Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created significant challenges and great opportunities for health services professionals.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Now, more than ever, health and medical services providers must find smarter ways to remain competitive and find new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the health-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed to developing and managing a website that brings in clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps create wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical services providers (and other professions) face, is that they have around thirty seconds to give users the information they are searching 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

Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Professionals

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health-related profession that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy challenges and who can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn new opportunities to find new client accounts and improve your online results.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business
• Understanding WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need additional information about website planning, check out the article we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Your Services And Products

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics haematology, plastic surgery, gerontology, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. 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

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to include any industry awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your services and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online? Then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each employee’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a team profile page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add an updatable simple staff directory to your web site without coding skills, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the practice. It should include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information about career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews get better results online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales With Awesome User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is essential.

It should include:

• Company Name
• Location of clinic
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business operates out of different locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, training information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your clinic.

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 be used both as your business website and your blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin to attract new visitors to your web site, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, being generous with information has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By providing great content with information, advice or tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Publishing content 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 management services, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
• How small efforts in portion control can help you lose weight
• How to develop a better eating and exercise plan
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthy diet plan
• And endless other content topics

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

Use keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show exactly 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 presence online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your 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 a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content 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 by searching online for health and medical-related government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds 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 also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Neuroanatomy, RadioGraphics, Toxicological Sciences, 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
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, pet health, radiological health, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Cholesterol, Depression, Eyesight, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Fibromyalgia, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “nuclear medicine rss feeds”, “preventive medicine rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and charts can provide step-by-step information and resources to perform tasks. They can also be great client educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can address topics such as:

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

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section 1.

Click here to continue:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Health & Medical Practice Web Presence – Part Two

***

***

***