Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical services professionals today are facing an ever growing number of challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Health And Medical Practitioners

Now, more than ever, health and medical services practitioners must work harder to remain competitive and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your medical services online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that will bring in prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase their marketing reach 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 it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and many areas may need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that health professionals face with their websites (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that you have only about 30 seconds to help users find 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 And Health Services Practitioners

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn opportunities to generate new bookings and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical or health-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical And Health Center Site

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, ways to improve your site’s navigation structure, etc.

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

Essential Pages

Professional websites need several basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services Description Page

You need a page that describes 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. anaesthetics, pulmonology haematology, plastic surgery, stroke, renal, bariatric surgery, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, radiology and imaging, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. 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 Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for simple ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then help your prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can 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)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your site using a free plugin here: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within the business. It could include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information about career opportunities in the medical or 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 this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof online for your business.

(Add a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article on using client testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Powerful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following information:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat

If your business operates in different areas you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

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 like news, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical organization.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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.

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress 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 selling similar products or services.

Provide useful content with great information, advice or tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

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

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, minerals, vitamins, fats)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Incorporating exercise into your weight loss program
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include the keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will search to find you online.

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

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your site.

If you provide content that adds value to others, 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could add to a medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Bionet RSS, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, American Chemical Society, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information updates, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products, drugs, 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) - Get various health-related feeds 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 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Cholesterol, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Prevention & Wellness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Lupus, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Biology/Biochemistry, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “lung cancer rss feeds”, “alcohol addiction rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary steps. Charts and checklists are great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Adding Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• A Practical Guide To Building And Growing A Health Practice Business Online – Part Two

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