Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and health services practitioners today face a growing number of challenges.

Online Challenges For Health Businesses

Today, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and find new clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out better ways to grow your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, businesses in the health or medical industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that will drive new prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and help create a wider amount of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, 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 may change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that medical professionals face (and all other professions for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to provide visitors with what 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

Opportunities For Medical Practitioners In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health or medical-related practices that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their business better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover opportunities to find more clients and establish online credibility for your health or medical business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business Online

Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this detailed guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All websites need several basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need and how to structure your medical website for best results.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics haematology, cosmetic surgery, geriatric medicine, rheumatology, infection control, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, audiology, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, natural therapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

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

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It should also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help prospective clients get to know your organization better.

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

In this page, make sure to outline each person’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees or team members in your website with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical and health industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

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

(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials and user reviews get better results online here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Engaging Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Business Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Online chat feature

If you operate out of different areas you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

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

Add A Medical Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin delivering targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

For more details:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Info Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucial. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever you provide services.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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 on adding legal pages to your website. For more info, see this article: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with information has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful tips or information will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover in your web content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Tips for developing portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords in your articles 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external 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. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits 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 RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of health or medical-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some examples of feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, The Psychiatrist, Stem Cells, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), pet health, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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) - Get many health-related feeds 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. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – 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. Medications, Mental Health, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Eyesight, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Swine Flu, Food Intolerance, Respiratory/Asthma, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “eye health rss feeds”, “lymphoma rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Forms And Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide users with useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps performed. Charts and checklists are also great educational tools.

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

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

Add Online Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools you can add to your website. Other tools would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your health site that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your medical-related business web presence.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• Online Business Tips For Medical And Health Services Practitioners – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Generating More Traffic

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