Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For The Health & Medical Profession

Now, more than ever, medical practitioners must work harder to stand out from the crowd and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to developing and managing a website that can bring new leads, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help them gain a wider degree of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change over time and many aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that medical or health organizations face online, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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 Health & Medical Businesses

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn ways to attract more business and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) 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:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing A Business Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Medical Site

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical-related website needs, what type of content works best for medical websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to set up your medical website for best results.

Services And Products Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics hematology, maxillofacial surgery, hyperbaric medicine, rheumatology, gastroenterology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home 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 why they should choose you.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.

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

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

Your Staff Page

Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your 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 ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-update simple employee directory in your site without using code, see this tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory In WordPress

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within your organization. It should include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your company and information about additional career opportunities in the health or medical-related 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 your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof online.

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Live chat feature

If you have different areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as announcements, updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

You may not have been told about this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can help begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

For more info, see this article:

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

Legal Pages

It’s important for medical and health services practitioners companies 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 you are not breaching laws or regulations in whichever area you service.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your 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 Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. For more info, see this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key business differentiators.

By providing useful content with information, advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide products that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can cover in your web content include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, GI diet, Jenny Craig diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords in your content that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable information, other sites 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 feed can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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 RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), JAMA & Archives, Neurology India, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, American Institute of Biological Sciences, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Mental Health, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Digestion, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Vascular, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Dermatology, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Epilepsy, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “gerd rss feeds”, “back pain rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and medical forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They can also be great client educational tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Others could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to improve your health-related business web presence.

To continue reading, click this link:

• The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Medical Services & Health Clinic Web Presence Successfully – Part 2

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