Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for health and medical services practitioners and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For The Health & Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other health or medical-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards developing and maintaining a website that attracts prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and many areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other difficult challenge that health and medical services professionals face online (as do most other professions for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 The Medical & Health Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical practices that can adapt to meet digital demands and can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

This guide will help you uncover new ways to generate more traffic and see significant improvements in your medical business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health or medical-related website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Clients
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, go here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

All business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics endocrinology, oral surgery, neurology, respiratory, urology, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, x-ray, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Our Team

If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospective clients need 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 brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple team directory to your website using a free WordPress plugin, see this tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page would include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted by your business, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online here: Achieve Better Results Online Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is vitally important.

It should include:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat (optional)

If you operate in multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like news, new releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that will help drive web traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Increase Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s really important to have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever you do business.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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 website. For more details, go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Provide great content with useful tips and information that will get your readers sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and suggestions
• What salad dressings can ruin your diet (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords in your content that readers will be searching to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Syndicate Content 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 sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by searching online for relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, Toxicological Sciences, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, food safety reports, tainted products, foods, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 - Get many feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Cold & Flu, Pregnancy, Eyesight, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Dentistry, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Menopause, Bones/Orthopedics, HIV/AIDS, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “ovarian cancer rss feeds”, “fitness rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Forms & Checklists

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could address topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators are useful tools to add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Medical And Health Clinic Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Site With Plugins And Themes

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