Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for the medical or health-related sector.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning better ways to promote your health or medical services services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that drives new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give your business a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, 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 many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical or health organizations face with their websites, and other businesses for that matter, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will leave the site 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 The Health Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health or medical practices that are willing to adapt to meet digital economy challenges and think strategically when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this guide, you will discover new opportunities to drive more web traffic and create significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Potential Clients
• How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for health or medical-related websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical website, go here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Practical Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Products And Services

You need to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery blood disorders, cancer, geriatric medicine, respiratory, weight loss surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water 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, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive services, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to 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 your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

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

It’s important to include any professional awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s expertise and 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 page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your web site, refer to this tutorial: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within the practice. This page could include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

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

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more about using client case studies and reviews, see this article: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat (optional feature)

If your business services several locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Add A Health Or Medical Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news and announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an medical or health site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your clinic.

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will help begin to deliver web traffic to your website, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to know more about this here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Pages

It’s important for professional businesses 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 breaking local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

By providing great content with advice, information or tips, you will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your medical or health business.

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

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable information 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 many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds you could add to a health-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, Epidemiology – Featured Articles, JCI – The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Medscape, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food safety reports, pet health, radiological health, 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 health-related RSS feeds 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Neurology, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Aid/Disasters, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Mental Health, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “medicaid rss feeds”, “sports medicine rss feeds”, “premature ejaculation rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your medical or health-related site’s user experience.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary steps. Checklists and forms can also be great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could cover 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 maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your medical or health site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

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

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• How To Successfully Grow A Medical Clinic Online – Part 2

***

***