Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and Health professionals today are facing an increasing number challenges brought about by the web economy.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a more significant part of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that can bring in leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to give you wider exposure online.

This means that your website 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 over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health providers (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that you have only around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors with 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 Health Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical or health businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways to drive more web traffic and notice significant improvements in your business results online.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Small Business Online

How To Improve Your Medical Center Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: How To Plan Your Small Business Website - A Practical Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your medical or health-related website for best results.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery blood disorders, plastic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, weight loss surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, holistic medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

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

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily add a directory of staff or team members to your website without coding skills, go here: Adding An Employee Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Work For Us

List any job or career opportunities available within your practice. It can include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Also include 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to are also providing social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your company:

• Business Name
• Address of business
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat feature

If your business operates from multiple areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like announcements, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your medical company.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will attract new visitors to your web site, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

For more details:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Get More Website Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened in whatever location you service.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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.

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Provide great content with information, advice or tips that will get your readers to share your information and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover in your content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• What processed foods can derail your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your content that your readers would search 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 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing 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 RSS feeds with loads of useful content by searching online for health and medical-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of feeds you could add 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 search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, 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 leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), ADA (American Diabetes Association), Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, American Institute of Biological Sciences, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information updates, food allergies, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, foods, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various health-related RSS feeds 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. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Sexual Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News 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. Gout, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Depression, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Food Intolerance, Breast Cancer, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “blindness rss feeds”, “heart disease rss feeds”, “ultrasound rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide step-by-step information and resources to complete tasks. They are also great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could include subjects such as:

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

Add Online Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to build your medical-related web presence.

To view the rest of this article, click this link:

• Grow Your Medical Services & Health Center Website – WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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