Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for the medical profession.

Challenges Professional Health And Medical Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the 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 maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your health or medical services services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the medical or health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to develop and manage a website that brings in prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to create wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web 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 may change in time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health practitioners face online (as other professions do for that matter), is that they have around thirty seconds to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“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

Online Opportunities For Health Services Practitioners

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health businesses that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover new opportunities to attract new client bookings and create noticeable improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your health-related business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Potential Clients And What To Do About It
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Practice Services Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, useful tips for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Basic Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites need several essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your medical or health website for best results.

Services

You need a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology blood disorders, plastic surgery, stroke, rheumatology, weight loss surgery, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, speech language therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to also list any business awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online, then help visitors get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. 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 biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health or medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each person’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)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees to your website with no coding skills required, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of job opportunities within your business. This page could include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have risen within your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the health and medical industry.

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

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to will also be providing potential clients with social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more using testimonials and reviews go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using More Effective User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates from several areas you should make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news and events, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical practice.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s very important for professional companies to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can write about include the following:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• What calories really are and how they play a role in weight loss
• 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 informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords in your articles that readers will search for.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for health and medical-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your 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 choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, Neurology India, Occupational Medicine, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, product recalls, 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 - Find various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: 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 – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Digestion, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Fertility, Surgery, Body Aches, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Tropical Diseases, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “nephrology rss feeds”, “dyslexia rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your health-related website’s UX.)

Add Online Checklists & Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and medical forms can provide useful information and resources to perform necessary steps. They can also be great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools to add to your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

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

Click on this link to continue:

• Grow Your Medical Services And Health Center Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website Using WordPress Plugins & Themes

***

***