Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the health or medical profession.

Challenges Professional Health Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to grow your medical services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will attract prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give their business wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that health providers face with their websites, as do other businesses for that matter, is that they have an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find 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

Opportunities For Medical Providers In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think strategically about marketing their services better online.

The article below will help you uncover ways to generate web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your health or medical-related business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your health or medical website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money
• WordPress For Small Business Owners – An Online Guide To Building A Successful Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the guide we have written here: The Website Planning Process Explained: A Comprehensive Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Services

You need a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology diabetes, cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rheumatology, infection control, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, restorations, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, audiology, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, 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 what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It should list any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you looking for ways to grow your business online? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-maintain list of staff members to your site using a free plugin, go here: Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your business. This page can include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your business, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also helps to establish social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews get better results online. If you would like to learn more about this here: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat

If your business services different areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news, new releases, training articles, opinions on current topics, educational videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your services.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help attract web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened in whichever area or location you service.

Adding the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information, advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to ask for support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• How to modify recipes for achieving 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 gain a better understanding of your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will search 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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also 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 respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your 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 choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, 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 leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nucleic Acids Research, Human Molecular Genetics, The Journal of Immunology, Medscape, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), product recalls, cosmetics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many 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 by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Men’s health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Pain/Anesthetics, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Pancreatic Cancer, Heart Disease, Medical Innovation, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “drug resistance rss feeds”, “midwifery rss feeds”, “erectile dysfunction rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Charts and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are also great client educational 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 pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss 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.)

Add Online Tools

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

In part two, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your medical-related business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Successfully Grow Your Health Clinic Web Presence – Part 2

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