Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionized businesses worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for the health or medical profession.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and many aspects may need to be updated often. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical services professionals face with their websites, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has around 30 seconds to give visitors the information they need 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

Online Opportunities For Medical And Health Services Practitioners

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical or health businesses that can evolve to meet digital demands and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn a number of ways to increase web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Learn How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Center Site

We’ll start first by going over some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical or health-related website needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need several essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your health or medical-related website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, hyperbaric medicine, renal, gastroenterology, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, natural therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, reproductive services, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual 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 your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It’s important to mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff Page

Are you searching for simple ideas to grow your business online and get visitors to interact more with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you and your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One 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 biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in medical or health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also 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 your employee’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value 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 sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your web site using free plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the clinic. This page could include training offered, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more using testimonials and client reviews get better results online, go here: Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is essential.

It should provide some or all of the following information:

• Name
• Physical address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services multiple areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, updates, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin attracting new visitors to your website, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your website)

If you would like to know more about this here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Traffic Automatically

Legal Information Pages

It’s extremely important for medical providers organizations to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you do business.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical-related website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you start publishing content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

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

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could publish content about include the following:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, minerals, vitamins, fats)
• How to ask for support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include the keywords and terms in your content that readers will be searching for online.

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 you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

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

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

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

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to 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 relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• 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. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, CDC USA, Current Psychiatry, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, recalls, radiological health, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes 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 specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Digestion, Heart, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Pharma Industry/Biotech Industry, Immune System/Vaccines, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Cholesterol, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Allergy, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “surgery rss feeds”, “men’s health rss feeds”, “clinical trials rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Adding Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can give them useful information and resources to complete necessary steps. Forms and checklists are great instructional tools.

You can provide checklists and forms (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we will be discussing a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that can also help improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to continue:

• Grow Your Medical Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Traffic

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