Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical services providers today face a number of challenges.
Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Providers 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 you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.
In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health-related industry are now also finding that they will need to invest a bigger part of their budget towards the development and management of a website that attracts prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps them gain a wider marketing reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, 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 will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that health or medical-related businesses face (as most other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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
Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Providers
As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health-related practices that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy challenges and think progressively in terms of marketing their business better online.
In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about new opportunities to increase traffic and improve your business results online.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your health website.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:
Tips To Improve Your Website
Let’s start by reviewing some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your health website, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
How To Improve Your Website Pages
All websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.
Services Description Page
You need a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics diabetes, cancer, stroke, rheumatology, infection control, optometry elective surgery, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, audiology, women’s health, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
- Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
About Us Page
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.
It’s important to also mention any business awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above other competitors.
(List all of your industry awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Our Team
If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then help your visitors get to know you, your team 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 employees. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.
On this page, make sure to outline each team member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to easily add a simple employee directory to WordPress using free WordPress plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site
Job Opportunities
List any career opportunities within your organization. It should include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health industry.
Include also 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
Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you will also help to establish social proof.
(Add a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
For a detailed article about using testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online, go here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Effective Client Testimonials
Contact Page
A contact page is vitally important.
Your contact page should include:
- Company Name
- Your address
- Telephone
- Fax number
- Email address
- Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media networks
- Chat/Skype (optional)
If your business operates out of multiple areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.
You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Health Blog
A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like announcements, updates, educational articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical clinic.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health-related site is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and your blog.
Not many people know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will help attract web traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
For more details, go here:
Legal Info Pages
Having a compliant website is very important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever you practice.
Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website 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 Statement
- Terms And Conditions 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 site. If you would like to know more here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site
Improve Your Web Content
In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
By providing useful content with tips and 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 prospects about using your services.
For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write about include the following:
- Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
- How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure permanent weight loss
- Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
- A guide to making the smarter choices choices when eating at restaurants
- And endless other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your medical or health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Use keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for.
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 site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your website.
If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
- Feeds allow users to subscribe
- It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also 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.
To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of health-related government departments or industry bodies.
Here are examples of feeds you could add 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, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s 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. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), The Journal of Immunology, Radiology, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, 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 topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, recalls, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
- MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, Travel Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Acid Reflux/GERD, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Hearing/Deafness, Primary Care/General Practice, Biology/Biochemistry, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)
You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “ebola rss feeds”, “insomnia rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.
(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)
Provide Downloadable Checklists & Charts
Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with useful information and resources to perform a task. They are also great client instructional tools.
You can provide a range of forms, charts and checklists covering topics such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post treatment
- Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)
Adding Online Tools
Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.
In part two, we will be discussing a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section 1.
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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