Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised businesses worldwide, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering health services.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your medical or health services services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps you create a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

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

Another problem that medical-related businesses face with their websites (and most other professions for that matter), is that they have an average of 30 seconds to give users the information they need or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health-related practices that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think outside the box about marketing their services better online.

This article will help you uncover new ways to attract and engage more visitors and see noticeable improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your health or medical-related business website or blog.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Health Site

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health-related website needs, what content works best for health or medical sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, go here: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need some essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your health or medical website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to include 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:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery blood disorders, oncology, gerontology, rheumatology, endoscopy, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, oral health, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff

Are you looking for ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’s expertise, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can 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 add an easy-to-update list directory of employees or team members in your website using free WP plugins, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any job or career opportunities available within the practice. This page would include training, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health-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 the page, join your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

To learn more about using testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Get Better Results Online With Profit-Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates in multiple areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like news, product releases, training information, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical clinic.

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

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

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

For more details:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Grow Your Website Visitors For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s vitally important to have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your medical or health-related site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key business differentiators.

Provide useful content with great information, tips and advice that will get your visitors sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you could cover in your web content include:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• What calories really are and how understanding them aids in weight loss
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• A guide to making the right choices when eating out at any restaurant
• And many other content topics

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

Include keywords and terminology 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your 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 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

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

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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to a medical or health 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, HIV/AIDS, Mental 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Stem Cells, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food allergies, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Cholesterol, Oral Health, Digestion, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Caregivers/Homecare, Depression, Body Aches, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, 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. “skin cancer rss feeds”, “physical therapy rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. They can also be great educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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

To continue, click here:

• How To Grow A Medical Services & Health Practice Web Presence Successfully – Part 2

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