Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The information economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for health or medical businesses.
Challenges Professional Medical Practitioners Face Online
Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical 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 maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your practice online.
As well as investing money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated towards developing and managing a website that can drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help give your business wider marketing reach online.
This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change over time and some areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.
Another difficult challenge that medical providers (and all other businesses) face, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they need or they will find what they are looking for 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
Online Opportunities For Health Practitioners
As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related profession that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box about marketing themselves better online.
This comprehensive article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your online results.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your health or medical-related website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:
- Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
- WordPress For Small Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business With A WordPress Blog
Tips To Improve Your Website
We’ll start first by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for medical-related websites, ways to improve layout and navigation, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed guide: Planning Your Business Website - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners
Basic Pages
Professional websites need several basic pages. Let’s discuss these.
Description Of Products And Services
It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could include services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics haematology, oncology, continence management, respiratory, infection control, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, hearing, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, meditation, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
Who We Are
This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
This page should include any industry awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your services and set yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc. in your About Us page. Screenshot image source: squaremedical.com.au)
Meet Our Team
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online or get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then help your visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.
People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to outline each employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to easily add a simple and easy-to-manage simple employee directory in your web site using a free plugin, see this tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills
Recruitment
List any job or career opportunities within your company. It would include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted by your business, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.
Maintain a positions available section in your 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.
Case Studies
Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof.
(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have created a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Highly Effective Testimonials
Contact Us Page
Having a contact page is vitally important.
Your contact page should include the following information:
- Name
- Street address of clinic
- Phone
- Fax
- Contact email
- Map and directions
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Links to social media networks
- Interactive chat
If your business operates from multiple areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like announcements, new releases, useful articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an established medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical clinic.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is very hard to keep updated with new content or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your website and your blog.
Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin to deliver targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your website)
Go here to learn more:
Legal Info Pages
It’s vital to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whichever location you do business.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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 Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your site: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Tips For Improving Your Web Content
In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start publishing good content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.
Provide great content with useful tips or information that will get your readers to share your information online and come back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.
For example, if you provide solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:
- What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
- Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
- Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and suggestions
- How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthier diet plan
- Etc.
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that readers will be searching for.
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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Tips For Improving User Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (known as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and UX.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.
If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your content updates are in one place
- Doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared online
- Allows users to subscribe
- An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.
For example, here are some examples of feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Pregnancy, 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. Dermatology Times, BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Pediatrics, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations press releases, food allergy reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news 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 select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Eyesight, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Medical Insurance, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Men’s Health, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, 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. “STD rss feeds”, “gastroenterology rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)
Checklists And Forms
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. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps performed. They can also be great instructional tools.
Checklists, charts and medical forms could address topics such as:
- Booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)
Unique Tools
Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In part 2 of this guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step guide on ways to build your health-related business web presence.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)