Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health or medical professionals face many new challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing a successful business online.

Online Challenges For Health Professionals

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

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical-related industry are now finding that they will need to designate a more significant share of their marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that will bring new prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help to give them a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical practitioners face with their websites, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to give visitors what they are looking for or they will 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

Opportunities For Medical & Health Services

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical businesses that can adapt to meet online economy challenges and who can think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will discover opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Small Business With A WordPress Blog

How To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best for medical-related sites, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, check out the guide we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Products And Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, neurosurgery haematology, cancer, geriatric medicine, rheumatology, urology, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, meditation, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, rehabilitation, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to 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 these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

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

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

Meet Our Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your person’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.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-update list directory of employees in WordPress without messing around with code here: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

List any job or career opportunities within the organization. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You can include case studies of recruits who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical and health 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Location of business
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

If your business services different areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as events, updates, training information, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical company.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can begin to deliver targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to know more about this here:

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

Legal Information

It’s crucially important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

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

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

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could write content about include:

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and suggestions
• 10 tips that will help you avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your medical or health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include the keywords in your articles that your readers would search for 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 exactly 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 100% FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of medical-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• 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 specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Applied Physiology, BMJ Heart, BMJ Medical Humanities, The Journal of Physiology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations press releases, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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 - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Asthma, Neurology, Oral Health, Digestion, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News 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. MRSA/Drug Resistance, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Menopause, Endocrinology, Women’s Health/Gynecology, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “stroke rss feeds”, “body aches rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to complete a necessary task. Forms and checklists can also be great educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists, charts and forms covering topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• 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, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your medical or health-related website that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to grow your medical-related web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Build And Grow A Health Practice Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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