Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals today face difficult challenges brought about by the web economy.

Challenges Health Services Professionals Face Online

Now, more than ever, health services professionals must work hard to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to promote your services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that can drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and create a wider amount of reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

Another challenge that medical-related businesses (and most other professions) face, is that you have only about 30 seconds to help visitors find 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 And Health Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical profession that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think strategically in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

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

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical-related website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money
• WordPress For Business – An Online Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by covering the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, read this article we have written: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

Professional websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, pulmonology endocrinology, plastic surgery, neurology, renal, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, fertility services, speech language therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

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

About Us Page

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

It’s important to mention any business awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online, then help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your employee’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-maintain list of employees to your WordPress site with no coding skills required here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Work With Us

List any job opportunities available within the practice. This page could include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted by your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have risen within your company and information about career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Include also 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also provides social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article about using client testimonials and reviews get better results online. For more details, go here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat feature (optional)

If you operate from multiple areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news and announcements, updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site 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 business blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin to attract targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Website Visitors Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken wherever you provide services.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your medical or health-related website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You want to provide great content with useful information, tips or advice that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• The role portion control plays in helping you achieve weight loss results
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful content, 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site 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 useful content by searching online for health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a medical-related 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 choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, BMJ, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. consumer health information, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), pet health, tobacco news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Mental Health, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Lupus, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Dermatology, Transplants/Organ Donations, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Statins, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “anaesthetics rss feeds”, “AIDS rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary steps. Checklists and charts can also be great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists, charts and forms (or links to these) covering topics such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your medical-related site that can also help to improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your health or medical-related business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• A Complete Guide To Successfully Growing A Health Clinic Business Online – Part Two

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