Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health & medical professionals face many new challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing a presence online.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Providers Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical-related businesses must work harder and find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the medical or health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed towards the development and management of a website that brings new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and gives their business a wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical or health-related businesses face online, as do all other businesses for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 And Health Services Practitioners In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical industry that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and who can think strategically about marketing themselves better online.

In this guide, you will learn about ways to generate traffic and improve your online results.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical or health website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, layout and navigation, etc.

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

Your Website Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, orthopedics blood disorders, oncology, continence management, respiratory, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive services, rehabilitation, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It’s important to also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online? Then help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a staff page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to add an updatable list of staff members in your web site using free plugins, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To WordPress

Work With Us

This is a listing of job opportunities within the organization. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You can also include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

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

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, refer to this article: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Engaging Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services several areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, product releases, useful articles, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established medical website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your organization.

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin delivering targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your site)

Learn more about this here:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or 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 and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, engaging in the practice of content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing useful content with great information and tips will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that your readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your health-related business.

If you provide useful content, other sites may 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable content on your site from other sites, 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 relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of RSS 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 search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, 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 RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Medscape, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food allergies, product recalls, tobacco news, 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 - Get various 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Chronic Pain, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Hearing, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Pharma Industry/Biotech Industry, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Fibromyalgia, Neurology/Neuroscience, Back Pain, Mental Health, Statins, 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. “eye health rss feeds”, “back pain rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your medical or health-related website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete a task. Checklists and forms are also great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness 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 unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to grow your medical or health-related business web presence.

To view Part 2, click here:

• The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Medical Practice Online – Part Two

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