Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The web economy has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for the medical-related sector.
Challenges Professional Medical Services Practitioners Face Online
Now, more than ever, health and medical services professionals must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your practice online.
As well as investing money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and gives your business a wider amount of marketing reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change in time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that medical or health organizations (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find what they are searching for or they will go 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 Services Practitioners
As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to health practices that can adapt to meet digital economy demands and who can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.
The article below will help you uncover opportunities to attract new visitors and notice significant improvements in your business online.
As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health or medical website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:
- Learn Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Potential Customers
- Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Small Business With A WordPress Site
How To Improve Your Website
This section will show you how to improve your medical website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need additional information about website planning, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Essential Web Pages
All websites need a number of essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your need and how to structure your website for best results.
Services And Products Page
You need to include a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could include services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery haematology, plastic surgery, gerontology, respiratory, bariatric surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, x-ray, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
- Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, reiki, meditation, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.
It’s important to also include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your business and to position yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in your About page. Screenshot image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Meet Your Staff
If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products online or get people to interact more with your site, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know you and your business better.
Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in health or medical 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 site visitors to follow some of your team members on their social pages.
In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a staff page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple employee directory in your website, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
Job Opportunities Page
This is a listing of career opportunities within your business. This page would include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical or health-related 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, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof online for your business.
(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
For a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Profit-Boosting User Testimonials
Contact Us
A clean contact page is essential.
Your contact page should include the following information:
- Business Name
- Physical address
- Phone
- Fax number
- Contact email address
- Google Map
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media profiles
- Interactive chat feature (optional)
If you operate from different locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.
Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical-Related Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as announcements, updates, useful information, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established health or medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your services.
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 act as both your website and blog.
Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will begin attracting web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate web traffic automatically to your website)
Go here to learn more:
Legal Information Pages
It’s very important to ensure they 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 you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services.
Depending on the services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website 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 Page
- Privacy Policy
- 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 on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
How To Improve Your Web Content
In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.
Providing useful content with tips, advice or information will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more content. This is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.
For example, if your business provides products that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can publish content about include the following:
- What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
- How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
- How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
- What processed foods can derail your weight loss program (and healthier choices)
- And many other content topics
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your articles that your prospective clients would search for online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Ways Of Improving User Experience
Improving user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will 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 updates are kept in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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 useful content just search online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.
Here are some useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a medical-related 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 select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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, Nutrition Journal, RadioGraphics, American Chemical Society, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations press releases, FDA drug shortages, pet health, tobacco news, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many RSS 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 in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
- MedicineNet.com – 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. Allergies, Menopause, Neurology, Depression, Eyesight, Travel Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Pain/Anesthetics, Sexual Health/STDs, Flu/Cold/SARS, Bones/Orthopedics, 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. “cardiovascular rss feeds”, “respiratory rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.
(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)
Add Online Charts & Checklists
Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary steps completed. They can also be great client instructional tools.
Forms, charts and checklists can address areas such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)
Add Online Tools
Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In part 2, we discuss a several WordPress plugins you can use in your site that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of part 1.
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