If you’ve heard me speak, you may realize that I’m not a fan of just having a website and hoping for the best. You’ve got to do more. You need more content, more websites, and just… more! You need to occupy more spots in the search engines, period.

Why? Showing up in more places gives you several advantages;

• More places for people to find you
• More credibility when they keep “bumping into you” online
• More trust when they get to know you better
• More links to your site

Two of the ways to create more content are writing articles and writing blog posts. So what’s the difference? Should you do one or the other? Both? (Of course you have to understand by now that I think you need to do both.)

Well, all articles can be blog posts, but not all blog posts can be articles. Confused yet? Ok, then keep reading…

Generally speaking, blog posts are shorter than articles. Blog posts can be less formal (not that articles have to be written like they’re going into the scientific journals) and can be about anything you want. They don’t necessarily have to follow a theme, and they can be videos or just snippets as to what you’re doing in the office.

Blog posts invite interaction, while articles should finish with a call to action. Blog posts may just be about how you’re feeling that day, or something that’s happening your office, while articles should be informative and answer questions.

Blog posts should also be done on a regular basis. If you’re going to start blogging, the more often and more consistent you are the better. At a minimum, you should blog once a week. Of course, you can create all of your blog posts at one time and then schedule them to go out weekly — automatically!

Got questions? Wondering how to set up a blog or where you should submit your articles? That’s coming up in the next couple of blog posts!

This week’s post covers another common question; “What’s the easiest way to build links?” The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be overwhelming when you’re first starting out. Are you doing the right stuff? The wrong stuff? What about all these e-mails you get promising you access to a “link network” for just $100. Should you do it?

I wouldn’t.

The best way to build links to your site is via article marketing. Writing articles can be boring and tedious when you first sit down to do it. What are you supposed to write about? How long should it be? Hopefully, knowing that it’s worth it will help you along. Writing articles helps out in a couple of ways:

• You build links to your site
• You give potential new patients something to “research” about you

Basically, you’re going to write an article about something chiropractic in nature. Something that suits you and your style of practice. Most importantly, something that is helpful to the reader.

You’re not submitting a research paper, so you’re going to be writing this like you’re having a conversation with your favorite patient, a friend, or a family member. You’re going to explain how chiropractic can help with (insert common condition here) in everyday language.

You’re not “selling.” You’re just educating. If you explain things in a helpful way, in a way that makes people feel like you know what you’re talking about, they understand they should come see you. The best part of writing articles is that you get to say who you are at the end of the article anyway!

Once you’ve written a 400 – 500 word article about something helpful, you’ll need a place to submit the article. There are a few strategies here, but your best bet is to go for quality over quantity. I recommend submitting the article to Ezinearticles.com. It’s the premier article directory on the internet.

Submitting your article here means that it has a chance of ranking for it’s best keywords all on its own. This is a quality website with high value in the eyes of the search engines. They also won’t just accept any ol’ article, meaning that they review every article before it’s approved. Placing your articles here shows good value and has a high level of credibility.

The last step is that Ezinearticles will ask for an author resource. You’ll see at the end of articles written that there’s a place that shows who the author is and just a blurb about how to contact them. This is a perfect place to create a backlink to your site You’ll want to create the link using anchor text – that means that you create a live link like “houston chiropractor” and not http://www.myhoustonchiropractor.com.

Just make your author resource sound natural and not “salesy.” And then you’re done!

There are plenty of ways to get links back to your site, but article marketing is one that can be implemented right away and will have a payoff for you and clinic in more ways than one. As with most things, consistency is key. That means you should consider writing an article on a regular basis. Once per week or once per month? I guess that depends on how many links you want or need to help you get the desired result.

Let me know what you think!