Blogging has grown a lot since its beginning at the explosion of the internet during the 1990s. What started as an outlet for personal journaling has turned into a standard page on many company websites. Despite the popularity of blogging, we still get asked by physical therapists if it's a beneficial time-investment for their specific industry.

 

Our answer is a resounding YES! Blogging is beneficial for ANY industry because virtually all industries benefit from having websites, if not rely on them entirely. After creating a site, the goal is to bring in traffic and educate users while they're there. A blog that consistently provides unique content and pulls in searchers from Google essentially acts as a significant support system for established websites.

 

Blogs & Improved Search Ranking

 

As a physical therapist looking to grow your practice online, you probably already know how important your website is for reaching new clients. Generating new patients for your practice isn't always easy, especially when it comes to showing up when clients are searching for you on Google.

 

If you've looked up ways to generate more patients, chances are you’ve seen the cruciality of content mentioned quite often. "Content is king" is a favorite phrase that marketing experts frequently use to assert why having great content is the foundation of any strategy.

 

The truth is that content IS king when it comes to showing up on the internet, especially for search engines like Google. However, having optimized content on your home page or service pages isn't the only way to push your site up on search engines.

 

Blog posts on websites hold a lot of weight when trying to convince users to visit your page. Having valuable information to share with searchers not only helps you gain credibility but also helps with climbing higher in search rankings and ultimately being the first website they click.

 

Google typically rewards sources that are consistently posting new information with better rankings. By continuously posting informative, quality blogs on your website, you can significantly boost your search ranking. This climb in rank is essential; your goal should be to eventually become the first source that patients see when conducting their research. In addition to showing up first, you should aim to provide the most useful content (i.e., the most helpful). 

 

Showing Up When People Are Searching

 

Marketing experts and physical therapists can agree that most patients are seeking advice regarding their painful problems on the internet before they ever see you in person. These clients have a lot of questions about issues they're likely not sure about, and they want to become more educated before making any decisions.

 

Today’s buyer needs to feel confident in what they're deciding to spend money on before any engagement with a business can happen. Have you looked up store hours to a place you’ve been to before, but you just wanted to “be sure”? Buyers know that everything they want to find out is at their fingertips on the internet, and this ultimately provides reassurance and guidance in purchasing decisions.

 

This research stage is the perfect opportunity for you to showcase your PT expertise and build trust with the client, all before ever meeting them.

 

How Often Should Physical Therapists Blog?

 

We’ve established why it's essential to post new content consistently, and now it's time to look at how frequently this should happen. A study from HubSpot showed that when a [B2C] business blogs 11 or more times per month, they have almost four times more traffic than those who blog once a month or not at all.

 

We know, 11 sounds like an impossibly high number of blogs to create in a single month. Let's break it down by starting to think about the thousands of questions your patients have asked you throughout your career:

“Is physical therapy something I can afford?”
“How will I know when my physical therapy is working?”
“What stretches can I do after my knee surgery?"

 

These example questions only scratch the surface. Now for the good news: Each of the hundreds of questions your team gets asked in a month has the potential of being a blog. Think of it this way: the more issues that you're able to identify, discuss, and provide answers for, the more likely searchers will find your brand and ultimately build up trust in you. Building this trust between client and PT team can lead to referrals, more site visits, and eventually having you top-of-mind when they're ready to make a purchase decision.

 

So, what is the straight-forward answer for how often a physical therapist should be blogging? As often as possible!

 

Successful Blogging in Practice

 

There are a lot of physical therapy websites that showcase their friendly staff and innovative services. A well-promoted and updated blog is hugely influential in standing out to searchers who have a problem. If patients are searching with a specific problem or question in mind, your website has a high likelihood of showing up in their searches with a blog that addresses said problem.

 

To test the success of this, we pretended to be a searcher that's having back pain during their squatting exercises. After searching for "lower back pain during squatting," we only had to scroll twice before finding an article that had an attention-grabbing title: How Not to Destroy Your Lower Back While Squatting. This title stood out on the list of search results because it had a completely different tone than everyone else.

 

Clicking on the article led us to the blog of Fitness Pain Free, a popular Health & Wellness site that focuses on physical therapy for athletes. After a few seconds of scrolling, it's clear that this site aims to publish about 6 blogs a month. It's also clear that the blog topics are created based off of questions that their ideal client would be searching for, from "How to Address Low Back Pain During Squatting" to "How Stress Causes Injury."

 

Not only is Fitness Pain Free keeping their blog updated with relevant topics that answer questions, but each blog also provides a form to encourage inspired readers to sign up for their newsletter. This step allows Fitness Pain Free to turn these readers from a visitor into a lead.

 

How Do Physical Therapists Find the Time to Blog?

 

The more frequently your blog is updated with engaging content, the higher your chances of increasing traffic to your website. Increased website traffic combined with a robust lead-capturing strategy can ultimately provide more business for your practice.

 

While we do encourage blogging frequently, it's important to remember that quality will always beat quantity in the game of search ranking. The best way to make sure that your blogs are quality content is to reference the mindset of your readers. Think about what terms will be relatable and what thought process the reader is going through while reading your material.

 

Don't discount that Google typically ranks longer, well-formatted blog posts higher than those that aren't, and has little tolerance for any plagiarized content. Unique content will gain a higher position on search pages.

 

Writing engaging content may not be difficult, but it is usually time-consuming, especially when blogging for the first time. We know that your top priority is taking care of your patients, thus leaving little time to focus on producing updated content for your website's blog.

 

If you find that this level of blogging would be hard to uphold consistently, you're not alone! Outsourcing blogs to a team of professional copywriters is a popular choice amongst business owners. We encourage all Physical Therapists interested in optimizing their blog to consider getting in touch with a marketing consultant that understands your needs.

 

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For more information on how your practice can start reaping the benefits of blogging, contact us for a free consultation with our team!

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