufficient.
Break Pieces into Subheadings
In the era of the ‘listicle’, people prefer to read blog posts and articles that are broken down into paragraphs with their own subheadings, as this format makes for much easier reading. In contrast to writing long-winded blog posts with dense paragraphs, posts with subheadings are extremely digestible and make you look far more professional. This way of writing has become the norm among all major media outlets.
Use a Snappy Title
People will only read your blog post if the title appeals to them, so it is crucial that your title draws readers in. To do that, keep them short, snappy, and with a clear point. A good example of this is a blog beginning with “How to”, as this enables you to be really direct in your title. As a bereavement therapist, for instance, a good title would be “How to move past the loss of a loved one”.
Add a Call to Action
For any professional blog, adding a ‘Call to Action’ at the end of each post is common practice. This could be something like, “If you have any further questions about [blog topic], feel free to give me a call or email at any time!”. Having this line at the end of your blog post incites the reader to communicate with you, rather than simply click away and read something else. Many fear that it seems pushy, but in fact it’s just the professional thing to do.
Write Frequently
This is perhaps the most important part of a successful practice website blog: consistency. Posting once or twice a month for a sustained period of time will build up a swell of traffic that Google’s search engines will pick up on. Try to avoid the trap that many bloggers fall into: an initial burst, with regular posts being churned out for a week or two, followed by a gradual cessation of posting, eventually coming to a complete standstill. You are much more likely to enjoy increased traffic if you maintain a consistent posting schedule all year round.
Use a Ghost Blogger
At WebHealer, we understand that our clients often don’t have the time and/or inclination to consistently write blog posts for their practice website. If this is the case for you, we offer the to work with a professional content writer, who will speak with you briefly over the phone at the start of each month ahead of writing two original, Google-optimised, properly structured blog posts that can be added to your blog whenever you like. It saves you the time and stress of getting blogs perfect on your own and ensures the blog posts on your website are of a high standard.
If you are interested in having WebHealer write your blog posts for you, feel free to get in touch and arrange your first call. The service costs £40 plus VAT per month.