Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals today face increasing challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Health Businesses

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to promote your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy medical businesses, you will need to invest a more significant portion of your budget to develop and maintain a website that will drive prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help give you wider marketing exposure online.

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

Another difficult challenge that medical or health businesses face online, and most professions for that matter, is that your site has only around 30 seconds to give visitors the information they are searching for or they will 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

Opportunities For Health Services Providers

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health-related businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn about new opportunities to increase web traffic and improve your business results online.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business
• WordPress And Small Business – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best for health sites, ways of improving layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Products And Services

You need a page that describes your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, neurosurgery blood disorders, maxillofacial surgery, aged care, rheumatology, urology, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, x-ray, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, occupational therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community activities, etc.

Remember to include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff Page

Are you looking for simple ideas to sell more products online or get visitors to interact more with your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’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 employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-manage directory of staff members in your site with no coding skills required here: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your company. It should include training offered, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps your health or medical website to provide social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. For more details: All You Need To Know To Get Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business services multiple locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news, product releases, educational information, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can begin driving web traffic to your business, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your site)

For more details, go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Increase Your Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s extremely important for professional companies to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever your practice is located.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with tips and information will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your services.

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

• Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
• How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure lifetime weight loss
• How to develop a better eating and exercise plan
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that your readers will search for online.

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

Improve Visitor Experience

Improving website 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 UX.

RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers 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 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-related government departments or key industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of feeds you could consider adding to a medical-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Pregnancy, 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. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, RadioGraphics, Toxicological Sciences, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, foods, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pregnancy, Exercise & Fitness, Women’s Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured 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. Schizophrenia, Multiple Sclerosis, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Conferences, Transplants/Organ Donations, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “abortion rss feeds”, “diagnostics rss feeds”, “premature ejaculation rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform steps. Checklists and charts can also be great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover areas such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• 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. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we will look at a several online tools you can use in your medical or health-related site using WordPress plugins that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To keep reading, click here:

• Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website With WordPress Plugins And Themes

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