Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of challenges and opportunities for medical and health services practitioners and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For Health Businesses

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a more significant part of your marketing budget to develop and manage a website that will bring in clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help you gain a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and some areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical and health services providers face online (and all other professions for that matter), is that they have around thirty seconds to provide visitors what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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

Opportunities For Health Services Providers

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical or health practices that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think outside the box in terms of marketing themselves better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn new ways to attract more visitors and see noticeable improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health-related business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• Learning WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Site

Let’s start by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical or health website and get better results. We will look at what pages a health or medical site needs, what type of content works best, ways to improve layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics endocrinology, cancer, gerontology, rheumatology, infection control, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, hearing, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

This page should include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products online, then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical or health terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-maintain list of employees to a WordPress site, go here: Plugin Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the practice. It can include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health and medical 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, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to establish social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. To learn more about this go here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Powerful Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online chat feature (optional)

If you operate from multiple locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as the latest news, updates, useful articles, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical clinic.

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

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically

Legal Pages

It’s vital for health services practitioners organizations to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on what services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By providing useful content with great tips and information, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

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

• How does fiber help you lose weight?
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. HCG diet, Raw Food diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthier diet plan
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will be searching to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach 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 presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide useful information, other businesses may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the 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 valuable content on your website from other websites, 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 for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a health-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, ADA (American Diabetes Association), The Journal of Immunology, BMJ Archives of Disease, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products marked as dietary supplements, tobacco news, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health) – 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) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.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. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Sexual Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Fertility, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Swine Flu, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Genetics, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “radiology rss feeds”, “pancreatic cancer rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

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

Adding Online Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a task. They are great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could include subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to read Part Two:

• A Practical Guide To Growing Your Health Clinic Services Web Presence Successfully – Part 2

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