Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for businesses in the health or medical industry.

Challenges Professional Health Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical services practitioners must find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to allocate a larger amount of your budget to developing and managing a website that will drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change in time and some aspects may need to be updated often. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health or medical organizations face, and most other businesses for that matter, is that you have only about 30 seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking 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 Practitioners In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for medical or health-related practices that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think strategically about marketing their business better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover new ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health or medical-related business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

How To Improve Your Health And Medical Clinic Services Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical-related site needs, what content works best for medical-related websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: The Website Planning Process - A Basic Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to structure your health-related website for best results.

Services And Products Page

You need a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics hematology, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, hearing, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, functional medicine, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, occupational therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical supplies, 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 the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.

Remember to also list any medical or health-related awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and to position yourself above the competition.

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

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site? Then help your visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s experience, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to create and add a list of staff or team members to your web site without coding skills, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page can include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your organization, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about new career opportunities in the medical industry.

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

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also helps to provide social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: How To Create Better Results Online With More Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat/Skype

If your business operates in multiple areas you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as the latest announcements, updates, useful information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your business.

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will begin to drive web traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Increase Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Information Pages

As a professional medical or health services practitioner, having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding the legal pages below to your medical or health website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more, go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, content marketing has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing useful content with great information, tips and advice will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if your business provides services that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• Apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords in your content that your prospective clients will search for online.

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 web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Violence against women, 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. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), American Cancer Society, Neurology.org, Cambridge Journals Online, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information, food safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary news, 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 - Find various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Arthritis, Chronic Pain, Oral Health, Prevention & Wellness, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Seniors/Aging, Health Insurance, Conferences, Food Intolerance, Biology/Biochemistry, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “compliance rss feeds”, “heart disease rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Downloadable Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful information and resources to complete a task. Checklists and forms are great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Online Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can also help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part one of this article on ways to build your medical or health web presence.

Click here to access Part Two:

• Tips For Medical Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Visitors

***

***