Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services professionals today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For The Health And Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to grow your services online.

As well as investing money advertising offline 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 will need to be assigned towards developing and maintaining a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web 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 may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that health-related businesses face with their websites (as do all other professions for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds to help users find what they are looking for or they will leave 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 Providers

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this guide, you will discover a number of ways to generate traffic and notice significant improvements in your business results online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Small Business Online With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Health Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Practical Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Services Description Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics diabetes, oncology, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, endoscopy, optometry elective surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, medical imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, natural therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic donations, etc.

It’s important to also list any medical-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust 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 team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your person’s experience, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees in WordPress using free plugins here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your clinic. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your business, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health or medical-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 the page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also helps your medical-related business to establish social proof.

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include some or all of the following information about your practice:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Chat

If your business operates from different areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and announcements, product releases, training information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly drive web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Information

Having a compliant website is extremely important. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being broken in whatever area you service.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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 detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive online economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with useful advice, information or tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could write about include the following:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• What processed foods can sabotage your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

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

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a health or medical-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Violence against women, 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. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, BMJ, CDC USA, Neurology.org, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related news and topics like FDA drug safety, health fraud, product recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related 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. 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 choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Senior Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Sexual Health/STDs, Cholesterol, Back Pain, Medical Innovation, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “anaesthetics rss feeds”, “general practice rss feeds”, “oncology rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your health or medical-related site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform steps. They are also great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can include areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your site that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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

To continue, click here:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website With WordPress – Part 2

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