Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services practitioners today face an ever growing number of challenges thanks to the web economy.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

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 be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and figuring out better ways to market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that drives leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical or health organizations (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking 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 challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical-related businesses that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn about a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and notice significant improvements in your online results.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips To Improve Your Health Site

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Your Website Pages

All business websites need several basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your health or medical-related website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery endocrinology, plastic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, renal, urology, eye diseases day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, oral health, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, fertility services, speech therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, 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 the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your business and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Your Team

Are you searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online or get prospects to interact more on your site? Then help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team 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 employees. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily create and add a directory of employees or team members in your site using a free plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: Tutorial: How To Add A Staff List Directory

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within the organization. It could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your business, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or 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 the page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is essential.

It should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you operate from several locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related 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 content like news and events, product releases, educational information, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your business.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help deliver a stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health website 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 Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global business economy, the sooner you start publishing content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information, advice or tips, you will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you can publish content about include the following:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• What salad dressings can derail your diet (and healthier choices)
• And endless other content topics

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

Remember to use the same keywords in your content that prospective clients will be searching for 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your health business.

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

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers 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 providing valuable content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content just search online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of RSS feeds you could add to a medical or 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 select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. Haematologica, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, TheLancet.com, Toxicological Sciences, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, 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 news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, 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 - Get many health-related RSS feeds 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. 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 RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Mental Health, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Digestion, Heart, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured 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. Public Health, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Health Insurance, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Nutrition/Diet, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “bacteria rss feeds”, “asthma rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Charts and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific 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, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your site that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of section one of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your medical business web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Health & Medical Clinic Services Web Presence – Part 2

***

***