Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals today are facing difficult challenges thanks to the web economy.

Online Challenges For The Health And Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to grow your medical or health services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to assign a more significant share of your budget to develop and maintain a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give your business a wider degree of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that health-related organizations face online, as do other businesses for that matter, is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 Professionals

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

In this article, you will learn ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your medical or health-related business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your medical or health-related business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website

This section will show you how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, see this article: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology blood disorders, oncology, aged care, respiratory, urology, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical transport, 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 the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

It should list any health-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff Page

If you are searching for simple ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in 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 mean. It should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your person’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory in your website without messing around with code, refer to this tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the clinic. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, refer to this article: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide the following information:

• Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat (optional feature)

If your business services different areas you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news and announcements, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin driving a stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Providing great content with useful tips, advice or information will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more content. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthier diet plan
• And many other content topics

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

Include keywords and terminology 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 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites will 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website 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-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical-related 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 specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, BMJ Injury Prevention, Neurology.org, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, recalls, drugs, 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 - Get various health-related 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Cold & Flu, Diabetes, Digestion, Hearing, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. MRSA/Drug Resistance, Stroke, ADHD/ADD, Veterinary, Bones/Orthopedics, Dyslexia, Huntingtons Disease, 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. “homecare rss feeds”, “SARS rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps completed. Checklists and forms can also be great client educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can include topics such as:

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

Unique Tools

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

In part two of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

To view Part Two, click here:

• How To Build And Grow A Health Clinic Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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