Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals today face many challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Medical And Health Services Professionals

Today, more than ever, health practices must find smarter ways to stand out from their competition and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health or medical-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated to develop and manage a website that will drive leads, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and give you wider reach online.

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

Another challenge that medical or health-related organizations (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help users find 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

Online Opportunities For Health-Related Businesses Online

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related sector that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover new ways to attract new visitors and see noticeable improvements in your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section looks at how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best for health-related websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

Professional business websites require some essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology endocrinology, cosmetic surgery, incontinence, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – 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 therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, optical services, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to include any medical-related awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Team

If you are searching for simple ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual staff 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 outline each employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-update list of staff or team members in your web site using free WordPress plugins, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your business. This page could include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the health industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also establishes social proof online.

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

To learn more about using client testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: How To Improve Your Sales Using More Effective Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should include the following:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business operates in multiple locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You should also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as announcements, new releases, educational information, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established medical or health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your business.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can instantly begin delivering an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional health practitioner, ensuring that you have a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Adding the legal pages below to your medical-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water 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 Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By providing useful content with advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages online and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide products that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure sustainable weight loss
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• A guide to making the right choices when eating in restaurants
• And endless other content topics

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

Include keywords in your content that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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 visitor engagement and UX.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your website.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, search online for health or medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some examples of feeds you could consider adding to a medical-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, PsychiatryOnline Journals, RadioGraphics, The Journal of Physiology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 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 feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), recalls, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Neurology, Depression, Exercise & Fitness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Acid Reflux/GERD, Sexual Health/STDs, Pancreatic Cancer, Endocrinology, Biology/Biochemistry, Statins, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “pain management rss feeds”, “epilepsy rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Adding Online Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are great client educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Others could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can add to your medical or health-related site that can also help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part 2, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Services And Health Center Website – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors With WordPress Plugins & Themes

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