Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical or Health professionals face a number of challenges in the web economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful presence online.

Online Challenges For Medical & Health Businesses

Today, more than ever, medical practitioners must work harder to stand out from their competition and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to promote your services online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that brings new prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their presence online.

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

Another challenge that health and medical services professionals face online (as most other professions do for that matter), is that you have only about thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are looking for 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

Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Providers In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related sector that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn about new ways to attract and engage new visitors and improve your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health-related business website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Buyers
• How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, useful tips for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Comprehensive Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

Professional business websites need some essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products Page

You need to include a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, continence management, renal, colon/rectal surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, reiki, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic programs, etc.

It’s important to also list any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and to position yourself above the competition.

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

Meet The Team

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise, how their skills add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add a list directory of employees or team members to your website using a free plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the company. This page can include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You can also include information about 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 you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also helps your health-related site to establish social proof online.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information about your business:

• Business Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat

If you operate from different areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You could also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like announcements, new releases, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical clinic.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very 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 business blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin attracting an ongoing stream of web traffic to your site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s crucial to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content at no cost has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Provide great content with information, advice or tips that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• And many other content topics

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

Use keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your 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 Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a medical or health website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, CDC USA, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, radiological health, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes 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 choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Cholesterol, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Headache/Migraine, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Pancreatic Cancer, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Medical Innovation, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “eczema rss feeds”, “conferences rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s UX.)

Adding Checklists And Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with useful information and resources to complete a necessary task. Charts and checklists are great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Others would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health site that can also help improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to build your medical or health business online.

Click on this link to continue:

• Tips For Health Services Practitioners – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

***

***