Most doctors who try writing content online make the same handful of mistakes — not from lack of expertise, but because clinical writing habits don't automatically translate to patient-facing writing. Here are the most common ones, and how to fix each.
1. Writing for other doctors, not patients
It's an easy habit to slip into: writing the way you'd document a case for a colleague, dense with terminology, rather than the way you'd actually explain it to the patient sitting across from you. The fix is simple — write the way you already talk in the exam room, just typed out.
2. Trying to cover everything in one post
A single blog post covering an entire condition — causes, symptoms, diagnosis, every treatment option — usually ends up too long for patients to finish and too shallow for any one part to be genuinely useful. Narrower, focused posts consistently perform better than exhaustive ones.
3. No clear next step for the reader
- A post that ends without guidance leaves the patient unsure what to do next
- Every piece of content should end with a clear, low-pressure next step — book a consultation, message on WhatsApp, or a related post to read
4. Posting once and disappearing
A single blog post published in isolation rarely builds meaningful traffic or trust. Search engines and audiences both respond to consistency far more than to any individual piece — a handful of quality posts published steadily over months outperforms a single "perfect" post every time.
5. Being too vague to be genuinely useful
Content that stays deliberately generic out of caution — "see a doctor if symptoms persist," without ever getting specific — tends to underperform content that's genuinely informative while still staying within appropriate educational boundaries. Vagueness reads as unhelpful, not just as caution.
6. Ignoring how the post actually looks
A wall of unbroken text, however accurate, gets abandoned quickly on a phone screen. Short paragraphs, clear headings, and simple formatting make the difference between a post that gets read fully and one that gets closed after the first few lines.
Want to fix these in your own writing, live? Our workshop includes direct, practical feedback on content you actually write during the session.
Join the WorkshopNone of these mistakes reflect a lack of medical expertise — they're simply habits from a different kind of writing. Once recognized, each one is straightforward to fix, and the improvement in how patients respond is usually immediate.