Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical services practitioners face a number of challenges in the online economy, especially when it comes to growing their presence online.
Challenges Medical Firms Face Online
Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out smarter ways to market your medical or health services online.
In addition to investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to assign a larger portion of your budget towards developing and managing a website that can attract clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give you a wider amount of exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.
Another challenge that health or medical businesses face online, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.
“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
Online Opportunities For Health & Medical Professionals
As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical sector that are willing to adapt to meet online economy demands and think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.
This guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your health-related business.
As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical-related business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your medical-related business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:
- Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers
- Using A WordPress Site To Grow Your Business Online
Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical & Health Services Site
This section looks at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for medical-related websites, useful tips for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your health website, see this detailed guide: Planning A Web Site - A Basic Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Web Pages
All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.
Services Page
It’s essential to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology hematology, reconstructive surgery, aged care, rheumatology, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental implants, emergency dental services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
- Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, functional medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.
About Us
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.
It’s important to also include any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your business and to set yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your business awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in your About page. Image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Staff Page
Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.
You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in medical or health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your team members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to outline each employee’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 page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees in your site without messing around with code here: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
Recruitment Page
This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your business. It should include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your business, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical industry.
Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials And Case Studies
Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with testimonials and case studies also provides social proof online.
(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews, see this article: How To Get Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting User Testimonials
Contact Page
Having a contact page is absolutely vital.
Your contact page should include the following information about your consulting practice:
- Business Name
- Your physical address
- Phone
- Facsimile
- Email address
- Google Map and directions
- Website address
- Contact form
- Request for more information – contact details
- Links to social media profiles
- Online Chat/Skype
If your business operates in multiple locations you should make that clear when showing the address and contact information.
You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Health-Related Blog
A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as news and announcements, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your business.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site is very hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and business blog.
You may not be aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that can begin to deliver targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new traffic automatically to your website)
To learn more about this go here:
Legal Info Pages
Having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your practice is located.
Adding the following legal pages to your health site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or 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 and Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. You can learn more here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Improve The Content On Your Website
In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.
By providing useful content with great tips, advice or information, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing 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 topics you could write content about include:
- What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
- Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
- Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
- What processed foods can sabotage your diet (and healthier choices)
- And many other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients will be searching to find you online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable 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 presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Tips For Improving User Experience
Improving your site’s user experience (known as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.
If you provide valuable content, 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 content updates are in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared
- Allows for subscribing
- It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.
Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds you could add to a medical site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, health fraud, tainted products, drugs, 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 - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.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. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Neurology, Oral Health, Eyesight, Women’s Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Lupus, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “stem cell research rss feeds”, “cold rss feeds”, “ultrasound rss feeds”, etc.
(Add RSS feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)
Checklists & Forms
Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step information and resources to complete a task. Checklists and forms are great instructional tools.
You can provide forms, charts and checklists covering a range of subjects such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)
Add Other Tools
Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.
In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health-related website that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part one.
Click here to view Part Two:
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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)