Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
The web economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health or medical-related services.
Online Challenges For The Medical & Health Profession
Now, more than ever, medical businesses must work harder to stand apart from the crowd and find new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to promote your practice online.
In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that can drive leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and increase their marketing exposure online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.
Another challenge that medical organizations (and most other businesses) face, is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors with what they need or they will 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 Medical Services Providers In The Web Economy
As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.
In this article, you will learn new ways to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your health-related website.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, go here:
How To Improve Your Medical Clinic Site
We’ll start first by reviewing some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical or health-related website needs, what content you need, useful tips for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your health website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners
Improving Your Website Pages
Professional business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s go over these.
Products And Services
It’s essential to include a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services like:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics blood disorders, oncology, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rheumatology, endoscopy, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
- Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social work services
- Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, fertility services, optical services, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical transport, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
About Us Page
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic programs, etc.
Remember to mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above your competitors.
(List all of your awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in the About page. Screenshot image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Team Profile Page
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online and get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.
You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in medical-related 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. It should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a staff page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a directory of staff members in your website using a free WordPress plugin here: How To Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site
We’re Hiring
This is a listing of career opportunities within the business. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your business, etc. You can also include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information about upcoming career opportunities in the health-related industry.
Also include 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 & Testimonials
Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you will also help to provide visitors social proof online.
(Add a web page with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)
If you would like to learn more about using client case studies and reviews get better results online, go here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials
Contact Us Page
A contact page is crucial.
Your contact page should include:
- Name Of Your Business
- Location
- Phone number
- Facsimile
- Contact email
- Google Map
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media URLs
- Live chat
If you operate from different locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.
Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, educational videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your medical organization.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and blog.
Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that will begin driving a stream of web traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Info Pages
It’s vitally important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you practice.
Adding the following legal pages to your health website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms 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
- etc.
We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ways To Improve Your Content
In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key success factors for businesses.
Providing great content with useful information, advice or tips will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and services.
For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:
- What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
- How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure lifetime weight loss
- Tips for developing an exercise routine you can enjoy and will stick with
- How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthy diet plan
- Etc.
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Use keywords and terminology 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 that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your updates are in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Your feeds can be shared online
- Feeds allow 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 aggregator services
- RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also benefits to providing 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 for your website, search online for medical or health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.
Here are some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to your site:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
- US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nucleic Acids Research, ADA (American Diabetes Association), BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, Neurology.org, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related news and topics like FDA drug safety, food safety, recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- UK Department Of Health (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
- MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Senior Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Stroke, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Cholesterol, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Nutrition/Diet, Genetics, etc.)
You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “nuclear medicine rss feeds”, “dermatology rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)
Provide Online Forms And Checklists
Checklists and charts are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great client educational tools.
You can provide forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Other Tools
Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Others could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.
In the next section, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can also help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
***
This is the end of section 1.
Click on this link to continue:
***
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org