Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical professionals today face increasing challenges.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical practitioners must find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now finding that they need to designate a more significant share of their marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that attracts new leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and many areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical services practitioners face online, as do most professions for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are searching for or they will leave your site.

“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 The Medical Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to medical businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your health-related business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical-related website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Tips To Improve Your Medical And Health Practice Services Site

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your medical or health website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for health or medical-related sites, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your health website for best results.

Your Services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery haematology, plastic surgery, aged care, respiratory, weight loss surgery, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, x-ray, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive services, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

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

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic donations, etc.

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

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not 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 specialized areas do. It should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in your site with no coding skills required, see this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within your company. This page would include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

Maintain 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat (optional)

If your business operates from different locations you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like events, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an medical or health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your company.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will deliver an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Website Traffic Automatically

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws or regulations wherever you practice.

Adding the following legal pages to your health website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

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

Provide great content with tips, advice or information that will get your visitors sharing your information online and coming back for more content. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your 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:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• 10 tips that will help you 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 gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that readers would search for.

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

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide content 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 sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 by visiting sites of medical-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of 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 also select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Pregnancy, 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. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Obesity, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, tobacco news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various 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 by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Diabetes, Sexual Health, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Pain/Anesthetics, Sexual Health/STDs, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Dyslexia, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “immune system rss feeds”, “dermatology rss feeds”, “oncology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Charts And Checklists

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and medical forms can provide useful information and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and charts can also be great instructional tools.

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

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

Provide Other Tools

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

In part two, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to build your medical-related business web presence.

Click on this link to view the rest of this article:

• Grow Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website – Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins & Themes

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