Show Notes

Welcome back to The Designer Practice Podcast, and I’m your host, Kayla Das. In this episode, I’m going to be sharing with you five reasons why now’s the right time to start a blog. In my opinion, blogging is the secret sauce for any growing private practice, and that’s because blogging allows you to showcase your expertise, build your brand, and connects you with your ideal client in a meaningful way.

It’s also relevant and valuable content that helps you build your search engine optimization or SEO. And if you monetize your blog like I did, you can make passive income while doing it. But despite all of the amazing benefits that come with blogging, blogging is often under-utilized in private practice. And if your practice is one of those who haven’t yet started a blog, it isn’t too late.

So, let’s get to it.

Here are 5 reasons why you should start your blog for your private practice:

Reason #1: Build Your Private Practice’s Brand

So, the first reason why you should start a blog is that a blog can help you build your private practice’s brand. When building a therapy or coaching practice, establishing who you serve and your area of expertise are key ingredients for practice success.

Through blogging, you can publish articles or stories that align with your practice’s niche or specialty. Your blog posts can help establish you as an authority figure in your area of practice, and it can help build, what most marketers call the, Know, Like and Trust factor.

If you haven’t heard of the Know, Like and Trust factor, don’t worry, I’m going to share with you what it is. But essentially the Know, Like and Trust factor is a common marketing term that means that: first a client needs to know you exist before they’ll ever purchase. Second, they need to like what you have to offer, and then they need to trust that your services will help them achieve whatever goal or outcome they are hoping to get while working with you.

Know Factor

It’s not uncommon for therapy and coaching practices to purchase a one-page website and assume people will just find their website and the referrals will start rolling in. However, the first step of the Know, Like and Trust factor, is that they need to know that you’re out there. And if they can’t find you, your services, or your website, they’re not going to become paying clients.

Like Factor

So, the next step is the like factor. And this means that what they see on your website reflects their needs and what they hope to see out of working with you. If you have a one-page website that only has three blocks of website copy, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to create connection with your ideal prospective client as it’s not going to resonate with them. Now, it doesn’t mean that they’ll dislike your website, it just means that they’re less likely to have built trust with you and your brand.

Trust Factor

So, the trust factor means that a prospective client has built trust with what they’ve read, and this usually comes in the form of some written content, which I love blogs because you can create multiple sources of content.

If you have a client that has found your website and they like your website, they might contact you, but what really seals the deal is that they’ve read tips, strategies, or they’ve learned something about themselves from you and your practice. It solidifies your authority on the subject matter, and because you’ve already given them some small win, they trust that you are the best person to help them with their specific problem or issue. And that’s the goal.

Reason #2: Attract More Ideal Prospective Clients to Your Practice

So, the second reason on why it’s good to start a blog is that it helps you attract more ideal perspective clients to your practice. So, I want to go back to the Know, Like and Trust factor again. By consistently publishing valuable and relevant content, you’ll be able to attract more of your ideal clients into your practice. Because:

1. First of all, it’s content that is helpful. So, when people find your website, it automatically builds trust with them, and

2. Second people share great content with others. So, maybe someone is searching for a therapist or a coach for a friend and they come across your blog post. And they found value in it, they’ll likely share that with their friend, which can then lead into a brand-new client base and help you grow your practice.

3. And three, which will talk more in depth later in this episode. But valuable and relevant content naturally boosts search engine optimization. So essentially your blog can really be a magnet for your ideal client, helping you build relationships and connection with people who need your services.

Whether you’re writing about a specific therapy approach or sharing your thoughts on a particular coaching technique, your blog is really the ideal platform to demonstrate your knowledge and establish your credibility with potential clients. And the more you publish, the more opportunities you have to show up for your ideal client and build relationships that then can turn into paying clients. This not only makes your services more appealing to your ideal clients, but it also helps you stand out from other practices in your area.

Now, some people will call these competitors, although I don’t actually believe in the words competition and competitor when it comes to growing a business, because honestly, I’ve built my business off collaboration and I truly believe that that’s the secret weapon to practice growth. But I do believe that it’s important for each of us to take intentional actions that build assets inside of our practices so that we can help our business grow. And that may mean doing something very different than another private practice. And for me it’s a blog.

Think of it this way, if you’re the only practice in your area who’s regularly contributing to a blog, who do you think is going to be considered the go-to person on that specific topic?

It’s going to be you! Not the person with the one-page three-block general website. And I do want to say that I’m not dissing anyone who has a one-page website, because I do know we all have to start somewhere. But what’s important is that you continue to build as you grow. So, as you are growing your practice, contributing and building to assets, which your blog is an asset, your website is an asset. You might start with the one page, but then have the intention to build upon that.

So, bringing it back. With the right content and messaging, you can create a personal brand that resonates with your ideal perspective clients and sets you apart from others in your area. Whether you’re sharing insights, tips, personal stories, your blog is the perfect platform to showcase your knowledge.

Reason #3: Increase Visibility and Drive Traffic to Your Website

Reason number three, increase visibility and drive traffic to your website when you publish valuable, relevant content regularly. You’re creating an opportunity for people to discover your website and get to know you and your practice. And the more content that you publish, the more opportunities you have to rank higher in search engine results and to be found by your ideal prospective clients. This is called on-site or on-page SEO.

With each blog post, you’re giving search engines more reasons to show your website to people searching for information relevant to your specialty or niche. This in turn drives more organic traffic to your website, increasing your visibility and making it easier for your ideal clients to find you.

Think of it this way, like any good. Google wants to give the best services to their clients. Their clients are those who are searching on the platform. So, the more relevant, valuable, and helpful the information is, the higher Google will rank you in search engine results. And unlike social media platforms, you own your website, meaning that, what you put on your website is yours. Without going too far down the social media rabbit-hole, social media has algorithms which change frequently.

But social media usually only displays your content some of the time, and there are factors such as engagement that influence it being seen. But as therapists due to privacy regulations, we should reframe from certain engagement on social media platforms. But this in turn, negatively impacts the algorithm and how your content is displayed. Now, I’m not dissing having a social media presence, but what I’m saying is that focusing first on your content on your website, you have a better chance of being found.

So being very simplistic here with SEO, if people land on your blog post and they stay there and read it, it helps your search engine quality score. Your engagement with others on the platforms doesn’t drastically impact the algorithm, actually, and my own blogs, I turn off the comment feature altogether.

Another important difference between social media and building on your own website is that social media platforms have their own rules and regulations regarding what’s considered appropriate post content. And over the last year or so, these rules have become stricter on most platforms. Depending on your area of specialty. Let’s say that you’re a sex therapist, for example. The content or the words that you use could be considered a violation of the platform’s rules and then taken down as a result, even though your post is actually helpful for your ideal client.

Whereas when you own your website, as long as your ideal client is looking for the content that you have to share and is typing into search engines, the words that you use on your blog posts, you have an opportunity to show up.

Reason #4: Share your Thoughts, Ideas, and Insights with a Larger Audience

The fourth reason is to share your thoughts, ideas, and insights with a larger audience.

Blogging is a powerful tool for sharing your thoughts, ideas, and insights with a larger audience. Whether you’re a therapist or a coach, your blog is a platform that lets you connect with people who are looking for the kind of information and guidance that you have to offer. By sharing your unique perspective and expertise, you are helping your ideal perspective clients understand the value that you bring to the table, and the more you publish, the more opportunities that you have to build relationships that can lead to new clients.

Whether you’re writing about the latest developments in your field, sharing your thoughts on a particular topic or offering guidance, your blog is the perfect place to share your thoughts, ideas, and insights with the world.

Reason #5: Boost Your Search Engine Rankings & Online Presence

Finally, reason five, it boosts your search engine rankings and your online presence.

Honestly, blogging is the best way to boost your search engine rankings and increase your online presence. When it comes to improving your Google on-site SEO, historically, Google calculated their search ranking scores by considering the website’s experience, authority, and trust. They identified this as EAT. But in December, 2022, they’ve added a fourth category to their quality score, and this is experience. So now they call it double EAT.

So, when Google determines where your website should be ranked on search engines, they determine if you and your website:

1. Have the experience to write about the specific topic.

2. Have expertise in the area.

3. Have authority that you’re the go-to source on the topic and

4, That your content is trustworthy.

When starting out blogging, you won’t immediately have authority, but once you continue to build your blog, your authority can rise and your quality score improves. So just know your quality score isn’t static and it can change over.

When I first started blogging, I was nowhere to be found on search engines, but now I have several blog posts that come up on the first page of Google when my ideal client, therapist and coaches, searches specific topics and keywords. That’s because over time, my quality score improved.

So, as you can see, blogging is an influential method that can help you showcase your expertise, enhance your brand image, attract ideal clients to your website and of course, grow your private practice.

Free Blog Topic Worksheet

If you’ve been putting off starting a blog on your website, there is no better time than the present.

To help you get started, I have a free blog topic generator worksheet that can help you generate weeks’ worth of SEO-friendly blog topics for your private practice blog.

To download my worksheet, head to kayladas.com/blog-topic-generator-worksheet.

That’s kayladas.com/blog-topic-generator-worksheet or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. If you have someone that you could share it with, please do and happy blogging.

Bye for now.

Credits & Disclaimers

Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay

The Designer Practice Podcast and Evaspare Inc. has an affiliate and/or sponsorship relationship for advertisements in our podcast episodes. We receive commission or monetary compensation, at no extra cost to you, when you use our promotional codes and/or check out advertisement links.

Reference

Google Search Central. (15 December, 2022). Out latest update to the quality rater guideslines: E-A-T gets an extra E for Experience. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t