Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals face a number of challenges in the web economy, especially in terms of growing a successful business presence online.

Challenges Health Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for smarter ways to promote your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated to developing and managing a website that will drive new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that health organizations face with their websites (as most professions do for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds to provide users with what they need or they will find what they are looking for 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 Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to health or medical practices that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and can think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn new ways to attract more bookings and improve your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health or medical-related business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your medical-related business website or blog.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Practice Site

This section covers ways to improve your medical-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for medical or health-related websites, ways of improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process - A Money-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Essential Pages

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

Products And Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, pulmonology haematology, reconstructive surgery, aged care, renal, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, hearing, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, natural therapy, meditation, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also mention any professional awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to interact more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. 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 won’t be familiar with health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, 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 an employee page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-manage list of staff members in your web site using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information about new career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also helps to establish social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. If you are interested in learning more about this here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Standout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat

If your business operates in several locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, useful articles, informative posts, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical organization.

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

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that will begin to attract targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your site)

For more info, see this article:

• WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Web Visitors Automatically

Legal Information

It’s crucially important 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 wherever you do business.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with tips, information or advice that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if you provide products that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, minerals, fats, vitamins)
• What are calories and how understanding them aids in weight loss
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your articles 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 site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve User Experience

Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

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 kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just search online for medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical or health 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, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, JAMA & Archives, CDC USA, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many health-related RSS feeds 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 safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, tobacco news, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Chronic Pain, Depression, Digestion, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Caregivers/Homecare, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Conferences, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Women’s Health/Gynecology, Statins, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “bacteria rss feeds”, “back pain rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Charts and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary tasks. They can also be great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can also help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1.

To continue, click here:

• The Complete Guide To Building And Growing A Health-Related Web Presence – Part Two

***

***