Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for medical services providers.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health organizations face online (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to provide users with what they need or they will leave your 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 And Health Services Providers In The Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical-related industry that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn ways to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your health business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your health or medical business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

This section looks at ways to improve your medical-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for medical or health websites, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: How To Plan Your Business Website: A Cost-Saving Guide For Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Products And Services

You need to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, orthopedics blood disorders, oncology, geriatric medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, oral health, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, reiki, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, hearing aids, 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 what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to also mention any professional awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a simple team members directory to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin here: How To Add A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your business, etc. You can also include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

Include also 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to are also providing social proof for your business.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online. If you are interested in learning more about this here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Online chat feature

If your business operates in multiple areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, educational articles, discussions on current topics, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

You probably don’t know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will begin to attract new visitors to your website, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Website Visitors Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your website: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s highly competitive online economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By providing useful content with great information, tips and advice, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• And many other content topics

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

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that your readers will be searching for 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you could add 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 also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, 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 feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Neuroanatomy, CDC USA, Occupational Medicine, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, 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 FDA-related feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, health fraud, tainted products, foods, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Eyesight, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Acid Reflux/GERD, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Conferences, Heart Disease, Breast Cancer, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “medicaid rss feeds”, “physical therapy rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful information and resources to perform necessary steps. Checklists and forms are great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover subjects such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active 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 stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to access the rest of this article:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow A Health-Related Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

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