Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and health services professionals face many new challenges in today’s web economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business presence online.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

Today, more than ever, medical services providers must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other medical businesses, you will need to designate a bigger part of your budget to develop and maintain a website that will drive prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help give your business wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical or health businesses face online (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to provide users what they need or they will leave and 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

Online Opportunities For Medical & Health Services

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health businesses that are willing to adapt to meet digital challenges and think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to generate traffic and improve your medical business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical-related business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, go here:

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Prospective Buyers
• How To Grow Your Small Business With A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical-related website, see this detailed guide: The Web Site Planning Process - A Practical Guide For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your medical or health-related website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics hematology, cosmetic surgery, continence management, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, audiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

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.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community services, etc.

It’s important to include any industry awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and to position yourself above other competitors.

(List all of your awards recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in your About page. Screenshot image source: squaremedical.com.au)

Our Team

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical or health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, 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. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of staff members to your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities available within the practice. It can include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information about new career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps your health or medical-related site to provide social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Captivating Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Chat

If your business services different areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as events, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your medical company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health website is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and your blog.

Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin attracting new visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your medical-related 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 Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to publish good content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Providing great content with tips, advice and information will get your readers sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your health or medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords and terms in your content that prospective clients will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Add RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical or health-related 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. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, food allergy reports, recalls, animal and veterinary news, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find various 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Neurology, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Eyesight, Women’s Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Back Pain, Breast Cancer, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “obstetrics rss feeds”, “transplants rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform steps. They are also great client educational tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your health-related site that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to improve your health-related business online.

Click here to keep reading:

• How To Grow Your Medical Practice Website Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

***

***