Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital information age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for medical-related businesses.
Challenges Health Practitioners Face Online
Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your practice online.
In addition to spending money advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now finding that they will need to assign a bigger part of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that brings new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give their business wider exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that health or medical businesses face, and most other businesses for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to help visitors find what they need or they will look 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 & Health Professionals
As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical profession that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy challenges and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing themselves better online.
In this detailed guide, you will learn a number of ways to find more clientele and establish online credibility for your medical or health-related business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical or health business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:
- Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
- WordPress For Small Business – The Complete Guide To Growing Your Small Business Using A WordPress Blog
How To Improve Your Website
In this section we’ll show you how to improve your health or medical website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a health or medical website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need help with website planning, visit this page: Planning Your Website: A Comprehensive Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners
Ways To Improve Your Website Pages
Professional business websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review the pages your should have and how to structure your health or medical website for best results.
Description Of services And Products
You need to include a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could list services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, geriatric medicine, rheumatology, gastroenterology, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, restorations, dental implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
- Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, medical imaging, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness, social work services
- Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, optical services, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should choose you.
About Us
This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
Remember to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and set yourself above the competition.
(List all of your awards accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in your About page. Image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Staff
Are you searching for ideas to grow your business online? Then help prospects get to know, like and trust your organization better.
Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.
In this page, make sure to highlight each person’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to your web site using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To WordPress
Career Opportunities
List any job opportunities within your organization. It should include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical-related industry.
Also include 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 you on social media, etc.
Testimonials And Case Studies
Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with testimonials and case studies also helps to provide visitors social proof.
(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online, go here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Profit-Boosting User Testimonials
Contact Us
A clean contact page is crucial.
Your contact page should include the following information about your company:
- Company Name
- Location
- Phone number
- Fax
- Contact email address
- Map
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Request for more information – contact details
- Links to social media pages
- Chat (optional)
If your business services several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like events, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established medical or health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your services.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical site is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and business blog.
Something few people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin to drive targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)
You can learn more here:
Legal Information
It’s very important 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 you are not contravening laws and regulations wherever you practice.
Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your medical site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
How To Improve Your Content
In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
You will want to provide great content with tips or information that will get your readers to share your information and come back for more. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.
For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover in your content include:
- Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
- Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
- Tips for developing an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
- Vitamins and minerals that help with weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
- Etc.
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your medical services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Include keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.
Add RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses 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
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared
- Allows for subscribing
- An RSS feed provides links back to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable content on 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 or industry bodies.
For example, here are some examples of feeds you could add to a health-related site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care, Epidemiology – Featured Articles, TheLancet.com, Medscape, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Find many feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations, health fraud, tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find various 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 – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Diet & Weight Management, Sexual Health, HIV, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Acid Reflux/GERD, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Dermatology, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Allergy, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “radiology rss feeds”, “medical malpractice rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.
(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s user experience.)
Adding Checklists
Checklists and charts are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful information and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great client instructional tools.
You can provide forms and checklists covering a range of subjects such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists and charts for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Online Tools
Providing unique tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.
In part 2, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your medical-related site that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part 1.
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