Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for medical and health services professionals and financial service providers.

Challenges Medical & Health Businesses Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to designate a greater share of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps you create a wider amount of marketing 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 may change in time and some areas will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical professionals (and all other businesses) face, is that they have only around thirty seconds to give users the information they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Professionals

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for medical businesses that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will discover opportunities to attract new potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical or health website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Money
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business With A WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Health Clinic Site

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for health or medical websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health-related website, check out the article we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, orthopedics diabetes, oncology, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, endoscopy, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

Remember to include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction on your site? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to 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, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your web site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: Adding An Employee Directory

Recruitment

List any job opportunities within the organization. This page can include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You can include case studies of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.

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

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using client testimonials and user reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Learn How To Improve Your Conversions Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is vitally important.

It should provide:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Chat (optional feature)

If your business services different locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your organization.

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can begin to deliver web traffic to your website, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional medical provider, having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Links Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with tips and information, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, Raw Food diet, Weight Watchers diet (what these are, how they work, are they effective)
• How to make smarter choices choices when eating out at any restaurant
• Etc.

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

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that your readers will search for 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 you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your medical or health business.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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 medical or health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few RSS feeds containing useful information that 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, 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 directory of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, BMJ Injury Prevention, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information, food safety, tainted products, animal and veterinary news, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes 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. Allergies, Mental Health, Chronic Pain, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. MRSA/Drug Resistance, Headache/Migraine, Fibromyalgia, Dermatology, Primary Care/General Practice, Allergy, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “eating disorders rss feeds”, “rehabilitation rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Downloadable Checklists And Charts

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful information and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover topics such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators are useful tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health-related site that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

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

Click on this link to continue:

• The Complete Guide To Building And Growing A Medical-Related Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

***

***