Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized business globally, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health services.

Online Challenges For Medical Businesses

Today, more than ever, health and medical services professionals must work harder to remain competitive and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to promote your services online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are also finding that they need to delegate a more significant part of their 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 increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and some areas may need to be updated often. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health or medical-related organizations face with their websites (as most other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to give users what they are looking 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 Medical And Health Businesses

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health-related businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new opportunities to attract new bookings and see noticeable improvements in your business online.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers
• Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for health or medical-related websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several essential pages. Let’s review these.

Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics diabetes, oral surgery, continence management, renal, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical equipment, 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 why they should choose you.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

This page should mention any business awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or get visitors to engage more with your site? Then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

On 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 team member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-update simple staff directory in WordPress without coding skills here: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site

We’re Hiring

List any job opportunities within the practice. This page can include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information about additional career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in your 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.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof.

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

For a detailed article on using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Get Better Results Online Using Powerful Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Chat/Skype

If you operate out of multiple locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You can also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, updates, educational articles, informative posts, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical organization.

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

You are probably not aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Attract More Web Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you practice.

Adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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
• and others

Go here if you want to learn more adding legal pages to your website: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a well-planned content marketing strategy has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

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

For example, if your business provides products that help people manage their weight, 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.)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Incorporating exercise into your busy schedule
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthy diet plan
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand your medical or health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords in your content that your readers will search to find you 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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your website 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 Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

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

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 having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

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

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for health or medical-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Haematologica, Nutrition Journal, BMJ Medical Humanities, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, animal and veterinary 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news 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 – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Neurology, Diabetes, Exercise & Fitness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Gout, Pain/Anesthetics, Health Insurance, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Allergy, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “headache rss feeds”, “flu rss feeds”, “oncology rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your health or medical-related website’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can give them useful information and resources to perform a necessary task. They are also great client instructional tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering topics such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online 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 are useful tools for your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can add to your site that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

***

This is the end of section one of this article on ways to grow your medical-related business presence online.

Click on this link to access Part Two:

• Tips For Medical And Health Services Practitioners – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With WordPress Plugins

***

***