Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for the health-related industry.

Challenges Health Services Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical and health services providers must find smarter ways to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the health or medical-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that will attract new prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and some areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that health and medical services providers face (and other businesses for that matter), is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to give visitors what they need or they will go away.

“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 And Medical Businesses

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical practices that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think outside the box in terms of marketing their business better online.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical-related website.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website

This section covers how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Page

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery hematology, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, respiratory, urology, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

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 book an appointment.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to list any medical or health-related awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff

Are you searching for simple ideas to grow your business online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in medical terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s experience, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory in your WordPress site using a free plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your clinic. This page can include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the medical 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.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof for your business.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Get Better Results Online With Standout User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information:

• Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature (optional)

If you have multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

You could also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, new releases, educational information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your services.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can help begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Information

It’s crucial to have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your medical or health site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You will want to provide useful content with advice or tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages online and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your services.

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

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• Tips for developing portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, GI diet, Weight Watchers diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• A guide to making the right choices when eating out at any restaurant
• Etc.

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

Use keywords in your content that your readers will search to find you 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your 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!

Improve User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your site.

If you provide useful information, other businesses will 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great information on your website 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 by visiting sites of medical-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a medical or health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Toxicological Sciences, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, recalls, radiological health, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find 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 RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Men’s health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Sexual Health, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. MRSA/Drug Resistance, Vascular, Surgery, Preventive Medicine, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Litigation/Medical Malpractice, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “mesothelioma rss feeds”, “diabetes rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Downloadable Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful information and resources to complete tasks. They can also be great educational tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your health or medical site using WordPress plugins that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• A Complete Guide To Building And Growing A Medical And Health Center Services Business Online Successfully – Part Two

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