Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Health or medical professionals today face difficult challenges brought about by the online economy.
Online Challenges For The Medical Profession
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 be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your health or medical services services online.
In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.
One other challenge that health or medical businesses (and all other professions) face online, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to give users what they need or they will look 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 Health & Medical Businesses In The Web Economy
As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to health or medical businesses that can evolve to meet online economy challenges and can think outside the box about marketing their business services better online.
This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to generate traffic and build more online credibility for your health business.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health-related business website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:
- Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
- WordPress And Small Business – The Complete Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using WordPress
Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Practice Services Site
This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best, ways to improve navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, read this detailed guide we have written: A Practical Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners
Basic Website Pages
Professional websites require some essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your need to have and how to set up your website for best results.
Description Of Services
It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can list services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, continence management, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
- Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
- Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, 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 these services and why they should choose you.
Who We Are
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.
Remember to list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above the competition.
(List all of your awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Screenshot source: squaremedical.com.au)
Our Team
If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your business better.
You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to outline your team 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 a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an updatable simple team members directory to WordPress using free plugins here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site
Job Opportunities Page
List any job or career opportunities within the organization. This page would include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your business, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical or health-related 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies & Testimonials
Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof online.
(Add a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Highly Effective User Testimonials
Contact Page
Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.
Your contact page should include the following:
- Name Of Your Business
- Address
- Telephone number
- Fax
- Contact email address
- Google Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Request for information – contact details
- Links to social media networks
- Live chat
If your business services several locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.
Blog
A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like the latest news, new releases, useful information, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an health or medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical business.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health-related website is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your business website and your blog.
Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin to deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new traffic automatically to your site)
For more details, go here:
Legal Information Pages
Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being broken wherever your practice is located.
Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions Of Use
- 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
- and others
We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.
You will want to provide useful content with information, tips or advice that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.
For example, if your business provides solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you could write about include the following:
- Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
- How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
- How to develop an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
- Apps for tracking calories and exercise
- And many other content topics
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Use the same keywords and terms in your content that readers would search for 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 teach exactly 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 marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your site’s user experience (generally referred to 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 UX.
Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your business.
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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your updates are kept in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared
- 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 aggregator services
- There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing content on your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.
Below we have listed a few feeds you could add to your website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, The Psychiatrist, American Cancer Society, Medscape, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, foods, 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 many feeds on health-related news and topics 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 feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
- MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Senior Health, Sleep, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Vascular, Sexual Health/STDs, Menopause, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Mental Health, Medical Practice Management, etc.)
You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “pain management rss feeds”, “disasters rss feeds”, “ultrasound rss feeds”, etc.
(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health site’s user experience.)
Checklists & Charts
Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform a task. They are great client instructional tools.
You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists, charts and forms (or links to these) covering areas such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post surgery
- Health checklists for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Provide Online Tools
Providing useful tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools to add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.
In part 2 of this detailed article, we look at a several online tools you can use in your health or medical website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your medical web presence.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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