The internet is the go-to destination for individuals looking to find healthcare information. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that over half of all Americans (59%) use the internet to look for health or medical information. On any given day, a person might search for conditions based on their symptoms, book an appointment online, or even see their healthcare provider virtually. This reality makes it all the more essential for medical practice to have a comprehensive and easy-to-use website.
For many healthcare entities - and other organizations - WordPress is a great open-source content management system. It is both user-friendly and easy to customize, which means that your medical website can be designed to accommodate how both you and your patients will use it. WordPress also offers great security features and a variety of plug-ins to make optimizing sites for search engines easier.
Based in Delaware, Inclind works with healthcare entities throughout the United States as they design, build, and maintain their websites. Our award-winning website designers and developers use WordPress and other content management systems as part of our full suite of services, from website design and development to redesign, custom integrations, and technical SEO. If you want to learn more about using WordPress for your medical site, reach out today to talk to one of our experts.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source content management system or CMS. It is essentially a type of software that can be used to create and manage a website - without any specialized knowledge of computer programming or coding. Because it is open-source, anyone can access the code to use or change it for free.
WordPress websites are built using themes and plugins. The theme is the overall layout and look of the website, while plugins allow you to customize the website. When you build a WordPress website, you will start by choosing a theme from a library of thousands of both free and paid options. You will then build out your website by adding plugins (with both free and paid versions) for different features.
WordPress started as a platform for bloggers but is now used by major corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations throughout the world. In fact, 43.7% of all websites globally use WordPress. This includes websites for major healthcare providers like the Mayo Clinic, which uses WordPress for some of its external and internal websites.
Benefits of Using WordPress for a Medical Website
WordPress is so popular because it is relatively low-cost, easy to operate, and endlessly customizable. Many medical sites are built using WordPress because it has so many advantages. In fact, approximately 24% of all hospital websites worldwide are built on WordPress. Below, we break down some of the reasons why you might choose WordPress for your healthcare website.
WordPress Is User-Friendly
As noted above, WordPress began as a way for bloggers to create their own websites. Its beginning means that this CMS is dedicated to ensuring that anyone can utilize the software - even if they don’t have any coding knowledge or experience. To this day, WordPress is one of the most straightforward content management systems to use.
Building a website starts with choosing a theme to set the framework for the website. From there, you can add plugins for additional features like translating content into another language or contact forms. Even if you have very little technical knowledge, you can probably build a basic WordPress site on your own.
Once your site has been created, you can manage it through WordPress’ administrative dashboard - which is fairly intuitive to use. Through the dashboard, you can add new pages, publish blog posts, and optimize your website for search engines (known as search engine optimization, or SEO).
Because WordPress is so easy to use, it is possible for smaller medical practices to run their websites on their own. While you may still need assistance with bigger tasks - like installing custom integrations or making sure that the site is HIPAA-compliant - doing things like changing out featured photos and publishing blog posts is easy to do on your own.
WordPress Is SEO-Friendly
In the past, word-of-mouth and traditional advertising were enough for most healthcare practices to have a steady flow of patients. Today, medical practices need a multi-faceted approach - which includes a digital presence. An important feature of this strategy includes ranking high on search engine results.
Search engine optimization makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your website, which means that you may rank higher in search engine results when someone searches for something like “best chiropractor near me.” WordPress is built with SEO in mind.
There are a multitude of different plug-ins that you can use to enhance SEO with features like keyword optimization, sitemap generation, and meta-tag management. This can help to ensure that your website appears on the first page of results when people perform searches for medical practices.
WordPress Is Mobile-Friendly
Today, most people visit websites on their smartphones or tablets - not on a laptop or desktop computer. This makes it all the more important to have a website that performs well on mobile devices. In the website design and development world, this is referred to as mobile optimization.
Many WordPress themes are mobile-responsive, which means that they automatically adjust the layout and design to fit the screen based on what device the visitor is using. This leads to a better user experience, which means that people are less likely to click away from your website. It also can help with search engine rankings.
WordPress Can Easily Be Customized
WordPress offers nearly 60,000 free plugins - plus tens of thousands of paid plugins. These plugins are site add-ons that can increase your website’s functionality. There is a plugin for almost anything that you might need or want for your website, whether you need a patient portal, bill pay features, or accessibility options.
Of course, because WordPress is an open-source CMS, the quality of these plugins may vary. Before adding any plugin to your site, you should make sure that it has good reviews. Once installed, you will need to update your plugins to make sure that they are secure.
WordPress Has Great Content Management Options
One of the most important factors for SEO is fresh, relevant content. Regularly updating your website with new content is a great way to establish yourself as an authority and boost your search engine rankings. WordPress makes it incredibly easy to manage content on your site, whether you are adding blog posts, videos, or patient testimonials.
This feature makes it possible to have a website that is regularly updated with the latest news for your patients. For example, if you want to let patients know that the flu and COVID vaccines are in stock - and the benefits of getting vaccinated - you can draft a blog post about it. This will not only provide important information to the public but benefit your website as well.
WordPress Has Robust Security
For medical practices, one of the biggest challenges with having a website is making sure that it is secure and HIPAA-compliant. To protect against cyberattacks and data leaks, WordPress offers a range of plugins that are designed to make sure that your website is safe. These features can help to safeguard sensitive information.
In addition, WordPress offers automatic updates to make sure that your medical website is running the latest - and most secure - version. You can also add features like two-factor authentication for patient portals to prevent unauthorized access.
Of course, automatic updates are only offered for minor releases. Major releases - such as new versions - will typically require a manual update. If you need help with that aspect of WordPress, our maintenance and support team can help keep your website safe and secure.
WordPress Offers Community Support and Resources
As an open-source CMS, WordPress has the advantage of having an entire community of website designers and developers who contribute to its growth. This includes everything from creating themes and plugins to offering support to website owners.
In comparison to proprietary CMS, this makes it a lot easier - and often less expensive - to get the assistance that you need. If you don’t have a dedicated information technology staff, this feature makes WordPress very attractive.
How Inclind Can Help You Build an Outstanding Medical Website
WordPress is one of multiple content management systems that makes it simple to build a functional, efficient website. It is great for healthcare websites, given its built-in SEO, ability to customize the website, and security features to keep patient information private. Although WordPress is user-friendly, you might still need some help to design, build, and maintain a more secure and effective website with features like online bill pay and patient portals.
At Inclind, we are adept at working with WordPress to create beautiful websites that are chock-full of the features that healthcare entities need. We understand the laws that govern medical sites and the importance of both making information accessible and keeping it secure. We work with a range of healthcare practices, from independent doctor’s offices to larger medical groups. Our team can help you choose a CMS that is right for your unique needs.
Interested in learning more about our WordPress design and development services for medical websites? Fill out our online contact form or give us a call at 800-604-8139 to talk to one of our experts about your website.