Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and health services practitioners today face increasing challenges.

Challenges Professional Medical Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, health and medical services practitioners must work harder to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and managing a website that brings in prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and creates a wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change over time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical and health services providers (and other professions) face with their websites, is that they have around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Professionals

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related profession that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about new opportunities to generate more web traffic 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 Content Management System to power your medical business website.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• Learn How To Grow Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Medical Services And Health-Related Website

Let’s start by covering the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a health-related site needs, what content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

Professional websites require some basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to structure your website for best results.

Services And Products Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, continence management, respiratory, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, audiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, natural therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, fertility services, optical services, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Staff

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to grow your business online? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical or health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual team 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 outline your employee’s experience, how their skills and knowledge contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an updatable directory of staff or team members in WordPress without messing with code here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your company. This page should include training, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to provide social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article about using client case studies and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your center:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live Chat/Skype

If you operate from several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, new releases, educational articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established medical or health website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical clinic.

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that will help begin to attract targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Adding the following legal pages to your health or medical-related site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and 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.

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin to publish good content on your site, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Provide great content with tips, information and advice that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. HCG diet, Raw Food diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your health or medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords in your content that your prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health-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 also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, Nutrition Journal, RadioGraphics, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary news, 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 various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Dentistry, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Dermatology, Primary Care/General Practice, Mental Health, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “pulmonary system rss feeds”, “pediatrics rss feeds”, “premature ejaculation rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health or medical-related site’s UX.)

Adding Charts & Checklists

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful information and resources to complete a task. Checklists and charts are also great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

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

***

This is the end of part one of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your health-related web presence.

To view Part 2, click here:

• How To Grow A Health-Related Website Successfully – Part Two

***

***