You know how Medical doctors have copious amounts of free time? How they sit around, wishing that they had some way to occupy their days? Hoping for some opportunity to fill up all of that spare time in between caring for patients? Fortunately, there’s always the need for medical blog posts at the practice’s website!

A medical blog is important for your practice, but it’s difficult to find time to blog regularly. Do doctors have to write the blogs themselves?

Your practice needs a medical blog

To answer the question of whether or not doctors should write your blog, it’s necessary to understand why you need a blog for your medical practice in the first place.

• A blog increases your practice’s exposure. People look for medical information online, and a blog can help bring your practice to the forefront of these searches.
• Medical blogs also help attract new patients. A well written blog establishes your practice as an authority in medicine and a reliable source for health information.
• Control your online presence. There are a lot of online reviews for doctors, clinics, and medical practices. More often than not, people who have a bad experience tend to be more vocal than those who had a good experience. A blog is a better representation of your practice than a star or a number rating.
• Blogging is an essential part of SEO. All the benefits of a medical blog can help your practice grow.

Your medical practice’s blog should publish content on a regular basis. This takes hours – even for professional blog writers – and it can take even longer if you’re not used to writing. Do your doctors really have lots of free time to spend writing? Probably not.

Is it better for a doctor to write the blog, or can you hire a professional blog writer?

Doctors have a far better understanding of medicine than web content specialists do. If you have a strange pain in your chest, you want to visit a doctor rather than a blog writer.

However, possessing specialized knowledge and communicating that knowledge are two different things.

Let’s say that a doctor writes about chest pain, explaining the symptoms and causes using highly specialized medical jargon. This could possibly alienate and intimidate the reader rather than encourage the potential patient to set up an appointment.

Web content specialists communicate specialized information in a way that’s easy for readers to understand. When your readers get clear answers to their questions, they could be more inclined to call the doctor’s office.

Does your doctor need to write your blog?

Maybe you have a handful of doctors who love writing, they write well, and they want to contribute to the practice’s blog. This is common, actually. The trouble with this is approach is that you get two, three, or seven posts from a doctor, and then the blogging stops. Did they forget? Did they stop caring? No. They just had to focus on caring for patients rather than writing blog posts.

Will the blog’s voice sound more like a specific doctor if that doctor writes it? Of course, but that’s not necessarily what you’re going for.

If you view your blog as a medium for doctors to express themselves, they should write the blog. If you want to grow your practice, improve SEO, and improve your image online, you should hire professional content writers for your medical blog.

Writing the practice blog is probably not the best use of the physician’s time; it’s more cost-effective to outsource to professional writers.

You can even hire a web content firm that specializes in health and wellness; a firm that understands HIPAA compliance, such as Haden Interactive, can represent your practice positively and professionally.

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