Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised businesses around the world, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health services.

Challenges Health Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical professionals must work hard to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to market your practice online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to invest a larger share of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can drive clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase your reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical providers face with their websites, as do most other professions for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to help visitors find what they are looking for or they will 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

Online Opportunities For Medical Services Professionals

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical sector that can adapt to meet digital demands and can think progressively about marketing their services better online.

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

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health-related business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your medical website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Business
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, see this guide: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services or products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology hematology, oncology, stroke, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, sexual 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 these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

Remember to list any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Your Staff

Are you looking for quicker and easier ideas to grow your business online? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know you, your team and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in health 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 so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your person’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable directory of staff members to your web site using free plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any job opportunities available within the company. It would include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with testimonials and case studies also provides social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Sales Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide:

• Company Name
• Address of premises
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Online chat

If you operate in several areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as announcements, updates, useful articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your clinic.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your business website and business blog.

You probably don’t know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can help drive new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucially important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding the legal pages below to your medical or health site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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 about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you start to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with advice, information or tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover in your web content include:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure lifetime weight loss
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, Mediterranean diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• 3 tips that will help you curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide useful content, other sites may 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other websites, 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds you could add to your 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 choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, 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 list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, BMJ, CDC USA, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related news like enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: 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 – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Depression, Digestion, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Autism, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Mental Health, Genetics, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “abortion rss feeds”, “midwifery rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and charts can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to build your health or medical-related web presence.

Click on this link to access the rest of this guide:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Successfully Build And Grow A Health Practice Services Website Using WordPress – Part 2

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