Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services providers face a number of challenges in today’s web economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business presence online.

Challenges Professional Medical Providers Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and 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 develop an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and searching for better ways to grow your services online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health industry are now also finding that they will need to delegate a greater part of their marketing budget towards developing and maintaining a website that will bring new prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider reach online.

This means that your site 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 will change in time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that health or medical-related organizations face with their websites (as other professions do for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds to help users find the information they need or they will leave your site and go 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 Medical And Health Services Practitioners

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical practices that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your health-related website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Practice Site

This section will show you ways to improve your health-related website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content you need, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical website, check out the article we have written here: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

Professional websites need several basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need and how to set up your website for best results.

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 can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, infection control, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to mention any industry awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff Page

Are you looking for ideas to grow your business online? Then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in health or medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise, why they are an invaluable 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 team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-update list directory of employees or team members to a WordPress site using free plugins, go here: Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your clinic. It would include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information about new career opportunities in the 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, join your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps your medical-related business to provide potential clients with social proof online.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more about this: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following:

• Name
• Location of business
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature (optional feature)

If you operate in several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news, updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your clinic.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly begin delivering targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

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

If you would like to know more here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Website Visitors Automatically With WordPress

Legal Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your health-related website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive global business economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing useful content with advice, information or tips will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover in your content include:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• How you eat your food is just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include keywords and terminology in your content that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (known as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of medical or health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, Human Molecular Genetics, Stem Cells, BMJ Archives of Disease, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 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
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, foods, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various RSS 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 RSS feeds in places 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 choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Sexual Health, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Eczema/Psoriasis, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Cleft Palate, Tuberculosis, etc.)

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

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your medical website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Charts and checklists can provide useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They are great client educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

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

In part 2 of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view the rest of this guide, click this link:

• How To Grow A Health And Medical Practice Presence Online With WordPress – Part Two

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