Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical and Health professionals face many new challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.
Challenges Professional Medical Providers Face Online
Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your health services online.
As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to designate a more significant portion of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain wider marketing reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and many areas will need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that medical or health businesses (and most businesses) face, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are looking for or they will go away.
“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 Services Providers
As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the health profession that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.
The guide below will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your online results.
As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your health-related web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical or health-related business website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:
Ways To Improve Your Website
Let’s start by going over the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Your Web Pages
All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.
Products And Services
You need a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could list services such as:
- Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology hematology, reconstructive surgery, aged care, rheumatology, urology, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
- Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
- Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, sexual 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 your 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 what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community services, etc.
Remember to also list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and to set yourself above the competition.
(List all of your industry awards certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc. in the About page. Screenshot source: squaremedical.com.au)
Team Profile
Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online and get visitors to interact more on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.
Potential clients 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 brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual staff members on their social networks.
On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple staff directory to your website without messing with code, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required
We’re Hiring
List any job or career opportunities within the organization. It could include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical 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 you on social media, etc.
Case Studies And Testimonials
Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps your medical site to provide visitors social proof.
(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written a comprehensive article about using client testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Effective Customer Testimonials
Contact Us Page
Having a contact page is vitally important.
It should provide:
- Business Name
- Your address
- Telephone number
- Facsimile
- Google Map and directions
- Web address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media links
- Chat
If your business services several locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.
You should also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog
A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like the latest announcements, product releases, educational information, informative posts, educational videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical clinic.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical-related site is hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and blog.
Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can drive new visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your website)
For more info, see this article:
Legal Info Pages
As a professional business, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened in whatever area you provide services.
Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Improving The Content On Your Website
In today’s highly competitive online economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.
Providing useful content with advice, information or tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.
For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover in your content include:
- Potential health issues caused by being overweight
- How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
- Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
- 10 tips that will help you avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
- Etc.
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Include the keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search to find you online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business 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 site’s user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.
Using RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.
If you provide useful information, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are kept 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
- A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits 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.
To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.
For example, here are a few RSS feeds 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 also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, 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. Journal of Neurophysiology, JAMA & Archives, TheLancet.com, Radiology, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food safety reports, tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
- Department of Health UK (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
- MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Asthma, Cholesterol, Oral Health, Digestion, Skin, etc.)
- Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Headache/Migraine, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Cholesterol, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Medical Innovation, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)
You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “dentistry rss feeds”, “primary care rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)
Provide Downloadable Checklists And Forms
Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Charts and checklists can provide useful information and resources to complete necessary steps. They are also great instructional tools.
Checklists, charts and medical forms can include subjects 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, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Fitness and nutrition program checklists
- General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Provide Unique Tools
Providing useful tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.
In part two, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your website that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part 1.
To view the rest of this guide, click here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)