Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for the health industry.

Challenges Medical Services Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to allocate a bigger portion of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that will bring in clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and give your business wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change over time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical practitioners face online (and most professions for that matter), is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health practices that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think strategically about marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn new ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your health business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical business website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Mastering WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We show you what pages a health website needs, what content works best for medical websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, visit this page: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to structure your health-related website for best results.

Services Page

You need to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page could list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics haematology, plastic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, renal, gastroenterology, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, physiotherapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This 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 include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very 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 specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’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.

(Add a staff description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily add an updatable list directory of employees in your site using free WP plugins, go here: Adding A Staff List Directory To WordPress: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Work For Us

This is a listing of job opportunities within your company. It can include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Highly Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

It should provide some or all of the following information about your center:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address of clinic
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you operate out of several areas you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like news and announcements, updates, training information, discussions on current topics, educational videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and your blog.

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help attract targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

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

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations in whatever area or location you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical-related site 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 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 Linking Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Provide great content with useful information, advice or tips that will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• What processed foods can ruin your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terms 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website 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 visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your 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
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of 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.

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

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Human Molecular Genetics, BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food safety, pet health, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Men’s health, Cold & Flu, Diabetes, Digestion, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News 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. Anxiety/Stress, Stroke, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Dermatology, Diabetes, Dyslexia, Statins, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “stem cell research rss feeds”, “irritable-bowel syndrome rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health-related website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps done. Forms and checklists are great educational tools.

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

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

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health website that improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing A Medical-Related Online – Part 2

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