Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for the medical or health-related profession.

Challenges Health And Medical Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services providers must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clients. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your health services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that will bring in clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help create a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web 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 many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health practitioners (and most other businesses) face, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds or less to help users find the information they are looking for or they will 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 Medical & Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical practices that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more business and create noticeable improvements in your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health-related web presence, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health business website or blog.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Learning WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Center Services Site

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

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Money-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services

You need to include a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology hematology, cosmetic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dental implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, sexual health, medical transport, 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 direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to also mention any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and easier ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

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

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each person’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an updatable simple team directory to your WordPress site using free plugins here: How To Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

List any job or career opportunities available within your clinic. It should include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the health and medical industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with client reviews and case studies also establishes social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

For a detailed article on using testimonials and client reviews get better results online, go here: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Highly Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat (optional feature)

If you operate from several locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, product releases, training information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin driving new visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial for professional businesses to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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.

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Provide great content with useful advice, information and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. This is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure lifetime weight loss
• Tips for developing an exercise routine you can enjoy and will stick with
• What salad dressings can sabotage your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites 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 in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your 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 content on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of health-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could consider adding 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 individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, 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 list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), BMJ Medical Humanities, Medscape, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 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 feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information updates, FDA drug shortages, pet health, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & 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 choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Chronic Pain, Pregnancy, Sexual Health, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Fibromyalgia, Autism, Food Intolerance, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Cancer/Oncology, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “pain management rss feeds”, “food intolerance rss feeds”, “premature ejaculation rss feeds”, etc.

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

Add Online Forms And Checklists

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general 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.)

Other Tools

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

In part 2, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your medical website that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to continue:

• Tips For Health Services Providers – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With WordPress Plugins

***

***