Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering medical-related services.

Challenges Professional Medical Services Providers Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to market your services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete with other health-related businesses, you will need to invest a larger amount of your budget towards the development and management of a website that will attract prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give you wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website may change in time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health or medical businesses face online, as do most businesses for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to help users find what they need or they will go away.

“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 Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to health or medical businesses that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will discover ways to attract and engage new visitors and create significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your business online, 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, go here:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for medical sites, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Essential Website Pages

Professional websites require some essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your medical-related website for best results.

Products And Services Page

It’s essential to have 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:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery blood disorders, plastic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, endoscopy, optometry day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, natural therapy, meditation, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, community contributions, etc.

Remember to also include any business awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online and get people to interact more with your site, then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in health or medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a team profile page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable simple team members directory in your website using a free plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of job opportunities available within your practice. This page could include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include information about career opportunities in the medical or health-related 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, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide social proof for your business.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online here: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions With Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services several areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like announcements, updates, training information, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an health or medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical practice.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health-related site is hard to keep updated with new content or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and business blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whatever area you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical or health website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• 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

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors at no cost has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

Providing useful content with advice and tips will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure permanent weight loss
• Tips for developing an exercise regimen you can enjoy and will stick with
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your medical or health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers will be searching for 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your site.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Allows for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• 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.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, 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. Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, European Heart Journal, American Chemical Society, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, 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 topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, food allergies, recalls, foods, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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 various health-related news feeds 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. Fitness and 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 select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Asthma, Cold & Flu, Depression, Digestion, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – 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. Eating Disorders, Multiple Sclerosis, Sexual Health/STDs, Menopause, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Mental Health, Psychology/Psychiatry, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “colorectal cancer rss feeds”, “AIDS rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Charts and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Forms and checklists are great instructional tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms covering a range of topics such as:

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

Adding Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your medical-related site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to build your health-related business web presence.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Successfully Grow A Health Clinic Web Presence – Part Two

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