Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services professionals face many challenges in today’s web economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

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

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that can drive prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and create a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical professionals face, and most other professions for that matter, is that your site has around thirty seconds to give visitors 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 Medical And Health Professionals

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical-related profession that are willing to evolve to meet digital demands and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their business services better online.

This guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Clinic Services Site

This section explains ways to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We show you what pages a medical website needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed guide we have written: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Your Products And Services

You need a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology diabetes, reconstructive surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, urology, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, fertility services, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

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

About Us

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

It’s important to mention any medical-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know your organization better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page can include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a simple team members directory to your web site using a free WordPress plugin here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

List any job or career opportunities available within your business. It should include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical and health industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof online.

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

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is vitally important.

It should include the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat feature

If your business operates out of multiple areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like events, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical practice.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical website is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your business website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin delivering targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Attract More Website Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

It’s crucially important to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By providing great content with useful tips or information, you will get your readers to share your web pages with others online and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if you provide solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could cover in your content include:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to include the same keywords in your content that readers will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your website from other sites, 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that 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 also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, 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 RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, Bionet RSS, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Cambridge Journals Online, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, health fraud, recalls, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news 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.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Digestion, Hearing, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Fertility, Compliance, Autism, Endocrinology, Medical Innovation, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lupus rss feeds”, “irritable-bowel syndrome rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. Charts and checklists are great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your website that can also help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• Grow Your Medical Clinic Website – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors With WordPress Plugins And Themes

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