Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and Health professionals today face an ever growing number of challenges created by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Medical And Health Practitioners

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 you serve, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and learning better ways to grow your business online.

As well as investing dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that will bring in prospects, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain a wider amount of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical and health services providers face with their websites (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are searching for or they will look 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 Services

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the health sector that can evolve to meet online economy challenges and think outside the box about marketing themselves better online.

In this article, you will discover opportunities to generate new potential clients and create significant improvements in your online results.

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

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Building A Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your medical or health website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, useful tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, visit this page: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site - A Basic Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

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

Services

You need a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery endocrinology, oral surgery, stroke, renal, endoscopy, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, implants, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, holistic medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to 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, community projects, etc.

This page should also mention any business awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help your visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.

You want prospective clients 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 brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in 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 also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff 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 highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a directory of employees in your website without editing code here: How To Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Work With Us

List any career opportunities available within your business. It can include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Maintain 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 your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online With Effective Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your business:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat feature

If your business services different areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like the latest news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an health site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your services.

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin driving new targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s vitally important to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached in whatever location you provide services.

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

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

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

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing useful content with great tips and information, you will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your services.

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

• How does fiber help you lose weight?
• Easy 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?)
• Apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use keywords and terminology in your content 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your medical or health-related business.

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

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

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

There are also 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some useful 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 search by departments and choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, Nutrition Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, food allergies, product recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pregnancy, Senior Health, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Gout, Ebola, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Bones/Orthopedics, Medical Innovation, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “ovarian cancer rss feeds”, “AIDS rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.

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

Adding Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with useful instructions and resources to complete necessary steps. They are great client educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators are useful tools to add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your health site using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Grow Your Medical Website – WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic

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