Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized business around the world, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the health or medical-related industry.

Challenges Professional Medical Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical services practitioners must work harder to stand out from the crowd and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to market your business online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed to developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps you gain a wider amount of exposure online.

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

One other problem that health services practitioners (and most other businesses) face online, is that they have around 30 seconds to provide visitors what they need 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 Services Practitioners

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think progressively in terms of marketing themselves better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover new ways to generate more potential clients and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your health or medical business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical-related website, visit this page: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Your Services And Products

You need a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery hematology, cancer, incontinence, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, hearing, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive services, speech therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

Remember to also mention any medical-related awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and to set yourself above your competitors.

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

Team

Are you searching for ways to sell more products or services online and get prospective clients to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your staff members on their social pages.

In 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 person’s expertise and qualifications, how they contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a simple team members directory in your WordPress site here: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the practice. It should include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical or health-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 this page, join your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews 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 will also be providing prospective clients with social proof.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. Learn more about this here: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat feature

If your business services different locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You should also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as news, new releases, educational information, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site is hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin to deliver web traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations in whichever area you provide services.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By providing useful content with great tips, advice and information, you will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your business and services.

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

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How small efforts in portion control can help your weight loss efforts
• Tips for developing a better eating and exercise plan
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your content that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you 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 marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your site.

If you provide useful information, other sites 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 in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great information on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, TheLancet.com, BMJ Tobacco Control, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, tobacco news, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various health-related news 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 – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Men’s health, Cold & Flu, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT 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. Colorectal Cancer, Seniors/Aging, Sexual Health/STDs, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Parkinson’s Disease, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “pharmacist rss feeds”, “cleft palate rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your medical or health website’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. Checklists and charts can also be great client educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, 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 useful tools for your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to access the rest of this guide:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Health Practice Website – Part Two

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