Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital age has not only revolutionised business globally, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for businesses in the medical or health industry.
Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online
Today, more than ever, medical providers must find smarter ways to stand out from their competition and find new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your practice online.
As well as spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that will attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create wider reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.
Another problem that health organizations (and most professions) face with their websites, is that they have around 30 seconds to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere.
“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 Medical And Health Services Professionals In The Online Economy
As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related industry that can evolve to meet online economy demands and who can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.
This guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract new visitors and notice significant improvements in your health or medical business presence online.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical website, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health business website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:
- Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business
- WordPress For Small Business – A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Small Business With A WordPress Site
Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical & Health Practice Website
This section covers how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages a medical-related site needs, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, your navigation structure, etc.
If you need help with website planning, read this guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Website Pages
All business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your need and how to structure your website for best results.
Services And Products
You need a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics hematology, cancer, incontinence, renal, gastroenterology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dental services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
- Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.
About Us Page
This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community activities, etc.
It’s important to list any business awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and set yourself above the competition.
(List all of your business awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Screenshot source: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Staff Page
If you are looking for ways to sell more products online or get people to interact more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know your organization better.
Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.
In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each team member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
For a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an updatable list directory of staff or team members to your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required
Career Opportunities Page
List any job or career opportunities within your practice. It should include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include information about additional career opportunities in the medical industry.
Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps your medical or health website to establish social proof.
(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales With More Effective Testimonials
Contact Page
Having a contact page is essential.
Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your clinic:
- Company Name
- Location
- Telephone
- Facsimile
- Google Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media web addresses
- Interactive chat feature (optional feature)
If your business services multiple areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.
Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical-Related Blog
A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as news and events, updates, training information, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your organization.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical-related site is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and your blog.
Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that will begin driving new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your website)
Go here to learn more:
Legal Information
It’s vitally important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being broken in whichever location you provide services.
Adding the legal pages below to your medical website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Tips On How To Improve Your Content
In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
By providing great content with tips, advice or information, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services.
For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can publish content about include the following:
- Potential health issues caused by being overweight
- Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
- Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
- How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
- And many other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your health or medical services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Use keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers would search to find you online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Improve User Experience
Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared
- Feeds allow users to subscribe
- An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website by visiting sites of health and medical-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.
For example, here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, The Psychiatrist, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, Occupational Medicine, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Find many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. consumer health information, health fraud, tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Skin, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Bipolar, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Conferences, Heart Disease, Cleft Palate, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)
You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “biotech industry rss feeds”, “nursing rss feeds”, “ear, nose and throat rss feeds”, etc.
(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your medical or health site’s UX.)
Checklists And Forms
Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Charts and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great client instructional tools.
Forms, charts and checklists can address areas such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Provide Unique Tools
Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Others could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.
In part two, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section 1.
To view the rest of this guide, click here:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now