Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services practitioners today face many new challenges thanks to the online economy.

Challenges Medical And Health Businesses Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for smarter ways to grow your practice online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to give your business wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical services providers face with their websites (and all other professions for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds to give users what they need or they will look 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 Health & Medical Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that can adapt to meet online economy demands and think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will discover ways to attract and engage more visitors and create significant improvements in your online results.

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

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

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money
• WordPress In Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

This section explains ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best, your navigation structure, etc.

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

How To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

You need a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery endocrinology, oncology, aged care, renal, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, radiology and imaging, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, hydrotherapy, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community 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 why they should choose you.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

Remember to list any medical or health-related awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust 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. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

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

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update simple team directory in your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

This is a listing of job opportunities within your organization. This page would include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your business, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Maintain 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

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

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

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online here: Improve Your Conversions With Sales Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature

If your business services several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like news, updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your company.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will help begin to drive new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to learn more about this here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws or regulations in whichever location you provide services.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with information or tips, you will get your readers to share your information and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover in your web content include:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terms in your content that your readers will be searching to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to 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 relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds containing useful information that you could add to a health or medical-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, BMJ Medical Humanities, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, American Institute of Biological Sciences, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, product recalls, tobacco news, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Cholesterol, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured 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. Cystic Fibrosis, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Pancreatic Cancer, Nursing/Midwifery, Breast Cancer, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “obstetrics rss feeds”, “diagnostics rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Provide Downloadable Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. They are great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, for example are useful tools to add to your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your health website using WordPress plugins that can also help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Medical Services & Health Practice Website – Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins

***

***