Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services providers face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing a business online.

Challenges Professional Medical Services Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical services practitioners must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd and source new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that can drive new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and increase their reach online.

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

One other problem that medical professionals face with their websites, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help users find what they are looking for or they will leave and go 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-Related Businesses Online

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical industry that can evolve to meet online economy demands and who can think outside the box in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn about a number of ways to drive more traffic and establish online credibility for your medical or health business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your medical business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your health or medical-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for medical-related sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed guide we have written here: Planning Your Business Web Site - A Cost-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology hematology, cosmetic surgery, geriatric medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, dental implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, oral health, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive services, rehabilitation, neurosciences, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It should include any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s qualifications, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an updatable simple team members directory to your site with no coding skills required, go here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within the organization. It could include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information about new career opportunities in the health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide social proof for your business.

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

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews, refer to this article: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions With Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information:

• Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat feature

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

You can also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, educational videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical business.

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

You may not be aware of this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will deliver new visitors to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vitally important for medical professionals organizations 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 breaching local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whichever region you do business.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By providing great content with useful information, advice and tips, you will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• What processed foods can ruin your diet (and healthier choices)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use keywords and terms in your articles that your 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a health or medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, 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 list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, PsychiatryOnline Journals, BMJ Medical Humanities, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations press releases, food safety reports, product recalls, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Arthritis, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Eyesight, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Vascular, Fibromyalgia, Veterinary, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Allergy, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “medicaid rss feeds”, “nursing rss feeds”, “personal monitoring rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and charts are also great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can address subjects such as:

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of part one.

Click here to continue:

• Your Medical Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

***

***