Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals today face significant challenges.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Today, more than ever, medical providers must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive and find new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for better ways to market your practice online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that will attract new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change in time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical or health-related businesses (and all other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 And Health Services Providers

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical industry that can evolve to meet digital challenges and who can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about new opportunities to drive more web traffic 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 health business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, tips for improving your navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site - A Basic Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional business websites need some essential pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to set up your website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology endocrinology, maxillofacial surgery, incontinence, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, reproductive services, occupational therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to list any business awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can 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 show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your person’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory to your WordPress site using free plugins here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory In WordPress

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of job opportunities within your organization. This page could include training, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health and medical industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

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

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

We have created a comprehensive article on using client case studies and reviews improve your business online here: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Awesome Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

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

• Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media pages
• Chat/Skype

If your business services different areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as the latest announcements, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and your blog.

You are probably not aware of this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin to deliver targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s crucial for health providers organizations to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken in whichever area you provide services.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your medical or health website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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
• etc.

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Provide useful content with great information, advice or tips that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides products or services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could cover in your web content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure sustainable weight loss
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• 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 services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include 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 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 high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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 businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several 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 benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Nutrition Journal, TheLancet.com, Neurology.org, Cambridge Journals Online, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information updates, health fraud, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS 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.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Digestion, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Lupus, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Regulatory Affairs/Drug Approvals, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Biology/Biochemistry, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “ADD rss feeds”, “nursing rss feeds”, “erectile dysfunction rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical-related 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 provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks done. Charts and checklists are also great client educational tools.

You can provide checklists and forms (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

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

Provide Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your users. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools to add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your medical website that can also help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

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

To continue, click this link:

• Your Medical Services And Health-Related Website – Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins & Themes

***

***

***