Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals today face increasing challenges.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical practitioners must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the medical industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards developing and maintaining a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give them wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical-related businesses face online (as do most other professions for that matter), is that they have only around thirty seconds to help users find the information they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Health And Medical Services Providers

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for health practices that are willing to evolve to meet online economy demands and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their services better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to generate web traffic and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your medical or health-related website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Potential Clients
• The Beginner’s Guide To Building A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by covering some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a medical-related site needs, what type of content works best for medical or health-related sites, tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: Planning Your Small Business Website: A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to set up your medical or health-related website for best results.

Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery hematology, cancer, incontinence, respiratory, endoscopy, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, restorations, implants, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, physiotherapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, assisted living, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It should also include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Our Team

Are you looking for ideas to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add a list of staff members in your site, see this tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It would include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your business, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health industry.

Include also a positions available section in this 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 And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to are also establishing social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using client case studies and client reviews, refer to this article: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

It should provide visitors with the following information about your center:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat

If your business operates in multiple locations you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news, updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical services.

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

You probably don’t know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin driving targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

For more details:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing great content with useful advice, information or tips will get your visitors sharing your information with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about your services.

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

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• How to 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 services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving user experience (known as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with 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 plenty of benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing information on your website from other websites, 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 medical-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some 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 also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food allergy reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, radiological health, 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 many feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Menopause, Cold & Flu, Oral Health, Digestion, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News 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. Anxiety/Stress, Pain/Anesthetics, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Emergency Medicine, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “medical insurance rss feeds”, “lymphoma rss feeds”, “dementia rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps done. Forms and checklists can also be great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms (or links to these) covering topics 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, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your medical or health-related site using WordPress plugins that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of part one.

To continue reading, click this link:

• The Ultimate Guide To Building And Growing A Medical Services & Health Clinic Web Presence – Part 2

***

***