Do I Really Still Need to Blog in 2026?

If it’s been a while since you’ve actually read one of our blogs, we’ll spare you the drama: YES, you still need to be posting blogs on a regular basis. But we’ll forgive you for thinking that the written word is going the way of the Dodo in light of so many multimedia experiences on the web and social media. So why do blogs still have a place in online marketing? Glad you asked!

What Your Blog Does for You

1. A Place for Your Latest Thoughts and News – Is there something new your patients should be considering? Is there a reason you’ve stopped offering a treatment, or added a different one?
2. A Key Content Source for Google and AI Tools – Simply put, if you aren’t publishing new, engaging content on your website, you will lose ground in searches to competitors who are.
3. A Way to Comment on Trends – Fads come and go on social media, fashion, and more. Some may be healthier than others, and some may offer you a way to showcase what you do in a new light.
4. A Touchpoint for Your Brand – You are the ultimate owner of your brand voice. As so many companies have seen, farming out your messaging to an AI tool can become a huge blunder.
5. A Way to Sculpt Mentions for Key Services – Want to be known as the best tummy tuck surgeon in your area? Prove you’re worth the mentions and buzz by offering content no one else does.

Blogs – Back to the Future

Blogs may seem retro, but in fact, several types of content that may feel a bit long in the tooth are actually coming back full force in light of where AI tools are looking for authoritative, unique, and high-quality information. They remain an essential part of both search engine and AI marketing tactics for doctors along with these oldies but goodies. (Note that an aggressive AI marketing effort entails much more than these resurrected tactics, but we share more detail to illustrate that blogs are not the only older tactics that still have some sway.)

• Press releases – Over a decade ago, press releases were a way to get mentions out on the web that would link back to your site. For a while, Google gave credit for these, so it was a nice way to basically purchase some fairly authoritative links and boost your search result rankings too. But Google quickly realized that these types of links aren’t the same as those that are truly earned, and press release writing for SEO sake lost steam. Fast forward to now, and it turns out that several AI tools are actually taking into account widely distributed press releases when determining query relevance and formulating answers. Better still, when you share actual news that may get picked up by a local news outlet, your brand’s perception within AI tools is that much stronger.
• RealSelf answers – In the cosmetic medicine space, RealSelf was a major player a decade ago. They’ve hung on since, but their influence has waned. That may be changing, as AI tools take into account the questions doctors have answered there when formulating their own responses. It’s probably been a minute since you even thought about RealSelf, let alone posted there, but it’s time to reconsider.
• Forums (particularly Reddit) – As AI users ask more and more in-depth, personalized questions, the general answers commonly available on the web just don’t suffice. This is where deeper, one-off types of discussions can greatly help AI tools to understand the nitty gritty of an issue and formulate a response that’s on point. For busy doctors, it’s quite difficult to find the time to be on Reddit or other forums, and it’s also tricky to engage on these platforms without providing medical advice to non-patients. But we’ve found that there are still lots of folks who want answers to questions without going in to see a doctor or provider, or doing a telehealth visit. For instance, practices that schedule Q&A sessions on Instagram often get good attendance, and it’s an opportunity to gauge what’s on the mind of potential patients. If you want to try out Reddit, we suggest having a patient coordinator join a few relevant subreddits, post in a very honest, authentic, and non-salesy way, and see where it goes.
• Linkbuilding – In the distant past, Google gave some credit for the number of other sites linking back to yours. Which as you might expect, led to some very spammy looking SEO efforts to get links from all kinds of sites no one’s actually heard of or visited. Link quality (from more authoritative sites) is much more important these days, and earning mentions on external sites of note is now a key way to earn mentions within AI tools themselves.

Writing in the Age of AI

With any number of apps, programs and web tools offering to help you draft, edit or punch up your thoughts, and doing so within seconds, it sure does seem like good old fashioned writing is dead. Or is it? We don’t think so – but it is evolving, and quick. Just like you don’t sit down with quill and ink to draft a note and seal it with wax, the days of typing your thoughts on a keyboard are likely fading fast. But storytelling absolutely is not going anywhere and in fact, a good story is more important to your brand than ever before.

What this means for blogs is that the years ahead will likely require more creativity in how you present your brand. This could likely mean adding video blogs, infographics, podcasts and other multimedia to supplement the text that forms the “script” of your story. It most certainly means more direct engagement with your marketing team to strategize about brand stories, brand touchpoints, and brand authenticity.

Blogs aren’t dead. But they need to be supplemented with an ever-increasing array of other content formats where you can showcase your services, highlight your expertise, and tell your story. As SEO and AIO pros, our focus remains getting you new patients from within the online tools people use most. The medium is changing quickly, but the message is more important than ever.

Note: None of the thoughts or writing for this post were developed using AI tools, but we’ve relied extensively on those tools to add multimedia elements to enrich the reading experience. We hope you can start to see how blogs can remain a relevant content marketing tactic for your practice, just like they continue to be for us.