Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital economy has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and opportunities for medical professionals.
Challenges Professional Health Services Providers Face Online
Today, more than ever, medical practitioners must work hard to remain competitive and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your practice online.
As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a bigger portion of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings in prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase your reach online.
This means that your website 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 your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that health and medical services providers (and all other professions) face online, is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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 Providers
As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical or health businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and can think progressively when it comes to marketing their business services better online.
This guide will help you uncover ways to generate traffic and create noticeable improvements in your online results.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your medical or health website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see the articles below:
- Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Customers
- How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress
Ways To Improve Your Website
We’ll start first by covering some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this detailed step-by-step guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Improve Your Website Pages
Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your should have and how to structure your website for best results.
Description Of Products And Services
It’s essential to have a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics diabetes, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory, gastroenterology, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, implants, emergency dental, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
- Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.
About Us Page
This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community activities, etc.
Remember to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your services and set yourself above other competitors.
(List all of your awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Staff Page
If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your business better.
People need 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 brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to outline your person’s qualifications, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your WordPress site without coding skills here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required
Job Opportunities Page
This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your business. It can include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.
Maintain a positions available section in this 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.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof for your business.
(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Standout Testimonials
Contact Us Page
A contact page is absolutely vital.
Your contact page should include:
- Name Of Your Business
- Address
- Phone
- Fax number
- Email address
- Google Map and directions
- Website address
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media pages
- Live chat feature
If your business services multiple areas you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.
You should also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog
A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like the latest announcements, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, educational videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your company.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and business blog.
Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.
(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your website)
For more info, see this article:
Legal Information Pages
Having a compliant website is vital. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws and regulations in whatever region you do business.
Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or 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
To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site
Improving The Content On Your Site
In today’s globally competitive economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.
You will want to provide useful content with tips, information or advice that will get your readers to share your information and come back for more content. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about using your services and products.
For example, if you provide solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could write content about include:
- How does fiber help you lose weight?
- Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
- Hypnosis and weight loss
- Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
- Etc.
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your health or medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, 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 regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!
Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.
Using RSS Feeds
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides lots of benefits for your website.
If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites will 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
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also benefits when it comes to providing information on your website 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 by visiting sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.
For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you could add to a health or medical-related website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Neuroanatomy, American Cancer Society, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get many feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations, food allergies, tainted products, animal and veterinary news, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- UK Department Of Health (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: 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 – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Sexual Health, Thyroid, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Dentistry, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Veterinary, Smoking/Quit Smoking, HIV/AIDS, Genetics, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lymphedema rss feeds”, “mad cow disease rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.
(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)
Adding Checklists
Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and charts can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. They are great instructional tools.
You can provide a range of forms, charts and checklists (or links to these) covering topics such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)
Provide Other Tools
Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In part two of this detailed article, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your medical-related site that can help to improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
***
This is the end of section one.
Click on this link to view the rest of this article:
***
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org