Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health & medical professionals face a number of challenges in today’s web economy, especially in terms of growing a successful business presence online.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Now, more than ever, medical and health services professionals must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd and generate 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 a website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

In addition to investing dollars marketing offline, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are also finding that they will need to delegate a bigger amount of their marketing budget to develop and maintain a website that brings in clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to give them a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy.

One other problem that health businesses face online (and all other businesses for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to help users find the information they are looking for or they will go away.

“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 The Medical Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to medical businesses that can adapt to meet online demands and who can think outside the box about marketing their services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover a number of ways to drive more traffic and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

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

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need additional information about website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require some essential pages. Let’s review these.

Your Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology haematology, cancer, neurology, respiratory, gastroenterology, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, restorations, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, audiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

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 these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

It’s important to include any health or medical-related awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Staff

Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online or get prospects to interact more with your site? Then help visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of 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 highlight your team member’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a simple and easy-to-manage list of staff members to your WordPress site using a free plugin here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your Site

We’re Hiring

List any job opportunities available within your business. It can include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored by your business, etc. It should include information about upcoming career opportunities in the health industry.

Include also 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 & Case Studies

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online With Meaningful Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is essential.

It should include:

• Name Of Your Business
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat feature (optional)

If your business services multiple areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You should also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as the latest news, updates, useful articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your practice.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help begin driving a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s extremely important for health practitioners businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with advice, information and tips will get your readers to share your information and come back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can write content about include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure sustainable weight loss
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords in your articles that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great information on 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 and well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• 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 specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, ADA DiabetesCare , Obesity, Neurology.org, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 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
• FDA – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), pet health, animal and veterinary news, 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 - Get many health-related news 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. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Cholesterol, Pregnancy, Sexual Health, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, ADHD/ADD, Dermatology, Bones/Orthopedics, Litigation/Medical Malpractice, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “palliative care rss feeds”, “SARS rss feeds”, “hepatitis rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. They can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms can also be great instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could include subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to improve your health or medical business web presence.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• Tips For Medical And Health Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic

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