Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for the medical-related profession.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

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 be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for better ways to promote your practice online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other health-related businesses, you will need to allocate a bigger share of your marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that can drive prospects, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and give you wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout 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 will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that health and medical services providers face online (as do all other professions for that matter), is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are looking for or they will go away.

“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 Online Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn ways to generate web traffic and see significant improvements in your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health or medical website, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your medical website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Potential Clients
• The Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Ways To Improve Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for health websites, suggestions for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: How To Plan Your Website: A Useful Guide For Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need some basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products Page

You need to include a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page could list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, orthopedics haematology, plastic surgery, continence management, respiratory, bariatric surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, audiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, clinical information, medical transport, 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 appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

It’s important to also include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online and increase user interaction on 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 prospective clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It can also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your team member’s qualifications, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update simple team members directory to your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. It could include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Also include 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Powerful User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business operates out of different locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your organization.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your 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 machine that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing 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:

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

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you practice.

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

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

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

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

By committing to providing useful content with information, tips and advice, you will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
• 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 keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

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

If you provide information that adds value to others, 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 content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing valuable content on your website from other websites, 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 relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

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

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Human Molecular Genetics, Obesity, Toxicological Sciences, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, food allergies, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary news, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (www.gov.uk) – 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 - Find many feeds on health-related 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 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 choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Cancer, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diabetes, Prevention & Wellness, High Blood Pressure, 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. Cystic Fibrosis, Fertility, Eczema/Psoriasis, Regulatory Affairs/Drug Approvals, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Epilepsy, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “melanoma rss feeds”, “cleft palate rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your health or medical website’s user experience.)

Provide Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. They can give them useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps performed. They are great client educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can cover topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your medical website that can help improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to view the rest of this guide:

• How To Grow A Health Clinic Business Online With WordPress – Part 2

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