Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised the way business is done globally, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for medical businesses.

Online Challenges For Health And Medical Businesses

Today, more than ever, medical services practitioners must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for smarter ways to promote your practice online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the medical or health industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to develop and manage a website that will bring new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and increase their reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health-related businesses face with their websites, as other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors what they need or they will go away.

“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 And Medical Services Providers In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical-related industry that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think strategically in terms of marketing their business better online.

In this guide, you will discover ways to source new bookings and notice significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical-related website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, go here:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require several essential web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Your Products And Services

You need to include a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics haematology, maxillofacial surgery, continence management, respiratory, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive services, speech therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community contributions, etc.

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

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

Team Profile Page

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online? Then help your visitors 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 or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’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)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory in WordPress using free plugins here: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the practice. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also helps your medical or health website to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article about using client testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. For more details: Achieve Better Results Online With Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat feature (optional)

If you have several locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as news and events, updates, training information, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin to drive targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Information

As a professional medical practitioner, having a compliant website is very important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health-related site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You will want to provide useful content with advice, information or tips that will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

For example, if your business provides products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can cover in your web content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching 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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great 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 many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Epidemiology – Featured Articles, BMJ Injury Prevention, Toxicological Sciences, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, 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
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products, drugs, 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) - Find various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Asthma, Chronic Pain, Diabetes, Sexual Health, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Dentistry, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Swine Flu, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Epilepsy, Medical Practice Management, 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. “STD rss feeds”, “fitness rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health-related site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. They can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. They can also be great client instructional tools.

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

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

Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1.

To continue, click here:

• A Complete Guide To Building And Growing Your Health & Medical Practice Services Web Presence Successfully – Part Two

***

***