Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially when it comes to growing their business online.

Online Challenges For Medical Providers

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to invest a greater part of your budget towards the development and management of a website that will drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, 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 will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical and health services providers (and all other businesses) face, is that your site has around thirty seconds to give users the information they are searching for or they will leave the site 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 Services Providers In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health-related sector that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover new opportunities to attract more visitors and improve your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health-related business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical or health-related business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using WordPress

How To Improve Your Medical Services & Health-Related Site

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your health website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, see this article we have written: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, neurology, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, eye diseases day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, physiotherapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, assisted living, home and community care, sexual health, 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 direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

This page should mention any health-related awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your person’s expertise, 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 an employee page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an updatable simple team directory in WordPress without coding skills here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your Site

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the company. It could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews improve your business online here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

If your business services several locations you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like the latest announcements, updates, useful information, informative posts, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will help drive a stream of web traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can drive traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Website Traffic Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s vitally important for medical practitioners companies to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you practice.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global business economy, being generous with information has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

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

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

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure sustainable weight loss
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords in your content that prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. 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) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty 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 syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable 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 for your website by visiting sites of health and medical-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds containing useful information that you could add to a health or medical 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, Nutrition Journal, BMJ Medical Humanities, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations, FDA drug shortages, recalls, foods, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Cholesterol, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Vascular, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Veterinary, Endocrinology, Cleft Palate, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “alternative medicine rss feeds”, “gastrointestinal rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Charts and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can cover areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

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

In part 2, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step article on ways to build your medical or health web presence.

To continue, click here:

• A Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing Your Medical Practice Online – Part 2

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