Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical services providers today face an ever growing number of challenges brought about by the online economy.
Online Challenges For The Medical Profession
Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.
In addition to spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other health or medical-related businesses, you will need to allocate a greater share of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and increases your marketing exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website may change in time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.
Another problem that medical or health businesses (and most other professions) face online, is that you have only around thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are searching for or they will leave your site.
“Websites have evolved into central information hubs where service information is still present but enhanced with web portals, hyperlinks to state and federal sites, and a variety of free tools.”
Michael Alter, http://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software/tips-for-improving-your-website
Opportunities For Health Professionals In The Online Economy
As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet online economy demands and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.
In this detailed guide, you will learn new ways and opportunities to generate more bookings and establish online credibility for your health or medical business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical-related business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:
- Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
- Learn How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress
How To Improve Your Medical And Health Clinic Site
We’ll start first by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for medical-related sites, ways to improve your layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need specific help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: Planning Your Web Site - A Practical Primer For Business Owners
Basic Website Pages
All websites need several basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.
Your Services And Products
It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services such as:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery haematology, oral surgery, gerontology, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, reiki, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical transport, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.
About Us Page
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.
This page should also include any professional awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to set yourself above other competitors.
(List all of your awards recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in your About Us page. Image source: squaremedical.com.au)
Staff
If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online or get people to interact more on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know you and your business better.
You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a staff page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-maintain list of staff or team members in a WordPress site using a free plugin here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory
Recruitment
This is a listing of job opportunities available within the clinic. This page could include training, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.
Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide prospective clients with social proof.
(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Meaningful Customer Testimonials
Contact Us
A functional contact page is crucial.
Your contact page should include:
- Company Name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Fax
- Google Map
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Links to social media profiles
- Chat
If you operate out of different areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog
A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like the latest news, product releases, educational articles, opinions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your medical services.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical site is very hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and business blog.
Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin to drive targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new visitors automatically to your website)
If you are interested in learning more about this here:
Legal Information Pages
It’s crucially important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken wherever your practice is located.
Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your medical or health-related website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health and Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site
Tips On How To Improve Your Content
In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.
You want to provide useful content with advice, information or tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more content. This is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services.
For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you can write content about include:
- What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
- Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
- How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
- Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
- And endless other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Use keywords and terms in your content that your readers would search for.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.
Add RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.
If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.
Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Human Molecular Genetics, Stem Cells, Neurology.org, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food safety reports, pet health, radiological health, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- Department of Health UK (www.gov.uk) – Latest news: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health.atom
- The Department Of Health (Australian Government): http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/xml/rssLatestNews.xml
- Department Of Public Health (Australia – State Level): e.g. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
- MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Arthritis, Cholesterol, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Caregivers/Homecare, Fibromyalgia, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, Mental Health, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “immune system rss feeds”, “orthopedics rss feeds”, “psychiatry rss feeds”, etc.
(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)
Checklists And Charts
Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide useful information and resources to get necessary steps completed. Forms and checklists are also great educational tools.
You can provide forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post treatment
- Health checklists for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Add Other Tools
Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.
In part two, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part 1.
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