Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionized the way business is done around the world, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for the medical industry.

Online Challenges For Health Businesses

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to grow your business online.

As well as investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the medical-related industry are now also finding that they need to delegate a larger portion of their budget to develop and manage a website that brings new prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to give them a wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change in time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical professionals (and other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds to provide visitors with what they are looking for 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

Online Opportunities For Medical Services Practitioners

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

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to generate more traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical or health-related website or blog.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Small Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for medical websites, navigation structure, etc.

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

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services Description Page

You need a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology endocrinology, cancer, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, natural therapy, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive services, speech therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team

Are you searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online or get prospects to interact more with your site? Then help your visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each person’s expertise, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your web site without messing with code here: How To Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

List any job or career opportunities within the organization. It could include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

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

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using client case studies and client reviews to grow your business online here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your consulting practice:

• Name Of Your Business
• Location of business
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Online Chat/Skype

If you operate from multiple locations you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like announcements, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin driving new visitors to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Pages

As a professional business, having a compliant website is very important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened in whatever area you do business.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your health-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Provide useful content with advice, information or tips that will get your readers to share your web pages with others online and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could publish content about include the following:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Low carb diet, South Beach diet, Volumetrics diet (what these are, how they work, are they effective)
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

Remember to include the same keywords and terminology in your content that your readers will be searching for online.

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

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps 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

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

If you provide useful content, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

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

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for medical-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or 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 also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, 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 leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, RadioGraphics, Radiology, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food allergy reports, tainted products, 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 feeds on health-related news and topics 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. Fitness & 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. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Exercise & Fitness, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Acid Reflux/GERD, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Flu/Cold/SARS, Back Pain, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “cardiovascular rss feeds”, “sleep disorders rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and medical forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps completed. Forms and checklists are great client instructional tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms, charts and checklists covering areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to build your medical web presence.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Medical Practice Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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