Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical-related profession.

Challenges Medical Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical professionals must work hard to stand apart from their competition and find new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your medical services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the health or medical industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated towards developing and managing a website that will attract new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help increase their reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to 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 updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that health businesses (and most other businesses) face online, is that your site has around 30 seconds to give visitors the information they are looking 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 Medical Services

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box about marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover ways to increase traffic and improve your online results.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical or health website.

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

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business
• How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Services & Health Clinic Website

We’ll start first by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages a health site needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

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

Description Of Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology hematology, cosmetic surgery, continence management, respiratory, gastroenterology, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, audiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, natural therapy, yoga, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.

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

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

Meet Our Team

Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction on your site? Then help your prospective clients get to know you and your organization better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical or health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On 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 person’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a directory of staff members to a WordPress site using a free WP plugin here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

List any job or career opportunities within your business. This page could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You can also include information about career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also provides potential clients with social proof.

(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include the following:

• Business Name
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If you have several locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like events, product releases, educational information, opinions on current topics, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can instantly begin attracting targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your website)

If you are interested in learning more here:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial for professional businesses to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services.

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

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

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By committing to providing useful content with tips, advice or information, you will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

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

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• 10 tips that will help you curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• 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 and terms in your articles that your prospective clients would 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 website, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your user experience (generally referred to 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.

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a health or medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts 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. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, 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 RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nucleic Acids Research, Human Molecular Genetics, BMJ Medical Humanities, Journal of Cell Science, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food safety, recalls, foods, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news 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. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Neurology, Depression, Senior Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Fertility, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Sports Medicine/Fitness, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “aging rss feeds”, “alcohol addiction rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to improve your medical or health website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform steps. Forms and checklists are also great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are popular tools for your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your health-related website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to grow your health or medical-related business presence online.

Click here to access Part Two:

• How To Grow Your Medical And Health Services Website – Part 2

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