Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The digital economy has not only revolutionized business around the world, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for health and medical services practitioners.
Online Challenges For Medical Businesses
Now, more than ever, health services providers must work harder to remain competitive and source new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your services online.
In addition to investing money marketing offline, businesses in the medical industry are now also finding that they need to allocate a more significant share of their marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that can bring new prospects, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create a wider degree of reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change over time and some aspects may need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.
One other challenge that medical or health-related organizations face with their websites, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are looking for 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
Opportunities For Medical And Health Services Practitioners
As well as facing significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to health-related businesses that can evolve to meet digital demands and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online marketing skills.
This guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical-related website or blog.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:
- Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
- The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress
Tips To Improve Your Website
In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your health-related website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best for medical-related websites, layout and navigation, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Website Pages
All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your need to have and how to set up your website for best results.
Products And Services
It’s essential to include a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could include services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, pulmonology hematology, oral surgery, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, gastroenterology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, radiology, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
- Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, holistic medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
- Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.
List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community services, etc.
Remember to list any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and to position yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Screenshot image source: squaremedical.com.au)
Core Team
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your business better.
Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s qualifications, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to create and add a list of staff members in your site with no coding skills required, see this tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory
Work For Us
This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page should include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information about additional career opportunities in the medical industry.
Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Case Studies
Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials, you are also helping to provide social proof online for your business.
(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
If you want to learn more using case studies, testimonials and reviews go here: Achieve Better Results Online Using Effective Client Testimonials
Contact Page
Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.
Your contact page should provide the following information:
- Company Name
- Your address
- Telephone
- Facsimile number
- Contact email address
- Google Map
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Request for more information – who to contact
- Social media URLs
- Live chat feature
If your business operates from different locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.
You could also include links to an FAQ section, useful pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Medical Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, product releases, useful articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your organization.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is very hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your website and business blog.
Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin to deliver web traffic to your business, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new visitors automatically to your website)
For more details, go here:
Legal Pages
Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services.
Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical-related site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website
In today’s ultra-competitive global economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
Providing great content with tips and information will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.
For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover in your content include:
- Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fats)
- How small efforts in portion control can help you lose weight
- Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
- How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthier diet plan
- And endless other content topics
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.
Use the same keywords in your articles that readers will be searching to find you online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your user experience (known as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.
Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.
If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your updates are in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
- Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read 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 adding syndicated content to 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 loads of useful content for your website, search online for medical-related government departments and industry bodies.
For example, here are examples of RSS feeds you could add to a medical or health-related site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s 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 RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, BMJ Injury Prevention, Medscape, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food safety reports, product recalls, tobacco 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
- MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Senior Health, Infectious Disease, etc.)
- Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Fertility, Medical Insurance, Menopause, Men’s Health, HIV/AIDS, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)
You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “muscular dystrophy rss feeds”, “tropical diseases rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)
Adding Forms & Checklists
Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are also great client educational tools.
Forms, charts and checklists can cover subjects such as:
- Checklists/forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific systems
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)
Other Tools
Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.
In part 2 of this guide, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your health-related website that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part one.
Click on this link to continue:
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