Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical or health-related profession.

Challenges Professional Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical services providers must work harder and find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to market your business online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to delegate a larger portion of your budget to develop and manage a website that can bring new prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help give you wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical or health organizations face with their websites, as do most businesses for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 The Medical Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to health-related businesses that can adapt to meet online demands and think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

The article below will help you uncover opportunities to attract more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your health-related business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your medical-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your health website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content you need, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s review these.

Services And Products Description Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, orthopedics diabetes, cosmetic surgery, aged care, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dental implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, 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 the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

It should also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Meet The Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical or health terms it 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 team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your staff member’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 an employee description page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-manage list of employees or team members to WordPress without using code here: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory

Work With Us

List any job opportunities available within the business. This page would include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have risen within your business and information about additional career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

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

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article on using client case studies and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is vitally important.

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

• Name Of Your Business
• Location of business
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat

If you operate from several areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content such as news and events, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing health website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical practice.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can drive a stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical-related website 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 threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• 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.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Providing great content with useful tips or information will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide products that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your content include:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to develop a better eating and exercise plan
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the 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 information on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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 Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), ADA ClinicalDiabetes, Obesity, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, food safety reports, pet health, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Migraine Headaches, Diet & Weight Management, Sexual Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured 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. Schizophrenia, Fertility, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Aid/Disasters, Heart Disease, Allergy, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “homecare rss feeds”, “physical therapy rss feeds”, “hepatitis rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful information and resources to complete necessary steps. Checklists and forms are great client instructional tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

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

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This is the end of part one.

To view Part Two, click here:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Medical-Related Presence Online Using WordPress – Part 2

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