Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical practitioners today are facing significant challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, medical-related businesses must find smarter ways to stand out from their competition and find new clients. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your medical services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to designate a bigger share of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can attract new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create wider exposure online.

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

One other difficult challenge that health or medical businesses face online (as most other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to give visitors what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 Health Businesses

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health-related practices that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business better online.

The article below will help you uncover opportunities to generate web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your medical or health business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Business
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Center Website

This section covers ways to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Pages

Professional websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services

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, this page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics haematology, maxillofacial surgery, incontinence, renal, endoscopy, optometry elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, 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 the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic donations, etc.

This page should include any medical-related awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to grow your business online? Then help your prospective clients get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It can include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline 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.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update directory of staff members to your website using a free WordPress plugin here: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within your company. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information about new career opportunities in the health and medical 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, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to will also be providing social proof online.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Standout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services several areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as the latest news, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will begin delivering web traffic to your business, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Drive More Website Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important for medical professionals organizations to ensure 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 laws or regulations are being broken wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health or medical-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or 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

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

You want to provide great content with useful tips or information that will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate site 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 publish content about include the following:

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords in your articles that readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing great content on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of health-related government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of feeds you could consider adding to your 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 individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, ADA DiabetesCare , BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, American Chemical Society, 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 various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food allergy reports, product recalls, tobacco news, 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 - Get many health-related RSS 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 & 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. Medications, Men’s health, Migraine Headaches, Oral Health, Senior Health, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Pharma Industry/Biotech Industry, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Sexual Health/STDs, Body Aches, Smoking/Quit Smoking, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “bipolar rss feeds”, “physical therapy rss feeds”, “drug trials rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your health or medical-related site’s UX.)

Add Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform tasks. They can also be great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could include areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Adding Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, for example are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your health or medical site using WordPress plugins that can also help improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click on this link to access the rest of this guide:

• Online Business Tips For Health Providers – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With Plugins And Themes

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