Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially in terms of growing their business online.

Challenges Health Services Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical-related businesses must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and figuring out better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the health or medical industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts prospects, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives their business a wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical services practitioners face with their websites (and all other businesses for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to give visitors what they need 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

Opportunities For Health Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related profession that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

The article below will help you uncover opportunities to attract more client accounts and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• WordPress And Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

How To Improve Your Health Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best for health-related websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health-related website, see this detailed guide: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Your Services

You need to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, neurology, renal, weight loss surgery, eye diseases operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, stomal therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, sleep therapy, 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 book an appointment.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also list any medical or health-related awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Your Staff

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical or health terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow individual team 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 highlight your employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in WordPress without touching code, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your practice. This page could include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include information about new career opportunities in the health and medical 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

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

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

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and reviews improve your business online. For more details, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information about your clinic:

• Name Of Your Business
• Street address of consulting practice
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat (optional)

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like news and events, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your clinic.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and business blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can deliver targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

You can learn more here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s crucial to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws or regulations in whichever area or location you service.

Adding the legal pages below to your health site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key business differentiators.

By providing great content with useful tips, information or advice, you will get your readers to share your information with others online and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could write content about include:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Include keywords in your content that prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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 RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical-related site:

• 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. Breast cancer, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, Nutrition Journal, RadioGraphics, BMJ Archives of Disease, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, 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 news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like FDA drug safety, food safety reports, pet health, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Menopause, Cold & Flu, Diabetes, Prevention & Wellness, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Pain/Anesthetics, ADHD/ADD, Aid/Disasters, Endocrinology, Nutrition/Diet, Statins, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “colorectal cancer rss feeds”, “midwifery rss feeds”, “psychiatry rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Charts and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary tasks. They are also great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

Click here to keep reading:

• Your Health Center Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With Plugins

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