How to Write a Dental Blog

Why are blogs important for your dental practice? 

A dental blog is a great way to direct new eyes to your dental practice’s website. By publishing consistent blog posts and sharing them on social media or via email, you have a great way to direct new and returning patients to your website. That’s just one of the reasons why blogging is an important part of most content marketing strategies. 

Benefits of having a dental blog: 

• Blogs improve your dental website’s SEO
• Articles provide clear answers to patients’ questions
• Blog posts can highlight the dental services you offer
• Blogs can help you establish trust and credibility with new patients

Want more ways to get more patients in your dental office? Learn about other digital marketing strategies here. 

How to Write a Dental Blog Post

If writing isn’t something you do often, blogging can feel overwhelming. But, it doesn’t have to be. By breaking the writing process into small steps, you (or others in your office) will be able to publish quality blogs without a great deal of time or effort. Keep these steps and tips in mind to get started: 

Choosing Your Dental Blog Topic and Keywords

Many writers get stuck on choosing a topic. But, remember who your blog is for: your patients! Choose a topic that offers valuable insight to the patients in your practice. Think about the questions they ask, the concerns or challenges they have, and the advice you often provide them. 

Then, create a list of potential blog topics from the issues that will most benefit them. Make your topic narrow and specific rather than broad and general. Not only will it be shorter and easier to write, but you’ll save other topics for future posts.

Here are some ideas to help you start brainstorming: 

• Patient FAQs
• Tutorials or how-to posts (like this one!) 
• Walking through a step-by-step dental procedure or issue
• Advice for at-home dental care
• Benefits or alternatives to various dental services you offer
• Case studies or success stories, including patient testimonials
• Explaining a popular new dental trend or product you use

When blogging to drive traffic to your website (an SEO strategy), consider what questions a potential patient might type into Google.

• How much does _____ cost? 
• Benefits of ______ procedure
• Will my insurance cover ________? 
• Do I need _______? 
• What is ___________? 

If you want to get technical, you can also use SEMrush to do keyword research. If this sounds a bit overwhelming, we encourage you to book a consultation with our Dental SEO experts to better understand what exactly this is and why it’s important.

For now, the most important thing to remember is that you need to use your dental blog to answer questions your potential patients might have. Providing thoughtful answers to questions will help you build trust–and can bring new patients through your doors. 

Break Your Topic Into Smaller Headings

Once you’ve narrowed down your topic, break it into bite-sized pieces. When people read articles online, they use these subheadings to scan the article for important information. It makes the article easier to read–and write. 

You can break a big process into small steps. Break one dental service into multiple benefits. If you’re aiming to write an article between about 600 and 1200 words, think of how to break it into 3 to 5 helpful “chunks.”  

Use Language Your Audience Will Understand

If you’re writing to attract patients (not other dentists) remember to speak in their language. Cut jargon and technical language out of your article if it won’t help your reader to better understand. Write in short, direct sentences rather than long complicated ones. This doesn’t mean you need to “dumb-down” your content. Instead, you need to think through making something complicated more simple. 

Not only will your reader enjoy clear language, but Google will too. Your SEO will improve if you follow these simple blogging rules: 

• Use active voice rather than passive voice
• Keep your sentences short and direct
• Break long sections (300 words or more) into subheadings
• Have one, clear area of focus that you explain well
• When appropriate, use lists and bullet points instead of lengthy paragraphs

Include Images and Links

Your dental blog post should be a resource to patients. To bring it to life, provide helpful images. Before and after photos or charts can be more effective than words at demonstrating a point. Videos are another great way to make your blog posts more engaging. 

All blog posts should also include links. Link to your research and sources, link to external resources, or link to other posts or pages on your website that will provide more information to the reader. (Once again, this will improve your blog’s SEO score.) This is very important!

Provide a Call to Action

While your dental blog posts should always offer valuable information to your patients, your intention for blogging should also be to bring in new business. Make sure your blog posts always include a clear call to action so interested new patients can take the next step. Calls to action include: 

• Contact us!
• Call to book an appointment
• Schedule a free consultation
• Book your appointment online
• Sign up to receive emails! 
• Follow us on social media
• Submit your questions

Publish and Share Your Dental Blog Post

Once you’ve proofread, added photos, and incorporated links in your post, it’s time to publish and share it. Your blog post won’t reach new patients if it’s just sitting on your website. Use your email list and social media platforms to broadcast your post. And, don’t be afraid to share it more than once. Take a snippet from your post and share it on social media. Summarize the full post in an email. Showcase a different section in a follow-up social media post.

One rule of thumb is to spend 20 percent of your time creating the blog and 80 percent promoting it. 

More Dental Blogging Tips

• Review your full website. The purpose of your blog is to bring new patients to your website. Make sure you’re offering a great user experience on every page. Visit this post to learn best practices for your dental website. 
• Be consistent. You don’t have to commit to blogging every week. Perhaps you start with a monthly or quarterly post and increase it as you become more efficient. The key is to be consistent. Don’t leave the blog section of your website full of year-old posts. Give your patients reason to come back time after time. 
• Don’t be a perfectionist. Blogging is something you’ll get better at over time. Don’t let perfect get in the way of progress when you’re first getting started. You’ll only get better (and faster) if you practice. Of course, it’s always important to proofread and fact-check your posts for accuracy. 
• Crowdsource your topics. If you have writer’s block, ask your patients and staff for ideas about blog topics. What are patients often asking? What are their concerns? Is there frequent advice your hygienists give patients? 

Dental Blog Writer and Dental Marketing Experts

Pain-Free Dental Marketing is a full-service marketing agency for dental practices. Each dental practice is unique, which is why we put together a custom marketing strategy for every client. We care about relationships, data-driven insight, and getting cheeks in seats. No long-term contracts and we make your marketing budget work!

Need a team of experts to create and execute your marketing strategy? Contact us to learn more about working with Pain-Free.