Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical professionals today are facing significant challenges thanks to the online economy.
Online Challenges For Medical And Health Services Professionals
Today, more than ever, businesses in the health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your practice online.
As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are also finding that they will need to assign a greater amount of their marketing budget towards developing and maintaining a website that can attract clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help to create a wider amount of marketing reach online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and many aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.
One other challenge that health businesses face, as all other professions do for that matter, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors what they need 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
Opportunities For Medical And Health Businesses In The Online Economy
As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that can evolve to meet digital demands and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their services better online.
This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and improve your online results.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical-related website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your health or medical website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see these articles:
How To Improve Your Health Practice Services Site
In this section we will show you how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical-related site needs, what content works best, navigation structure, etc.
If you need additional information about website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: Planning Your Web Site: A Practical Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners
Basic Website Pages
Professional business websites require several basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your need and how to set up your medical or health website for best results.
Products And Services
You need a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page can list services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery blood disorders, oncology, hyperbaric medicine, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
- Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social development services
- Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive services, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.
Who We Are
This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic programs, etc.
It’s important to also mention any business awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and position yourself above the competition.
(List all of your industry awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Image source: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Team
Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your organization better.
You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to highlight your person’s experience, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update directory of employees in your site using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required
We’re Hiring
List any job or career opportunities within the clinic. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the medical and 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps your medical or health-related site to provide visitors social proof.
(Add a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively about using client case studies and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Sales Boosting Testimonials
Contact Us Page
Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.
It should include:
- Name
- Physical address
- Telephone
- Fax number
- Contact email address
- Google Map and directions
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Links to social media profiles
- Chat/Skype
If you operate in several locations you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.
You could also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as the latest news, product releases, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an medical or health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your clinic.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and blog.
You are probably not aware of this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin to deliver targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Information
It’s important for professional businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. 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 in whichever location you do business.
Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or medical-related site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and 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 Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details, go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site
How To Improve Your Content
In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Providing great content with useful information, tips or advice will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and services.
For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you can cover in your content include:
- What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
- Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
- How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
- How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthy diet plan
- Etc.
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Include the keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients will search 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your updates are kept in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared
- Allows for subscribing
- An RSS feed provides links back to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.
Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), ADA (American Diabetes Association), RadioGraphics, Radiology, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), product recalls, cosmetics, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- Department of Health UK (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 (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 RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
- MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Menopause, Cholesterol, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Women’s Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT 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. Stem Cell Research, Stroke, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Pancreatic Cancer, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Dyslexia, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)
You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “pain management rss feeds”, “veterinary rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)
Provide Checklists
Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. Charts and checklists are also great educational tools.
You can provide a range of forms, charts and checklists covering subjects such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)
Adding Unique Tools
Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.
In the next section, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your health business web presence.
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