Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and Health professionals today face an ever increasing number challenges created by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Now, more than ever, health and medical services providers must work harder and find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and source new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the medical or health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that brings in clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give their business a wider marketing reach online.

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

Another difficult challenge that health-related businesses (and other professions) face, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information 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

Opportunities For Medical And Health Services Providers In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical profession that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business better online.

In this article, you will learn about a number of ways to attract new visitors and improve 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 to power your health-related business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for health or medical websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

Professional business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Services

You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, pulmonology haematology, cosmetic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory, infection control, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home 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 contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

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

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

Team Profile

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. 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 brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical or health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff description page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your site using free WP plugins here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within the practice. It would include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have risen within your business and information about additional 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, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews, see this article: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions With Awesome Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information about your consulting practice:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Live chat feature (optional)

If you operate out of different locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news and announcements, updates, useful articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help deliver a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Drive More Web Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s really important to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your health site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s fiercely competitive online business economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Provide useful content with great tips, information or advice that will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. This is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

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

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• How to develop an exercise regime you can enjoy and will stick with
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will search to find you online.

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 you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing content on your website 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 useful content for your website by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, 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 directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, PsychiatryOnline Journals, BMJ Medical Humanities, Current Psychiatry, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food allergy reports, pet health, foods, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Migraine Headaches, Diabetes, Exercise & Fitness, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News 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, Lupus, Blood/Hematology, Flu/Cold/SARS, Food Intolerance, Biology/Biochemistry, Genetics, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “lung cancer rss feeds”, “women’s health rss feeds”, “genetics rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Online Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and charts can give them useful instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. They can also be great educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your medical-related site using WordPress plugins that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue reading, click here:

• A Complete Guide To Building And Growing A Medical Center Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

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