Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services practitioners face a number of challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing a presence online.

Challenges Professional Medical Services Practitioners Face Online

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 maintain a strong presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to invest a bigger share of your marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that brings new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give you a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, 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 sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical practitioners face with their websites, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Related Businesses In The Digital Realm

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical businesses that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and can think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover ways to attract more potential clients and see noticeable improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on 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 the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Mastering WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health And Medical Center Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology haematology, reconstructive surgery, gerontology, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, occupational therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know you and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your website without touching code here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the clinic. It can include training, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted by your business, etc. You can also include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical industry.

Include also 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

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

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Sales Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates from several areas you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, new releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, educational videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market 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 act both as your business website and your blog.

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will drive web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to learn more here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Pages

As a professional health provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you do business.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your health or medical-related site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. To learn more, go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You want to provide great content with information, advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your information online 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 lose weight, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
• 3 tips that will help you avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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

Use keywords and terms in your articles that readers would search for.

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

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your medical-related business.

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 websites 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 and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable 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 visiting sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could consider adding to your 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 specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), Stem Cells, Occupational Medicine, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food allergies, product recalls, cosmetics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to 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 select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Chronic Pain, Depression, Exercise & Fitness, HIV, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Medical Insurance, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Cleft Palate, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “muscular dystrophy rss feeds”, “primary care rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps performed. Charts and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can address areas such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are useful tools to add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your website that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow A Medical Services And Health Clinic Online – Part Two

***

***