Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Health professionals face many new challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing their business presence online.
Challenges Health And Medical Services Professionals Face Online
Today, more than ever, medical services professionals must work hard to stand apart from their competition and source new clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to promote your services online.
In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the health or medical industry are now also finding that they will need to allocate a bigger part of their budget towards the development and management of a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase their marketing exposure online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, 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 will change over time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.
Another problem that health businesses (and other professions) face online, is that you have only about thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will leave and 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 Health And Medical Services Providers In The Digital Economy
As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and think outside the box when it comes to marketing their services better online.
In this article, you will discover a number of ways to generate more web traffic and improve your online results.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical or health-related website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your health business website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:
- Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business
- The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress
Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical And Health Services Site
In this section we’ll show you how to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical website, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Your Website Pages
All websites require some essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your should have and how to set up your health-related website for best results.
Products And Services Description Page
It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery haematology, plastic surgery, aged care, respiratory, weight loss surgery, eye diseases day surgery, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
- Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
- Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, natural therapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.
List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
Remember to include any health or medical-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your business and set yourself above similar service providers.
(List all of your awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Screenshot image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Meet The Team
Are you searching for ideas to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know you and your business better.
Potential clients need 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 brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.
In this page, make sure to outline your team member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to easily add an easy-to-manage list of employees in WordPress using free plugins, see this tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory In WordPress
Job Opportunities
List any career opportunities within the organization. It should include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.
Include also 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to establish social proof online.
(Add a page with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)
To learn more about using testimonials and user reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Sales Boosting Testimonials
Contact Page
A contact page is vitally important.
Your contact page should include:
- Name Of Your Business
- Physical address
- Phone
- Fax number
- Contact email
- Google Map and directions
- Web address
- Contact form
- Request for information – who to contact
- Links to social media networks
- Online Chat/Skype
If you operate from multiple areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.
You can also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and announcements, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an established health or medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical business.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health-related website is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and blog.
Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will help begin to attract targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Pages
It’s crucial to have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations in whatever location you do business.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- 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
- etc.
We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
Improve The Content On Your Website
In today’s globally competitive economy, having a content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
You want to provide useful content with great information, advice and tips that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.
For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could cover in your web content include:
- Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, fats, minerals, vitamins)
- Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
- How to develop a better eating and exercise regime
- How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
- And many other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Use the same keywords and terms in your content that readers will search 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. 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) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.
Add RSS Feeds
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your site.
If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
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
- Your feed can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your feed
- It provides links to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing valuable information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.
Below we have listed a few RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog 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, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, BMJ Heart, The Journal of Immunology, Medscape, BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 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 news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, health fraud, recalls, radiological health, 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 feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
- MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Asthma, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Prevention & Wellness, Heart, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Vascular, Fibromyalgia, Hearing/Deafness, Heart Disease, Nutrition/Diet, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)
You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “medicaid rss feeds”, “tropical diseases rss feeds”, “personal monitoring rss feeds”, etc.
(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)
Provide Online Forms
Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Charts and checklists can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary steps performed. Charts and checklists are great educational tools.
Checklists, charts and medical forms could address topics such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for pre or post treatment
- Health checklists and charts for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Add Online Tools
Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.
In part two of this guide, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your medical or health-related site that can also 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 1.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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