Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals today face significant challenges.

Online Challenges For Medical Services Providers

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to grow your business online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health industry are now also finding that they will need to assign a greater amount of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and create a wider amount of exposure online.

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

One other challenge that health services providers face online (as other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information they need or they will leave 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 The Medical Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover new opportunities to attract more visitors and create noticeable improvements in your medical business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical website.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Business
• The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health And Medical Practice Services Site

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages a health or medical-related website needs, what content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, read this article we have written: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

Professional websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Products And Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics haematology, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, respiratory, gastroenterology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, medical imaging, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical transport, etc.

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 book an appointment.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

Remember to include any industry awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to position yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health or medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to WordPress using a free plugin here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities within your business. This page would include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information about new career opportunities in the health and 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 announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also provides social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and reviews here: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online Using Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide the following information:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Chat

If your business services multiple areas you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

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

Add A Medical Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content like news, updates, educational articles, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering web traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new visitors automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Web Visitors For Your Business Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s very important for professional companies to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever your practice is located.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Provide useful content with tips, information and advice that will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your web content include:

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• Incorporating exercise into your weight loss program
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your health or medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that readers will be searching for online.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

Improving user experience (known as UX) helps to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Add RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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 for your website, search online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, Epidemiology – Featured Articles, BMJ Injury Prevention, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, health fraud, pet health, tobacco news, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various 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 major news publications like the NYTimes 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 RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Neurology, Diabetes, Prevention & Wellness, HIV, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Headache/Migraine, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Emergency Medicine, COPD, Biology/Biochemistry, Statins, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “stem cell research rss feeds”, “plastic surgery rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Add Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Charts and checklists can also be great client educational tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists, charts and forms covering a range of areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Other applications could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we will look at a several online tools you can add to your health-related website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Services And Health Clinic Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Web Traffic

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