Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services providers today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For Health Professionals

Now, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the medical or health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to create a wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web 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 will change in time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical organizations (and most professions) face, is that they have only around thirty seconds to help users find what they are searching for or they will look 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 Practitioners

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn a number of ways to generate new clientele and see significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical-related website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Clinic Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health site needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Basic Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your health or medical website for best results.

Products And Services Page

You need to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, pulmonology endocrinology, cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, bariatric surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, hydrotherapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet The Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in health terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of employees or team members in your web site without messing around with code, refer to this tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

Recruitment

This is a listing of job opportunities within your organization. It should include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have worked their way up in your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online. To learn more about this go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business operates from different areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news, updates, educational articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an medical or health website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical organization.

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help attract a stream of targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

For more details:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional medical provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive online business economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with useful information, advice and tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. This is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to get support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, GI diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthy diet plan
• Etc.

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

Remember to include the same keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of medical or health-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• 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 individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, BMJ Heart, Neurology India, Journal of Cell Science, Infectious Agents and Cancer, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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) - Find many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – 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, Mental Health, Neurology, Diabetes, Prevention & Wellness, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT 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. Stem Cell Research, Acid Reflux/GERD, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Conferences, Back Pain, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “dentistry rss feeds”, “medical malpractice rss feeds”, “premature ejaculation rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Charts and checklists can give them useful information and resources to complete necessary tasks. They can also be great educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral 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 stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are great tools to add to your website. Other applications could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part 2, click here:

• The Ultimate Guide On How To Successfully Grow Your Health Practice Services Business Online Using WordPress – Part 2

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