Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Professional Medical Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete with other health-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to develop and manage a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you create wider exposure online.

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

Another problem that medical organizations face (as other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to help users find the information they need or they will leave your site.

“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 Health Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about new opportunities to attract more visitors and build more online credibility for your health-related business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health-related web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health or medical-related website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Services & Health Center Site

This section explains how to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health website needs, what type of content works best for medical or health-related websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Your Web Pages

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

Your Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, nephrology blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, gastroenterology, optometry elective surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, medical imaging, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual 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 your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your business and position yourself above the competition.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online? Then help your visitors 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 staff members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to add an updatable simple employee directory in your website using a free WP plugin here: How To Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

We’re Hiring

List any job or career opportunities within the company. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your business, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online here: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide some or all of the following information about your clinic:

• Company Name
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business services multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health or medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your practice.

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

You are probably not aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will help attract targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your site)

For more details, go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive global business economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By providing great content with information, tips and advice, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords in your content that readers will be searching 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. 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 (generally referred to as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great content on your site from other sites, 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 medical-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you could add to your 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 individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, ADA (American Diabetes Association), The Journal of Immunology, The Journal of Physiology, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information updates, food safety, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary news, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• 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 by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Neurology, Pregnancy, Exercise & Fitness, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Compliance, Hearing/Deafness, Food Intolerance, Tropical Diseases, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “bipolar rss feeds”, “flu rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your medical-related site’s UX.)

Add Online Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform steps. Forms and checklists can also be great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful tools 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 tools can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to improve your medical-related business presence online.

Click here to continue:

• The Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Medical-Related Website – Part Two

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