Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised the way business is done worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for health services providers.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to assign a bigger portion of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that will drive clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change over time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that health or medical-related organizations (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to help users find what they are looking for 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 The Medical Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical or health-related businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to drive more web traffic and create noticeable improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your medical-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow Your Business

Tips To Improve Your Medical Website

We’ll start first by going over some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your health-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health-related website needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics diabetes, cancer, incontinence, rheumatology, endoscopy, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, oral health, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, natural therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, stomal therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, hearing aids, 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 these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community activities, etc.

It’s important to also include any industry awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in medical or health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s experience, 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. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain list of staff members in your site using a free WP plugin here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within the company. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information about new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Include also 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 your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to are also providing social proof online for your business.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature

If your business services several areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, useful information, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing 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 your blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can begin attracting a stream of targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new visitors automatically to your site)

For more details, go here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Grow Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

It’s very important to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more, go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you start publishing great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice, information or tips that will get your readers to share your web pages with others and come back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• The role portion control plays in helping you your weight loss efforts
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will search 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 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 completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide valuable content, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website 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 health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are some feeds you could add to a medical-related 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. Breast cancer, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. Dermatology Times, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Journal of Cell Biology, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), 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 (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) - Get many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. 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. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Depression, Exercise & Fitness, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Pulmonary System, Blood/Hematology, Swine Flu, Food Intolerance, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “complementary medicine rss feeds”, “irritable-bowel syndrome rss feeds”, “drug trials rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Forms And Checklists

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and medical forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary steps. Forms and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can address topics such as:

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

Online Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets 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 applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this step-by-step guide on ways to grow your medical or health business web presence.

To view the rest of this article, click this link:

• Your Medical Clinic Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins And Themes

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