Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health & medical professionals face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing a presence online.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical professionals must find smarter ways to stand out from their competition and find new clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a website and searching for smarter ways to market your practice online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to delegate a greater amount of your marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help give you a wider amount of marketing reach online.

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

One other challenge that health professionals face, and most professions for that matter, is that you have around 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they need or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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

Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Providers

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for health businesses that are willing to adapt to meet online economy challenges and can think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage new visitors and create noticeable improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your website, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health-related website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business Online

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best for health or medical websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, visit this page: How To Plan A Web Site: A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

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

Your Services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology hematology, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, renal, gastroenterology, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It should include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected 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 person’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add a list directory of staff members to your web site without coding skills here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To WordPress

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the organization. It could include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have risen within your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof online for your business.

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

To learn more about using client testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: How To Improve Your Sales Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address of clinic
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat feature

If your business operates out of several areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

You could also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like the latest announcements, new releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical or health site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your business website and blog.

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that will help begin delivering new targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s really important for professional companies to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding the following legal pages to your medical or health-related site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive global economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with advice, information or tips will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthy diet plan
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your articles that readers 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 show 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 website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable information, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Here are some feeds you could add to a health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Bionet RSS, Obesity, Current Psychiatry, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food allergy reports, pet health, 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 various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and 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. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Pain/Anesthetics, Surgery, Regulatory Affairs/Drug Approvals, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Nutrition/Diet, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “headache rss feeds”, “diet rss feeds”, “oncology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps performed. They are also great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can include topics such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can also help to improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to build your medical or health business web presence.

Click here to view the rest of this guide:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide To Building And Growing A Health & Medical Center Services Web Presence – Part Two

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