Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for medical businesses.

Challenges Professional Health Services Providers Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved 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 medical services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy medical or health-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to developing and managing a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create a wider amount of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical services professionals face with their websites, as most other professions do for that matter, is that they have only around thirty seconds to give users what they are looking for or they will leave the site.

“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 Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related industry that can evolve to meet digital demands and think strategically when it comes to marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and establish online credibility for your health-related business.

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

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Center Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services And Products

You need a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery diabetes, cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, urology, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, x-ray, women’s health, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

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

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

Core Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know 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 employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s qualifications, how their skills 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 ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-update simple staff directory in your website with no coding skills required here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Recruitment Page

List any job opportunities within your company. It can include training offered, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your business, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Include also 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps to provide social proof online.

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

If you would like to learn more about using client case studies and client reviews get better results online, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales With Awesome Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

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

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live Chat/Skype

If your business operates in different locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as announcements, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

If you would like to know more about this here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

As a professional business, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

Depending on the services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more, go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Content

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

Providing useful content with great tips, advice and information will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could write about include the following:

• 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 they play a role in weight loss
• Why using a measuring tape is better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• And many other content topics

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

Use keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your 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 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving website 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 visitor engagement and user experience.

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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.

To find RSS feeds with useful content just search online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. Rheumatology, Neuroanatomy, BMJ Medical Humanities, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various 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 feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT 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. Eating Disorders, Vascular, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Biology/Biochemistry, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “ebola rss feeds”, “autism rss feeds”, “huntingtons disease rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your health-related site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great educational tools.

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

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

Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to keep reading:

• How To Grow A Medical And Health Center Web Presence – Part Two

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