Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals face many challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Online Challenges For Health Professionals

Today, more than ever, health services professionals must work hard and find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to market your practice online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that will attract prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give your business a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your website layout 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 frequently updated. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical services providers face online, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to give users what they need 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 Medical & Health Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover new opportunities to generate new business and create noticeable improvements in your business presence online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Potential Clients And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical And Health Practice Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best for medical-related websites, suggestions for improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical website, see this detailed guide: Planning Your Business Web Site: A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require some essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, pulmonology blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, aged care, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, restorations, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, reiki, meditation, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive services, occupational therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to 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 contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community projects, etc.

It’s important to include any industry awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are looking for simple ideas to grow your business online, then help your prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your person’s qualifications, how they add value or 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 staff page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an updatable simple team members directory in your WordPress site using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

List any job opportunities available within your organization. This page would include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Include also 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 and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps your medical business to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat feature

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

You should also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news and announcements, new releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical company.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin attracting new targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

It’s vital for professional companies to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your medical or health site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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
• etc.

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing useful content with advice, information and tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• Vitamins and minerals that help with weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use keywords in your content that your prospective clients will be searching to find you 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 or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website 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 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.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses may 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 content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of feeds containing useful information that you could add to a health or medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, 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. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), PsychiatryOnline Journals, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Chemical Society, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various RSS 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 FDA drug safety, food safety, recalls, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 - Find many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Medical Insurance, Veterinary, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Allergy, Tuberculosis, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “complementary medicine rss feeds”, “orthopedics rss feeds”, “dementia rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Charts and checklists can provide useful information and resources to get necessary steps performed. Charts and checklists are also great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we discuss a several WordPress plugins you can use in your website that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click here to access Part Two:

• Grow Your Medical Center Services Website – Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins

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