Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals face many new challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing a business online.

Online Challenges For Medical Businesses

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 you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to develop and maintain a website that brings new leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives their business wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical providers (and most other professions) face, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide users with what they need or they will look 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 Services Professionals

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related profession that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

The guide below will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and create noticeable improvements in your business online.

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

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

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Small Business Online Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips To Improve Your Medical Center Site

In this section we will show you ways to improve your health-related website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical-related website, see this detailed guide we have written: How To Plan Your Business Web Site: A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All business websites require several basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of Products And Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, weight loss surgery, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, reproductive services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to also list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know your organization better.

You want prospects 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 mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each person’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-maintain list of staff members in your site with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the practice. This page should include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health 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, join your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to are also establishing social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. You can learn more here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information about your practice:

• Name
• Physical address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype

If your business services multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as the latest news, updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established medical site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical services.

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

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin delivering new targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

If you are interested in learning more here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your Website Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key business differentiators.

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

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the topics you could cover in your web content include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• What processed foods can sabotage your weight loss program (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include the keywords in your content that readers will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

Improving website user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide valuable information, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great content on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

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

Below we have listed examples of feeds you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, BMJ Heart, European Heart Journal, Toxicological Sciences, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, pet health, foods, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Asthma, Neurology, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Exercise & Fitness, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Eczema/Psoriasis, Veterinary, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Allergy, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “cervical cancer rss feeds”, “nutrition rss feeds”, “ear, nose and throat rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Add Online Forms & Checklists

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide useful instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. They can also be great client instructional tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms covering topics such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your health site using WordPress plugins that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part Two, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes

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