Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals today face increasing challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to market your practice online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to allocate a larger portion of your budget towards the development and management of a website that will attract clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that medical or health-related organizations face with their websites (and other businesses for that matter), is that they have only about 30 seconds to give users what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 And Health Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical practices that can adapt to meet online demands and who can think progressively about improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover opportunities to increase web traffic and build more online credibility for your health-related business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, 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 WordPress, go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business

Tips To Improve Your Health Site

This section explains how to improve your health website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best for medical or health-related sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: How To Plan Your Small Business Website: A Basic Blueprint For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need some essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to set up your medical or health-related website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery endocrinology, oral surgery, gerontology, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic activities, etc.

This page should also list any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your services and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page can include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s expertise, 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 team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain list of employees to WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

List any job opportunities within your clinic. This page could include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have risen within your organization and information about new career opportunities in the medical or health-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, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also establishes social proof online.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews get better results online here: How To Achieve Better Results Online With Sales Boosting User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your clinic:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business operates from several locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

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

Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news and events, updates, educational articles, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin to attract targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate web traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Information

As a professional health or medical services practitioner, having a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical-related site will help keep you out of legal hot water 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

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

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

By committing to providing useful content with great tips or information, you will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more content. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

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

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients 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 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 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 completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps 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 – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to 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 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, search online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, Nutrition Journal, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, health fraud, pet health, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Dentistry, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Cholesterol, Back Pain, Women’s Health/Gynecology, Genetics, 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. “homecare rss feeds”, “myeloma rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Provide Forms & Checklists

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and charts can provide useful instructions and resources to complete steps. They are also great instructional tools.

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

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

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools for your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to continue:

• A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow A Medical Practice Services Website Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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