Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical or health industry.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your health services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the medical-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that can bring new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give them wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website 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 the needs of your website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other problem that health or medical organizations face with their websites (and all other professions for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they need or they will look 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 Medical Services Practitioners In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health profession that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about opportunities to attract new potential clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your medical-related business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Mastering WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips To Improve Your Health Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for health or medical-related websites, ways to improve layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, go here: How To Plan A Web Site: A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Your Products And Services

You need a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics haematology, oncology, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, x-ray, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, holistic medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, fertility services, physiotherapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

Remember to also include any medical-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site, then help your prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory in WordPress using a free plugin, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Recruitment

List any job opportunities available within the practice. It would include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health or medical-related 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is vitally important.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Location of business
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Interactive chat (optional)

If your business services several areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as events, product releases, useful articles, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical website is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your website and blog.

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will begin delivering web traffic to your web site, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial for health providers businesses to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever your practice is located.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing useful content with great tips or information, you will get your visitors sharing your information online and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can write content about include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• The role portion control plays in helping you achieve weight loss results
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

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

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 loads of useful content for your website, search online for medical-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to your site:

• 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 select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), American Cancer Society, Radiology, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, tobacco news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• 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 feeds in places like the NYTimes 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Cholesterol, Pregnancy, Exercise & Fitness, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Dentistry, Sexual Health/STDs, Body Aches, Parkinson’s Disease, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “hematology rss feeds”, “diabetes rss feeds”, “genetics rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your health or medical-related site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Forms and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can 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, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your users. Calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this detailed guide, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can also help to improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to grow your health business web presence.

To continue, click here:

• Online Business Tips For Medical Professionals – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins And Themes

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