7 Steps to Create and Maintain a Blog For Rehab Centers

In order to get potential clients to visit your rehab center’s website, you have to provide informational, beneficial content – and a blog is one of the best ways to do so.

Creating and maintaining a blog can be a difficult task, which is why we have created a list of important steps you should follow as you begin to create and maintain an outstanding blog. We’ll also talk about why having a blog is important to your rehab center and your clients.

Why is a blog important to your rehab center?

Blogs provide a steady flow of fresh content to your website. Since content is one of Google’s main ranking factors, it is important to continuously provide new content on your website. With a blog for your rehab center, you can provide new content for Google to rank which can drive more traffic to your website.

Through blog posts you can develop a better relationship with clients. Customers can learn more about your rehab center and can turn to your blog posts as a source for information. By posting relevant content to the rehab industry, you will establish yourself as an industry leader and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.

How to create your rehab center’s blog

Creating a blog can be overwhelming, but we want to make the process simple so you can start utilizing your blog to connect with clients and rank on Google. As you follow these steps, you will be able to create a blog for your rehab center where you can continuously add content for your clients.

Step 1: Choose a content management system

The first step is to determine what content management system (CMS) you will use for your blog and where your blog page will reside in the navigation of your rehab center’s website. Some content management systems, like WordPress, are free, but others charge a monthly fee. Below you can find a list of the most popular free content management systems for your blog:

  • WordPress
  • Drupal
  • Joomla

Step 2: Stick with rehab

Before you begin writing content, make sure you determine who your audience is and who you are creating your content for.

Having the right readers in mind will help you determine better content ideas. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re determining rehab topics for your blog:

  • Competition in the rehab industry
  • Audience size for rehab centers
  • How knowledgeable you are in any given rehab topic

As you focus on your niche in the rehab center industry, creating topics will become easier. As you discuss rehab, you can address topics such as the benefits of rehab centers, the steps to recovery, how to help a loved one who is experiencing addiction, or how to stop drinking. With a focus on who your readers are, generating content ideas that are engaging become simpler.

Step 3: Google Analytics

Setting up Google Analytics for your blog is a crucial step. Google Analytics will allow you to track who visits your blog, where they came from, how long they remained on each blog post, and much more. Having Google Analytics tracking installed before you begin publishing content will ensure that you do not miss any valuable information about traffic to your blog.

After you install this tracking, don’t forget to use this important tool to help optimize your blog. Regularly check Google Analytics to understand your audience better.

Through Google Analytics, you can see where your readers are from and other demographics about your audience. Knowing this information can help you better tailor your messages to them.

Another incredible item that Google Analytics can help you track is overall traffic. You can see where your traffic is coming from and which blog posts are generating the most traffic. Knowing your most popular posts can help you develop similar blog posts relating to the topics that generate the most traffic.

 

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Step 4: Write and publish content

Now that your blog is set up, and has Google Analytics implemented, it is time to begin writing and publishing content. Always keep your audience in mind while creating content.

Plan your content by creating an outline, conducting research and verifying facts. Remember to keep the headline of your article engaging and informative to capture the reader’s attention.

Use shorter paragraphs to avoid intimidating your readers. To enhance your content use images that are visually appealing to readers to help improve the flow of your article by breaking up the text. Make sure you edit your blog posts to ensure the content flows, is free of errors, and is not repetitive.

Step 5: Share your content

Use the huge audience on social media to your advantage by sharing your rehab center’s blog posts. Social media is a great way to advertising your blog, and it is simple.

It will only take a few key individuals to share your post to increase traffic to your website. Influencers are individuals that have the power to affect the actions their followers take because of their authority or knowledge. If one key influencer posts your blog page on social media, many of their followers will then be exposed to your post. Seeing the post come from someone they trust will encourage them to view the content. If the key influencer’s followers then share the content, your content will begin to spread across social media at a faster rate.

Knowing your target audience will help you determine which social media platform they are most likely to use.  Knowing demographic information, where your clients spend their time online and what type of content clients view will allow you to determine the best social media platform to reach your audience.

For example, if you find your clients interact most with images, you would want to use Instagram or Facebook. Depending on the age of your clients you will need to adjust which social media platform you use. For example, individuals age 18-24 have social media habits that lean towards using Snapchat and Instagram more than Facebook. As you learn about the age, gender and interests of your clients, you can reach your audience through these platforms and key influencers.

Step 6: Publish new content frequently

The frequency at which you post content is as important as the quality of your content. Finding the balance between quality and frequency is important for you to find success. A great way to find balance is to develop a schedule for posting new content.

Fresh content is one aspect Google takes into account when determining how high your page ranks on the results page. By continuously adding new content, every time Google crawls your website, you have a better chance of ranking higher.

Adding new content also allows your readers to engage continuously with your blog.

Step 7 Make content easy to share

As you use social media to advertise your blog, make sure that all of your content is shareable.

By including buttons at the bottom or side of your blog page on your website, you can encourage readers to share. Creating tweetable snippets for Twitter and having a pre-populated tweet where readers can simply click to tweet makes it easier for readers to share your rehab center’s content.

Since images are what fills up the majority of news feeds on social media, another way to make content easier to share is to use captivating images.

How did your rehab center get started blogging?

Does your rehab center have a blog? If so, we would love to hear what steps you took to get started and what has worked well for you. Let us know in the comments!