Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for health and medical services providers and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For Health Services Providers

Now, more than ever, medical practitioners must work hard to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for smarter ways to market your health or medical services services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical industry are also finding that they need to delegate a bigger part of their budget towards developing and maintaining a website that can attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website will change over time and many areas may need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that health organizations face (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that you have only about thirty 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 Health & Medical Professionals

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the health-related profession that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and think progressively about marketing their business better online.

The guide below will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to generate new business and see significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical or health-related website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• A Beginner’s Guide To Building A Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: The Website Planning Process: A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, pulmonology hematology, plastic surgery, incontinence, respiratory, weight loss surgery, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, natural therapy, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

This page should list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you 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 staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief 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 specialties mean. This page should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social pages.

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

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your WordPress site without using code here: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

List any job or career opportunities within the business. This page would include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You should also include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & 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 case studies and testimonials, you are also helping to will also be establishing social proof online for your business.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Create Better Results Online Using Engaging Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

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

• Company Name
• Location of consulting practice
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat feature

If you operate out of multiple areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news, new releases, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical practice.

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin delivering targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s extremely important to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever you do business.

Adding 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 sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

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

Providing useful content with tips, information and advice will get your readers to share your information online with others and come back for more content. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative 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 your prospective clients will be searching for.

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

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses will 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable 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 by searching online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds you could consider adding to a medical or health 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Current Psychiatry, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations, FDA drug shortages, recalls, tobacco news, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find 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 in major news publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Oral Health, Exercise & Fitness, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Vascular, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Hearing/Deafness, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “psoriasis rss feeds”, “men’s health rss feeds”, “ear, nose and throat rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s UX.)

Provide Online Charts And Checklists

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can give them step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great educational tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to read Part 2:

• Online Business Tips For Health And Medical Services Providers – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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