Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical services professionals today face difficult challenges brought about by the online economy.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to promote your health services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that they need to invest a bigger amount of their budget towards developing and managing a website that attracts clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and many aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that health-related businesses (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to give users what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 And Medical Services Practitioners In The Online Economy

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

The guide below will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to increase traffic 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 Content Management System (CMS) to power your health website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Prospective Buyers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online Using A WordPress Blog

Ways To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by going over the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your health-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for medical sites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services

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, this page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology blood disorders, oral surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, urology, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, holistic medicine, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, community health, medical equipment, 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.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community programs, etc.

It’s important to include any health or medical-related awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not 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 can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

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 each team member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable list directory of staff members to your website without coding skills, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your clinic. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include information about additional career opportunities in the medical or health-related 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, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more about using client case studies and reviews, refer to this article: How To Get Better Results Online Using Captivating User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature (optional)

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

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical business.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin to deliver targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

You can learn more here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

It’s important for professional businesses to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever your practice is located.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical-related website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive digital economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

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

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

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will 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 exactly 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!

Improve User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will 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 kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a health website:

• 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 RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, 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, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, BMJ Injury Prevention, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get 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. FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products, drugs, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Arthritis, Neurology, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Senior Health, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Fertility, Medical Insurance, Dermatology, COPD, Women’s Health/Gynecology, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “drug resistance rss feeds”, “body aches rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your medical or health site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide useful step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are also great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of forms and checklists covering areas such as:

• 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.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your medical or health website using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your health or medical-related web presence.

To continue reading, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Services And Health Clinic Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic With WordPress Plugins

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