Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical services practitioners today face increasingly difficult challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For The Health & Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, health or medical-related businesses must work harder to stand out from the crowd and find new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your medical services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to delegate a larger part of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives your business a wider degree of reach online.

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

One other problem that medical businesses face, as other professions do for that matter, is that they have around thirty seconds or less to provide users what they are looking for or they will leave the site and go 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

Online Opportunities For Health Providers

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health or medical-related practices that are willing to adapt to meet digital challenges and who can think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more traffic and improve your medical or health business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your health or medical business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Prospective Clients And What To Do About It
• WordPress In Small Business – An Online Guide To Building A Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Health And Medical Practice Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages a health or medical-related site needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: The Website Planning Process - A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

Professional business websites require some essential web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology diabetes, oncology, gerontology, respiratory, endoscopy, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, speech therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to also include any professional awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your business and set yourself above the competition.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online, then help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable simple team members directory to WordPress using free WordPress plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Work With Us

List any job or career opportunities within the business. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have risen within your business and information about upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

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

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business operates from different locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add A Medical Or Health Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, updates, educational information, informative posts, educational videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical practice.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s essential to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Provide great content with tips, information or advice that will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more content. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• Tips for developing a better eating and exercise regimen
• How to make smarter choices choices when eating at restaurants
• Etc.

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

Include keywords in your content that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (known 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.

Using RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for readers to 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 a number of benefits to providing information on your site 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 search online for health-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, Neuroanatomy, American Cancer Society, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, The New England Journal of Medicine, 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
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, health fraud, recalls, foods, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various RSS feeds on health-related topics 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.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Mental Health, Neurology, Pregnancy, Eyesight, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Medical Students/Training, Vascular, Compliance, Pancreatic Cancer, Primary Care/General Practice, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “HPV vaccine rss feeds”, “sleep disorders rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your medical website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Charts and checklists can provide visitors with useful information and resources to complete a task. They can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are popular tools for your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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

Click on this link to read Part 2:

• How To Build And Grow Your Health Services Presence Online Successfully – Part Two

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