Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised businesses around the world, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for health businesses.

Challenges Professional Medical Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated to developing and maintaining a website that can bring new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give your business wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

One other difficult challenge that medical or health-related organizations face (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about 30 seconds to give users 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 The Medical Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the health-related sector that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think strategically about marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will learn new ways and opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best for health or medical-related websites, useful tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Practical Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites need some basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology blood disorders, maxillofacial surgery, continence management, rheumatology, gastroenterology, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, holistic medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, 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 what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

This page should list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site using a free plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Staff Directory

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. This page would include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your business, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the medical 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, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps to establish social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews here: Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is essential.

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

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Live Chat/Skype

If you operate out of different areas you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established medical or health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical business.

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin driving targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever region you provide services.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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 detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide useful content with great tips or information that will get your readers sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide services that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure lifetime weight loss
• How to develop an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• Etc.

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

Include the keywords and terminology 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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful information, 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content on 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 just search online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, 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, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), RadioGraphics, Occupational Medicine, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, health fraud, product recalls, radiological health, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Sexual Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Cholesterol, Parkinson’s Disease, Allergy, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “ADHD rss feeds”, “nutrition rss feeds”, “hepatitis rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Charts and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary steps. Checklists and charts can also be great educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools for your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your health or medical business web presence.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Tips For Health Services Providers – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site Using Plugins & Themes

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