Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital age has not only revolutionised the way business is done worldwide, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses offering medical-related services.
Challenges Medical Firms Face Online
Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to grow your business online.
As well as spending money advertising offline, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that they need to allocate a larger amount of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps increase their presence online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout 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 areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that medical services providers face with their websites, and all other professions for that matter, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to help users find what they need or they will leave your site and 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 Businesses In The Digital Economy
As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for medical or health businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.
The guide below will help you uncover ways and opportunities to increase traffic and improve your business online.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical-related website.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:
- Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
- The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress
Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Clinic Site
In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your medical website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health website needs, what content you need, layout and navigation, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, read this article we have written: How To Plan Your Web Site: A Comprehensive Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners
Improving Your Website Pages
Professional websites need several basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.
Description Of services And Products
You need to include a page that lists your services or products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, orthopedics haematology, plastic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, colon/rectal surgery, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
- Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, x-ray, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
- Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, optical services, neurosciences, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.
About Us
The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical programs, etc.
Remember to also mention any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and to set yourself above other competitors.
(List all of your professional awards certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in your About page. Image source: squaremedical.com.au)
Meet Our Team
Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction with your site? Then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you 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 or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to highlight your staff member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)
For a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list of employees in a WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code
Recruitment Page
This is a listing of job opportunities available within the organization. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your business, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.
Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.
Testimonials
Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you are also helping to provide social proof online.
(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online. For more info, see this article: How To Create Better Results Online Using Knockout Testimonials
Contact Us Page
A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.
Your contact page should include the following information:
- Name
- Location
- Phone
- Facsimile
- Contact email address
- Map
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Request for information – contact details
- Social media links
- Online Chat/Skype
If your business services multiple locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. 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 announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, educational videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an health or medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your practice.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical-related website is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and business blog.
Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can begin attracting a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages
As a professional business, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucially important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations in whatever area you do business.
Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your health or medical website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. For more info, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site
In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content at no cost has become one of the key business differentiators.
By providing useful content with information or tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages with others and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.
For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write content about include:
- What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
- How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
- Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and suggestions
- 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).
Include keywords in your articles that your readers will be searching for online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving user experience (generally referred to 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 UX.
Using RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve 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 content updates are in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your 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 a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing great 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 RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.
Below we have listed some RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog 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. Body image, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), European Heart Journal, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, food safety reports, pet health, radiological health, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- UK Department Of Health (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 various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Travel Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News 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. Hypertension, Pulmonary System, Fibromyalgia, Veterinary, COPD, Women’s Health/Gynecology, Statins, 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. “aging rss feeds”, “IBS rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.
(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)
Checklists And Charts
Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Charts and checklists can give them useful information and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms are great client educational tools.
You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post treatment
- Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Online Tools
Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are useful tools for your website. Others would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In part 2, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of section 1.
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