Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and opportunities for health services practitioners.

Online Challenges For Health Services Practitioners

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to grow your health services online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health or medical-related businesses, you will need to allocate a larger share of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that will bring new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help you gain wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical organizations face online (and most other businesses for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will leave and go 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 Health & Medical Businesses

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health or medical-related practices that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

The guide below will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more clients and create significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your health-related business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress In Business – An Online Guide To Building A Successful Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Health Website

This section covers ways to improve your health website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what content you need, ways to improve your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, see this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: How To Plan Your Business Web Site: A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require some basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery haematology, oral surgery, incontinence, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, optometry day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, natural therapy, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community services, etc.

Remember to also include any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your business and to position yourself above the competition.

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

Your Team

If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily add an updatable list of employees or team members to your web site using free WP plugins, see this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your business. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical and health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

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

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

If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content like the latest announcements, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your business.

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will begin driving targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

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

To learn more about this go here:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information

Having a compliant website is vitally important. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health-related website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing useful content with information, advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• Apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

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

Improving Visitor Experience

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

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

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing content 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 RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds you could add to your 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 choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, Journal of Biological Chemistry, BMJ Injury Prevention, The Journal of Physiology, Pediatrics, 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 topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get 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 (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diabetes, Eyesight, Thyroid, etc.)
• Medical News Today – 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. Eye Health/Blindness, Stroke, Sexual Health/STDs, Emergency Medicine, Heart Disease, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “surgery rss feeds”, “cholesterol rss feeds”, “ear, nose and throat rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Adding Checklists

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Charts and checklists can provide step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary tasks. Charts and checklists are also great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could address topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your website that can also help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one of this article on ways to grow your medical-related business web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Grow Your Medical And Health Practice Website – Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic Using Plugins And Themes

***

***