Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services practitioners today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, medical or health-related practices must find smarter ways to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your services online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, businesses in the medical-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their presence online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and many aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical and health services practitioners face, as all other professions do for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help users find the information they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 The Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health or medical businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and think outside the box in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn about new ways to source more bookings and establish online credibility for your medical 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 business website.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow Your Business Online

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Services & Health-Related Site

This section will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a medical or health site needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  should have and how to structure your health or medical-related website for best results.

Services Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, nephrology endocrinology, cosmetic surgery, geriatric medicine, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, hearing, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to also list any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff

If you are searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A 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 biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s experience, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

If you need help how to create and add a list of staff or team members in your site using free plugins, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities

List any job or career opportunities within your practice. This page could include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the health industry.

Maintain 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, see this article: How To Create Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat feature

If you have multiple areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as events, new releases, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and blog.

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin delivering a stream of targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being broken in whatever location you provide services.

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

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

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors free of charge has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing useful content with tips, information or advice will get your readers to share your information with others and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the areas you can write content about include:

• Being overweight vs. being obese – what are the differences?
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• How to develop an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthier diet plan
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable 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 website using content marketing. 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 website user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

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

Here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your website:

• 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. Breast cancer, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Violence against women, 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. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Neuroanatomy, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 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 health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information, health fraud, pet health, animal and veterinary news, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (www.gov.uk) – 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many feeds on health-related news 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. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Exercise & Fitness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Fibromyalgia, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Men’s Health, Litigation/Medical Malpractice, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “eye health rss feeds”, “cholesterol rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Provide Charts And Checklists

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete steps. They are also great educational tools.

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

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

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

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

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to build your health or medical business web presence.

Click on this link to read Part Two:

• Tips For Medical Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins & Themes That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site

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