Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health providers face many new challenges in today’s online economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful presence online.

Challenges Professional Medical Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now finding that they need to allocate a larger part of their marketing budget to developing and managing a website that can attract new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical or health businesses (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only about 30 seconds to provide users what they are looking 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 And Medical Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for medical or health businesses that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically in terms of marketing their business better online.

In this article, you will discover ways to source new clientele and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your medical or health-related website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online Using A WordPress Site

Ways To Improve Your Medical Services And Health Center Website

This section looks at ways to improve your health website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

Professional websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page could list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, pulmonology haematology, cancer, incontinence, rheumatology, endoscopy, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, radiology, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, holistic medicine, meditation, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, othopedics, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, 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.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

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

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

Meet The Team

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team 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 to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple employee directory to your WordPress site using free plugins here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the company. This page should include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your business, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information about new career opportunities in the medical 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, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also establishes social proof online.

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

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Improve Your Sales Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Online chat (optional)

If you operate in several locations you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking form, 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 easily promote your business by publishing content like announcements, updates, educational articles, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

For more details, go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s essential to 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 laws and regulations are being contravened in whichever location you do business.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or medical-related site will help keep you 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 Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses.

Provide great content with information, advice and tips that will get your readers to share your information with others and come back for more. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to get support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• Useful tips that will help you avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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

Use keywords in your articles that your readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 for your website, search online for relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, Human Molecular Genetics, Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Physiology, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, food allergy reports, product recalls, cosmetics, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - 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 places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Cholesterol, Oral Health, Digestion, Hearing, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Pain/Anesthetics, Compliance, Body Aches, Endocrinology, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “homecare rss feeds”, “epilepsy rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and medical forms can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete steps. They can also be great client instructional tools.

You can provide checklists, charts and forms (or links to these) covering a range of subjects such as:

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

Unique Tools

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

In the next section, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your medical site that can also help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your health-related business web presence.

Click here to continue reading:

• How To Build And Grow A Health Practice Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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