Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital information age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for medical services practitioners.
Challenges Professional Medical Services Providers Face Online
Now, more than ever, medical and health services professionals must find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to grow your business online.
As well as spending money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give your business a wider degree of marketing reach online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, your 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 will change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.
One other problem that health or medical organizations face with their websites (and most other professions for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to give visitors the information they need 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 The Medical & Health Profession In The Digital Economy
As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for medical businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think strategically about marketing their business better online.
In this article, you will discover new ways to generate web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your medical website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:
Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Services & Health Center Website
Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Basic Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners
How To Improve Your Web Pages
Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.
Description Of Services
You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology hematology, cancer, gerontology, respiratory, bariatric surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food 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, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, reproductive services, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, clinical information, medical transport, 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 these services and why they should book an appointment.
About Us
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.
It should include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and set yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Screenshot source: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Team
Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.
You want prospects to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health 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 should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.
On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’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 employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in a WordPress site here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site
Work With Us
This is a listing of job opportunities available within your clinic. This page could include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health industry.
Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also establishes social proof online.
(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
For a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online, go here: Create Better Results Online With More Effective Client Testimonials
Contact Us
Having a functional contact page is essential.
Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information:
- Name
- Your address
- Phone
- Fax
- Email address
- Google Map
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media web addresses
- Online chat feature (optional feature)
If you operate in several locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, updates, educational articles, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical practice.
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 be used both as your website and business blog.
Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin to drive targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more:
Legal Information Pages
Having a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whichever area you provide services.
Depending on what services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your medical or health-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Improve The Content On Your Site
In today’s highly competitive online business economy, the sooner you start to publish content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.
Providing great content with tips, information and advice will get your visitors to share your web pages with others online and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about using your products and services.
For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write about include the following:
- Potential health issues caused by being overweight
- How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
- Tips for developing an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
- How to make smarter choices choices when eating in restaurants
- Etc.
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Use 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. 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 your site’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.
If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared online
- RSS feeds allow for subscribing
- A feed provides links back to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing content on your website from other websites, 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 industry bodies.
Here are some feeds you could consider adding to your website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, BMJ Medical Humanities, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), The New England Journal of Medicine, 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 RSS feeds on fda-related news like enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, pet health, drugs, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many health-related 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.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. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Neurology, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – 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. Lung Cancer, Headache/Migraine, Surgery, Cholesterol, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Respiratory/Asthma, Psychology/Psychiatry, etc.)
You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “homecare rss feeds”, “general practice rss feeds”, “genetics rss feeds”, etc.
(RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)
Adding Online Forms
Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. Charts and checklists are also great instructional tools.
You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering subjects such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)
Add Other Tools
Providing useful tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools to add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.
In part 2, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to improve your medical-related business web presence.
To view the rest of this article, click this link:
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