Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized business worldwide, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for businesses in the medical or health sector.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services professionals must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to market your health services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts new leads, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their presence 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 it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical businesses (and all other businesses) face, is that they have around thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are searching 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 Health Services

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical sector that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box when it comes to marketing their services better online.

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

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

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Services & Health-Related Site

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best for health-related websites, suggestions for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide we have written: How To Plan Your Small Business Website: A Money-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your medical-related website for best results.

Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services or products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, hyperbaric medicine, renal, bariatric surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, neurosciences, 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 these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community services, etc.

Remember to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online or increase user interaction on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected staff members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in a WordPress site without coding skills here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities

List any job or career opportunities within your practice. It could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also provides potential clients with social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, refer to this article: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Captivating Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services multiple locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can begin to drive targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Get More Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional health services practitioner, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you practice.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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 on adding legal pages to your website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By providing great content with tips or information, you will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides services that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Tips for developing an exercise regime you can enjoy and will stick with
• 10 tips that will help you curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients would search to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of 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 many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could add to a health or medical-related site:

• 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. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Heart health and stroke, 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. Nucleic Acids Research, ADA DiabetesCare , Obesity, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information updates, food allergy reports, tainted products, radiological health, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news 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 – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Arthritis, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Eyesight, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Pancreatic Cancer, COPD, Cleft Palate, 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 subjects, e.g. “hematology rss feeds”, “diabetes rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical website’s UX.)

Adding Online Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete steps. Forms and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other tools would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1.

Click here to access Part 2:

• Your Medical & Health Practice Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

***

***