Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health-related services.

Online Challenges For Health Services Professionals

Now, more than ever, health services providers must find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning smarter ways to market your health or medical services services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health or medical-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings new prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that health and medical services professionals face, as all other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will leave your site.

“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 And Medical Services Professionals In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical profession that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business better online.

In this guide, you will learn about new opportunities to generate more traffic and see noticeable improvements in your health business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health-related web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical or health business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money
• An Online Guide To Building A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

Tips To Improve Your Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, check out the article we have written here: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need some essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, weight loss surgery, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, stomal therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

This page should also include any medical or health-related awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in health or medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons so your visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list of staff members to your site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

List any job or career opportunities available within your practice. It could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include stories of recruits who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Maintain 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 updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also provides social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Sales Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate out of several areas you will want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is hard to keep updated with new content 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 an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin driving new targeted traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details:

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s very important for medical services providers businesses to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. For more info, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, being generous with information has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing useful content with great advice or tips will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to ask for support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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 (known as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.

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

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

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

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other websites, 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 medical or health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a 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 choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, American Cancer Society, American Chemical Society, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food safety, product recalls, cosmetics, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Asthma, Migraine Headaches, Diabetes, Digestion, Thyroid, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Acid Reflux/GERD, Sexual Health/STDs, Veterinary, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, HIV/AIDS, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “palliative care rss feeds”, “endocrinology rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to complete a task. Checklists and charts are great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to users. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we look at a several online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Successfully Grow A Health-Related Presence Online Using WordPress – Part Two

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