Run a Health Site? 6 Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Health is a great area for an online business, because you can carve a niche and attract a loyal readership. But if you’re going to build a health-oriented website, you’ll need more than quality content.

To push your website to the head of the pack, you’ll probably have to add a few plugins to your site that amplify your work. Hundreds of plugins are out there, so where should you start?

The following six add-ons can make your website the go-to resource for savvy readers.

  1. Get Organized

One of the most challenging facets of WordPress is it doesn’t lend itself well to organization. It will certainly keep your posts in order, and you can use tags to categorize things, but beyond that, the site can be rather limiting.

Keep connected posts linked on your site using the Organize Series WordPress plugin. Whether you’re running a series on causes and treatments of eczema that runs several posts or have a monthly guest blogger post a column, this tool keeps serial content readily available.

Just add the widget to your page and everything’s at your readers’ fingertips.

  1. Amplify Your Message

WordPress is home base for thousands of blogs and businesses, but right now the blog platform and aggregator Medium is highly popular. Bonus: it’s free to use.

Why not add the Medium plugin to your website so all of your blog content also appears on your Medium page? Since the Medium administrators pick certain posts to spotlight, this connection can ensure your work gets extra attention.

Another option for increasing your readership – one that many people forget about — is to use an RSS feed. These are a great way to compile a list of articles; people used to use them all the time to make sure they didn’t miss information from their favorite blogs. Craft a top RSS feed for your site using the Category Specific RSS feed subscription.

What’s best about the Category Specific RSS strategy is that it empowers you to break down your site into an array of different feeds. Someone who reads your site only for information on nutrition but not skin care, for example, can receive updates exclusively on nutrition in his or her feed.

It keeps readers from getting overwhelmed while continuing to increase individual page views.

  1. Simplify Scheduling

Hardly anyone makes phone calls anymore, so if your health blog offers services such as nutritional consulting or is linked to a medical practice, the site should make it easy for clients to schedule appointments. But how?

With Yocale’s scheduling software, you can use your website for patient onboarding, appointment scheduling, and patient analytics. It provides complete CRM software for your website.

  1. Supply Self-Help

In the age of WebMD and other symptom checkers, patients have elevated self-diagnosis to an art. Give them some sidebar guidance using the Treato plugin.

Treato is a health-focused search engine designed around the patient experience, and it can help users find information on common drug side effects, symptoms, and diagnoses. Its goal is to crowd-source information from other patients and present it all in one place.

After all, who can you trust more to guide you through health problems than a fellow patient?

  1. Offer a Soundbite

Podcasts have been around for years, but recently they’ve experienced spike in popularity, so you should take advantage of that on your site. Of course, not everyone wants to make his own podcast, but you have a few options in this regard.

You can, of course, create and host your own podcast using a plugin like Buzzsprout, or you can recommend ones you enjoy. Some niche favorites include Bulletproof Radio, a podcast about nutrition, and Revolution Health Radio, created by functional and integrative medicine expert and author Chris Kresser.

There’s also Sawbones, a history and humor podcast hosted by Justin McElroy of My Brother My Brother And Me fame and his wife, family medicine doctor Sydnee McElroy.

No what matter your niche may be, you have countless ways to draw greater attention to your health website, and very little of it requires a medical degree. What readers want is great content and resources galore. How will you provide that?