Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical professionals today are facing an increasing number challenges thanks to the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Health & Medical Practitioners

Today, more than ever, medical and health services professionals must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to promote your practice online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other medical-related businesses, you will need to delegate a bigger share of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that can drive new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to give you wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that health businesses (and other professions) face with their websites, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to provide users what they need 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 Profession In The Web 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 the demands of the online economy and think progressively about marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn new ways and opportunities to drive more web traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical or health website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for medical websites, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of services And Products

You need a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology endocrinology, plastic surgery, gerontology, respiratory, bariatric surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, fertility services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services 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 your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to mention any industry awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and set yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online or get people to interact more with your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know 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 members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff 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 highlight each employee’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to your site with no coding skills required, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

We’re Hiring

List any job or career opportunities within your practice. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored by your business, etc. It should include information about new career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

Maintain 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively on using client case studies and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using More Effective Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

It should include:

• Company Name
• Location of premises
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Chat feature

If your business operates from multiple locations you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news and events, updates, useful articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site 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 business blog.

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that will begin driving a stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health or medical site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra-competitive global 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 useful content with information, advice or tips, you will get your readers to share your information and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could cover in your content include:

• Being overweight vs. being obese – what are the differences?
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• What salad dressings can ruin your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses 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
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental 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 leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Journal of Cell Biology, Toxicological Sciences, 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) - Get various feeds on health-related news 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, pet health, cosmetics, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS 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 – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Immune System/Vaccines, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Emergency Medicine, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Biology/Biochemistry, Statins, 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. “eczema rss feeds”, “SARS rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can give them useful information and resources to perform a necessary task. Charts and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

You can provide checklists and forms covering a range of areas such as:

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

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools to add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your medical or health web presence.

Click here to keep reading:

• The Step-By-Step Guide To Growing A Medical Clinic Website With WordPress – Part Two

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