Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses in the medical or health sector.

Challenges Professional Health And Medical Services Practitioners Face Online

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

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health-related industry are now also finding that they need to assign a bigger amount of their budget towards the development and management of a website that drives clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and creates wider 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 it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other problem that health organizations face (as do other businesses for that matter), is that you have only about 30 seconds or less to give users 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 The Medical & Health Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical or health businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their business better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business results online.

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

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Medical & Health Practice Services Site

We’ll start first by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services And Products

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, stroke, respiratory, infection control, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, x-ray, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It’s important to list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

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

(Make sure to add an employee description page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of employees or team members in WordPress without using code, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the practice. It can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or sponsored by your business, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online here: Create Better Results Online With Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

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

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Phone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Chat feature

If you operate out of multiple locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical clinic.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin to deliver new targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever your practice is located.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with useful information, tips or advice that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you can cover in your web content include:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• What calories really are and how understanding them helps in weight loss
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, Raw Food diet, Jenny Craig diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your health-related business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• 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. Body image, 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 RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Journal of Cell Biology, BMJ Tobacco Control, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, health fraud, product recalls, animal and veterinary news, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related news 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. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Exercise & Fitness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Blood/Hematology, Aid/Disasters, Bones/Orthopedics, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “nuclear medicine rss feeds”, “prostate rss feeds”, “dementia rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Provide Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and charts can provide useful information and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and charts can also be great educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic 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.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can also help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to keep reading:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing A Medical Practice Presence Online Successfully – Part 2

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