Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionized businesses worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for the medical-related sector.

Online Challenges For Medical Businesses

Today, 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 and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to grow your health services online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health or medical businesses, you will need to designate a greater portion of your marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that can attract new prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase your marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, 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 some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical-related organizations (and all other businesses) face online, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to help visitors find what they are looking 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

Opportunities For Medical Businesses

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover a number of ways to attract new client bookings and notice significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health website or blog.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• The Complete Guide To Growing Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: Planning Your Website: A Comprehensive Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All business websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Services And Products

You need to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics hematology, plastic surgery, incontinence, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, x-ray, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, fertility services, speech language therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to mention any health-related awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online and get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then help prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

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

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’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 employees to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory to WordPress using free WP plugins, go here: Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. This page can include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also establishes social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Standout User Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide the following information about your company:

• Company Name
• Street address of consulting practice
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

If you have different areas you should make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like news and events, updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical website 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 business blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can instantly begin delivering targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Web Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vitally important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site 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 Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

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 differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing useful content with tips, information and advice will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if you provide solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• What calories really are and how they play a role in weight loss
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to make smarter choices choices when eating in restaurants
• And endless other content topics

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

Use keywords and terms in your content that your 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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve User Experience

Improving your site’s 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 user experience.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many 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 kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits 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 many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, Toxicological Sciences, Neuropsychopharmacology, 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 news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Senior Health, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Pulmonary System, Depression, Preventive Medicine, Bones/Orthopedics, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “HPV vaccine rss feeds”, “epilepsy rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Adding Downloadable Charts & Checklists

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide users with useful information and resources to complete tasks. They are also great educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering subjects such as:

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

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools to add to your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue, click here:

• Your Medical Practice Website – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors Using WordPress Plugins

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