Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised businesses globally, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for medical-related businesses.

Challenges Medical & Health Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, health and medical services practitioners must work hard to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that can attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and give your business wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and some areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that health-related businesses face, as do all other professions for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are looking for 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 & Health Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related industry that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn opportunities to attract more visitors and build more online credibility for your medical-related business.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using A WordPress Blog

Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a medical-related website needs, what content works best for health sites, ways of improving your navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this article: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

All business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your medical website for best results.

Description Of Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, urology, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, optical services, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

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

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for ideas to sell more products or services online, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a simple and easily updatable list directory of employees or team members to a WordPress site using a free plugin here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

List any job opportunities available within your business. It would include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical or health 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

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

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content such as announcements, updates, useful articles, informative posts, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your business.

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that will begin driving new targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

As a professional health services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or 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 Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. You can learn more about this here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to publish content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Provide great content with tips, information or advice that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you can cover in your web content include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How small efforts in portion control can help your weight loss efforts
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• What salad dressings can derail your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include keywords in your content that readers will search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide useful content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of 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.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, search online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health 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 specific 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 directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Nutrition Journal, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information updates, food safety reports, tainted products, cosmetics, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Get many feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Senior Health, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Vascular, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Dermatology, Food Intolerance, Allergy, Genetics, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “mesothelioma rss feeds”, “leukemia rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Charts and checklists are great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering areas such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this guide, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your website that improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• Grow Your Health Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins

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