Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical services professionals today are facing an ever growing number of new challenges thanks to the digital economy.
Online Challenges For Health Services Providers
Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.
As well as investing money marketing offline, businesses in the medical-related industry are also finding that they need to assign a greater amount of their budget to develop and manage a website that can bring new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help increase their presence online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your site 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 sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.
Another challenge that medical-related organizations (and all other professions) face online, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to give users the information they need or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.
“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 Health & Medical Businesses In The Digital Economy
As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health businesses that are willing to adapt to meet digital challenges and think outside the box about marketing themselves better online.
This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new opportunities to source more bookings and see significant improvements in your business online.
As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical-related business website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:
- Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
- Using WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide
Practical Tips For Improving Your Website
This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need any help with website planning, see this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: A Practical Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners
Your Website Pages
All websites require some basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your should have and how to structure your website for best results.
Services
It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery hematology, reconstructive surgery, continence management, renal, endoscopy, optometry operating theaters, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
- Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
About Us
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.
It’s important to also mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and to set yourself above other competitors.
(List all of your awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot source: squaremedical.com.au)
Your Staff
Are you searching for ideas to sell more products or services online and get prospective clients to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know your organization better.
You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social pages.
On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your person’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
To learn more about how to add a directory of staff members to WordPress using a free plugin, go here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site
Career Opportunities Page
List any job or career opportunities available within the company. This page would include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the health industry.
Also include 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to provide potential clients with social proof.
(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Highly Effective Customer Testimonials
Contact Page
A clean contact page is essential.
It should provide some or all of the following information about your business:
- Name
- Street address of business
- Telephone number
- Facsimile
- Contact email address
- Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media links
- Online Chat/Skype (optional)
If you operate out of different areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.
You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical Or Health Blog
A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news and events, new releases, training information, informative posts, educational videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your 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 serve both as your business website and business blog.
Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin delivering web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.
(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your site)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Information
Having a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you practice.
Adding the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- 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
To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Improving The Content On Your Website
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 useful content with great tips, information and advice that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your services.
For example, if your business provides services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could write content about include:
- What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
- The role portion control plays in helping you your weight loss efforts
- How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
- Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
- Etc.
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Include keywords and terminology 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 or blog, save money creating useful 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!
Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide many benefits for your business.
If you provide useful content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your updates are in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- A feed provides links to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing content on your site 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 medical-related government departments or respected industry bodies.
For example, here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:
- 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. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Pregnancy, 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. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), Bionet RSS, American Cancer Society, Occupational Medicine, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get feeds on fda-related news like enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
- MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pregnancy, Eyesight, Skin, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Featured 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. Schizophrenia, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Emergency Medicine, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “skin cancer rss feeds”, “sports medicine rss feeds”, “drug trials rss feeds”, etc.
(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health or medical website’s UX.)
Add Checklists And Charts
Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps completed. Forms and checklists are great client instructional tools.
You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering areas such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post treatment
- Health checklists and charts for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Other Tools
Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your users. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.
In the next section of this detailed guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
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