Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses offering medical-related services.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as investing money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps you gain a wider degree of exposure online.

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

One other challenge that medical-related organizations face online (and all other businesses for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to provide users what they need or they will look 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 Services

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health or medical practices that can evolve to meet digital challenges and who can think progressively in terms of marketing their business services better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and improve your business online.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Potential Clients And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Small Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Basic Web Pages

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

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services or products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology diabetes, plastic surgery, incontinence, rheumatology, weight loss surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, optical services, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It should list any health-related awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to your site with no coding skills required here: Adding A Staff Directory: Plugin Tutorial

Recruitment Page

List any career opportunities within the business. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health 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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof online for your business.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using client case studies and reviews improve your business online. If you would like to know more about this here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Awesome User Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information about your organization:

• Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

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

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like news and events, product releases, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, educational videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical business.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details, go here:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s extremely important for professional companies to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whichever location you provide services.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your health or medical-related website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish good content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information, tips or advice, you will get your visitors sharing your information with others online and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• 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, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords in your articles 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 that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve 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 different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your medical or health business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, 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. Journal of Applied Physiology, PsychiatryOnline Journals, The Journal of Immunology, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 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 feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), product recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Cholesterol, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Sexual Health, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Medical Insurance, Regulatory Affairs/Drug Approvals, Parkinson’s Disease, Cleft Palate, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “pharma industry rss feeds”, “prostate cancer rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to complete a task. Forms and checklists are great client educational tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms, charts and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of 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.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this comprehensive article on ways to improve your health business presence online.

Click here to access Part Two:

• Tips For Medical Professionals – WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation

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