Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for the medical or health industry.

Challenges Medical & Health Firms Face Online

Today, more than ever, health and medical services practitioners must find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and find new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning better ways to market your health services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a more significant amount of your budget to developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps give your business wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change in time and some aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that medical-related organizations face with their websites, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to provide users what 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 Health And Medical Services Practitioners In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related sector that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and who can think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your health-related business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health website.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Money
• WordPress In Business – A Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Center Website

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best for medical or health-related sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this guide: The Website Planning Process: A Cost-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

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

Your Services

You need a page that describes your services or products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, nephrology haematology, maxillofacial surgery, gerontology, respiratory, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, radiology and imaging, 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 services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

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

About Us Page

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

It’s important to also list any industry awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your business and to set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online and get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.

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

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable list directory of staff members to a WordPress site using free plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: How To Add A Staff Directory To Your Site

Work With Us

List any job or career opportunities available within the practice. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information about career opportunities in the medical industry.

Maintain 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 you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

We have created a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. To learn more about this go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include some or all of the following information about your center:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat/Skype

If you operate in different areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, useful articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical business.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin driving new visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information

It’s essential to make sure they have a compliant website. 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 area you provide services.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

Provide useful content with information and tips that will get your readers to share your information and come back for more. Using content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to ask for support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• How you eat your food is just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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 use keywords and terms in your content that your readers will search to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your 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 your visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to 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 and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, Neuroanatomy, TheLancet.com, Toxicological Sciences, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, health fraud, pet health, tobacco news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Bipolar, Acid Reflux/GERD, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Conferences, Food Intolerance, Nutrition/Diet, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “sexual health rss feeds”, “alcohol addiction rss feeds”, “clinical trials rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your medical or health website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with useful information and resources to complete a task. Checklists and charts can also be great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic 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.)

Adding Other Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to improve your medical or health web presence.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Grow Your Health Clinic Services Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins

***

***