Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical sector.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, medical practitioners must work harder to stand apart from their competition and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out smarter ways to grow your practice online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy medical businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to develop and maintain a website that will drive prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give you wider exposure online.

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

Another problem that medical professionals face online (as other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to help users find what they are searching for or they will leave and 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 Health And Medical Services Providers In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health practices that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically about marketing themselves better online.

In this article, you will learn about ways to attract new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your medical business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips To Improve Your Medical Center Services Site

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for health websites, useful tips for improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require several basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Your Services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery endocrinology, cancer, continence management, renal, endoscopy, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive services, optical services, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community contributions, etc.

Remember to also mention any health-related awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products or services online, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social networks.

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

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a directory of staff members to your web site with no coding skills required here: How To Add A Staff List Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page should include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and 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 this page, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to provide social proof online.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: Convert More Visitors Into Prospects Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

If you operate from multiple areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as news and events, new releases, educational articles, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an medical website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical practice.

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin delivering an ongoing stream of new visitors to your business, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

You can learn more about this here:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s essential for medical services practitioners companies to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

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

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

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

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

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the topics you could cover in your content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• What calories really are and how understanding them helps in weight loss
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• What salad dressings can ruin your diet (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to use keywords in your content that prospective clients will 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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 website user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.

Add RSS Feeds

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

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites may 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
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your 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 when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Here are some examples of feeds you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, 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. Nucleic Acids Research, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Cell Biology, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Neuropsychopharmacology, 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) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations press releases, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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 - Get various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS 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 – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Diet & Weight Management, Prevention & Wellness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Dentistry, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Neurology/Neuroscience, Diabetes, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Psychology/Psychiatry, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “radiology rss feeds”, “conferences rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. They are great educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can include topics such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep 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 your visitors. Calculators, for example are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

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

Click here to keep reading:

• Grow Your Medical & Health Clinic Services Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Traffic With Plugins

***

***