Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital business age has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering medical or health-related services.
Challenges Health And Medical Businesses Face Online
Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to market your health services online.
As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards developing and maintaining a website that brings in prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and creates wider reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and many areas may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.
One other problem that medical or health-related businesses (and most professions) face, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to give users what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.
“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 The Health Profession In The Online Economy
As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related industry that can adapt to meet digital challenges and who can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.
This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and notice significant improvements in your online results.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical or health business website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:
- How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Business
- Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide
Practical Tips To Improve Your Health & Medical Clinic Site
In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for medical or health websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, see this detailed step-by-step guide: Planning Your Website - A Useful Guide For Business Owners
Improving Your Website Pages
Professional websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.
Services And Products Description Page
You need to include a page that lists your services or products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page could list services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology diabetes, oral surgery, geriatric medicine, respiratory, bariatric surgery, optometry day surgery, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, medical imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and why they should choose you.
About Us
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic donations, etc.
It’s important to include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Team
If you are searching for ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your organization better.
Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page 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 their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected staff members on their social networks.
In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add an employee description page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an updatable list of staff members to your website using free plugins here: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory
Work For Us
List any job or career opportunities within your company. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the medical and health industry.
Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.
Case Studies & Testimonials
Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to establish social proof.
(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Awesome User Testimonials
Contact Us
Having a functional contact page is essential.
It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:
- Business Name
- Physical location
- Telephone
- Fax number
- Contact email address
- Map
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Links to social media pages
- Online chat feature
If you operate out of several locations you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.
You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your medical company.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is very hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your business website and blog.
Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help attract targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Information Pages
It’s very important to have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you practice.
Adding the following legal pages to your medical or health site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ways To Improve Your Web Content
In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the sooner you start publishing content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.
Providing useful content with great tips, information or advice will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your services.
For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can write content about include:
- Potential health issues caused by being overweight
- How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
- Hypnosis and weight loss
- How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
- Etc.
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Include keywords in your articles that prospective clients will be searching 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Improve Visitor Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help to 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 feeds provide lots of benefits for your medical or health business.
If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- Doesn’t rely on email
- 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 site
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.
For example, here are some 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 specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Mental 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 feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, CDC USA, Occupational Medicine, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, health fraud, recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- UK Department Of Health (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health) – 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 - Find various health-related news feeds 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. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
- MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Asthma, Neurology, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Thyroid, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Lupus, Compliance, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Medical Innovation, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “melanoma rss feeds”, “gastroenterology rss feeds”, “statins rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)
Checklists & Forms
Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful information and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Charts and checklists can also be great client educational tools.
You can provide a range of checklists, charts and forms covering areas such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post surgery
- Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and exercise program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Add Online Tools
Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools to add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In part two of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your medical site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)