Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed the way business is done around the world, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering medical or health-related services.

Online Challenges For Medical & Health Businesses

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for smarter ways to grow your business online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other medical businesses, you will need to designate a greater portion of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can drive prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain a wider amount of marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and some aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical services professionals (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to help visitors find what they are looking for or they will leave the site.

“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

Online Opportunities For Health Services Providers

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health-related businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover new ways to find more clientele and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health or medical-related business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your health or medical business website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a medical or health-related site needs, what type of content works best for medical-related sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this guide: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require some basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Services Page

You need a page that describes your products or services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery diabetes, plastic surgery, continence management, renal, infection control, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, radiology and imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, optical services, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, community health, medical equipment, 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.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and to set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or 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 include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline each team member’s expertise and qualifications, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team directory in a WordPress site without coding skills, refer to this tutorial: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Also include 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 your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to establish social proof for your business.

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

To learn more about using client case studies and reviews improve your business online, go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat feature (optional feature)

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

You can also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news and events, new releases, useful articles, informative posts, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established health website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your medical organization.

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s essential for health services practitioners businesses to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you do business.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

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

By committing to providing useful content with information or tips, you will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your content include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• What are calories and how understanding them aids in weight loss
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content that readers will 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

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

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
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to 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 a number of benefits to providing information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, RadioGraphics, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, 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) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, pet health, cosmetics, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Prevention & Wellness, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News 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. Ovarian Cancer, Fertility, Sexual Health/STDs, Menopause, Endocrinology, Litigation/Medical Malpractice, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “schizophrenia rss feeds”, “neuroscience rss feeds”, “psychology rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical website’s user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform steps. Checklists and forms are great educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists, charts and forms 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, maintenance program, general 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 ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools to add to your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your medical site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

***

This is the end of section one of this comprehensive article on ways to build your health web presence.

Click here to continue:

• How To Successfully Build And Grow Your Medical Practice Online – Part Two

***

***