CREATE A BLOG
If you don’t already have a company blog, create one. Determine who your audience is and what you want your readers to get from your content. Your general posts can include recent news, interesting stories, new discoveries, etc. Update it regularly and make sure your posts are easily shareable so you get more traffic and links. Promote the content on social media to give it more attention and a wider reach.
GUEST BLOG
Guest blogging is a process in which a blogger writes a post that is published on another blog that is not their own. What’s great about this practice is that it benefits both the host blog and the guest blogger. The host blog gets fresh content from a variety of expert viewpoints, without spending as much time creating it. The guest blogger gets recognition in a new audience as well as links back to their own blog or website. These links can be included within the blog content as references or supplements to what you’re writing about. To stay within best practices, these links should be highly relevant to your content and beneficial to the reader. Don’t overdo it! 1 to 3 links is enough. More than that and it will begin to look spammy.
When writing your guest post, understand the audience of the website you want to post on and make sure the content is relevant and beneficial to those readers. It helps to develop a relationship with the writers/editors of the blog before submitting a request as well. Follow them on social networks, share their content, comment on their posts, etc. In that way, you’re helping them out first and developing more of a relationship instead of simply requesting they post your work without knowing who you are.
REVERSE GUEST BLOGGING
Conversely, another strategy is to allow others to guest blog on your site. Typically, when you post others’ work, they are more likely to share that post and promote it because they’re proud of it. They might link to the post from their own blog, website or various social media outlets. This gives you more backlinks and boosts traffic for your site. Be selective with who you allow to publish to keep the content of utmost quality.
Now that we’ve covered general blogging tactics, let’s talk more specifically about different kinds of blog posts that can generate activity and links for your site.
COMPLETE GUIDES
Create a complete guide for specific areas of your industry. By developing a resource with information that people can reference on a regular basis, you can become the go-to source and obtain links.
STORIES
Stories that are heartwarming, shocking or funny often get a lot of shares. If you have a particularly interesting story to share, post it on your blog or website and promote it on social media. Use enticing titles to attract more interest. People love a good story and if it connects with them, they’re more likely to talk about it and share it with people they know.
LISTS
People love lists! Write posts with titles like “10 Ways to Improve Your Heart Health” or “5 Foods You Should Never Eat Again.” Top 10 lists and titles with numbers in them typically get higher click-through rates, so whenever possible it’s always good to think about structuring your post with that in mind.
DEBUNKING MYTHS
There are countless myths and old wives tales in the healthcare industry that the general public believes. Use this to your advantage and set the record straight. Write posts that debunk these myths and explain the truth. The more shocking or surprising the facts are, the more likely it is to be shared and linked to. Use a catchy title to promote interest. This post about exercising myths is a great example of taking common myths and explaining the truth clearly and effectively (and they also use my list recommendation from above!).
SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE LINKS
This last one is a quick win for easy links. Make sure any Facebook, Twitter or Google+ profile associated with your company or your employees contains the company’s website within the profile. Link authority isn’t usually passed through social media links (they are no-follow) but it’s still a great way to get more traffic to your site and increase brand awareness.
These are just a few of the many ways healthcare bloggers can increase traffic and earn backlinks with strategic blog posts. What are some of the blog strategies that have worked for you?
(healthcare blogging / shutterstock)
