Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress
Medical practitioners face a number of challenges in the web economy, especially when it comes to growing a presence online.
Online Challenges For Health Practitioners
Today, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must work harder to stand apart from their competition and source new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to market your services online.
In addition to spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy medical or health businesses, you will need to allocate a larger amount of your budget to develop and manage a website that drives clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you gain wider marketing exposure online.
This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and 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 often. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy.
One other difficult challenge that health-related organizations face with their websites (and most professions for that matter), is that you have only about thirty seconds or less to give users what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.
“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 The Medical Profession In The Online Economy
As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical practices that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.
This guide will help you uncover new ways to generate new client bookings and build more online credibility for your business.
As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health or medical-related website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical or health-related website.
For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:
- How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
- WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide
Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Services Website
In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for medical or health-related websites, your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your health website, read this detailed guide we have written: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Your Web Pages
Professional business websites need a number of essential pages. Let’s review the pages your need and how to set up your website for best results.
Services And Products Description Page
It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services like:
- Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology hematology, cancer, hyperbaric medicine, rheumatology, urology, optometry elective surgery, etc.
- Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
- Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
- Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
- Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
- Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
- Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
- Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
- Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, functional medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
- Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, reproductive services, optical services, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.
Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.
Who We Are
This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic donations, etc.
Remember to include any business awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above the competition.
(List all of your business awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About Us page. Image sourced from: squaremedical.com.au)
Team Profile Page
Are you searching for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online and get visitors to engage more on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to 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 employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in medical or health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.
In this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add an employee page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)
We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-update simple staff directory in your WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin here: How To Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site
Career Opportunities
List any job opportunities available within the clinic. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include stories of recruits who have worked their way up in your business and information about additional career opportunities in the medical-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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.
Case Studies
Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof online for your business.
(Add a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)
We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online. For more details, go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Meaningful Testimonials
Contact Us Page
A functional contact page is absolutely vital.
It should include the following:
- Business Name
- Physical address
- Phone
- Facsimile number
- Email address
- Google Map and directions
- Web address
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media networks
- Online Chat/Skype
If your business operates out of different locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.
Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Medical-Related Blog
A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like events, updates, training information, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.
If you already have an established medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your business.
If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical website is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and your blog.
Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will begin to attract targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more about this:
Legal Information
Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services.
Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or medical 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 legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. If you would like to know more about this here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website
Improving The Content On Your Website
In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
You will want to provide useful content with great information, advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.
For example, if you provide products that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:
- What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
- How to get support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
- Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
- How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
- Etc.
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).
Include keywords and terminology in your articles that your 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 that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Content Syndication – RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared online
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- 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.
You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.
For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:
- US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, 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 directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, Nutrition Journal, TheLancet.com, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
- National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
- FDA – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations, food safety reports, product recalls, tobacco news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
- Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
- Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
- MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Menopause, Cold & Flu, Pregnancy, Senior Health, Travel Health, etc.)
- MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
- MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Compliance, Hearing/Deafness, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)
You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “abortion rss feeds”, “emergency medicine rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.
(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)
Checklists & Forms
Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and medical forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Charts and checklists can also be great client educational tools.
You can provide forms and checklists covering a range of subjects such as:
- Checklists and forms for booking appointments
- Checklists for post-surgery recovery
- Health checklists for specific conditions
- Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
- Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
- General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)
Other Tools
Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. Calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.
In part 2, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to improve your health-related web presence.
To view Part 2, click here:
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie