Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health & medical professionals today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For Medical And Health Businesses

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your health services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that can attract clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and create a wider amount of reach 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, the needs of the website may change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health organizations face online (as most professions do for that matter), is that they have around 30 seconds to help visitors find 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 Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical sector that can evolve to meet online economy challenges and can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more web traffic and establish online credibility for your health or medical-related business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical or health business website.

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 Money And What To Do About It
• Learning WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Ways To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by covering the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what content works best, ways to improve your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this guide: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Website Pages

All business websites need some basic pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to set up your health or medical-related website for best results.

Services And Products Page

You need a page that lists your services or products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology hematology, plastic surgery, continence management, rheumatology, endoscopy, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dental implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, medical imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, holistic medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to also list any professional awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your business and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Team Profile

If you are searching for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical or health terms it 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 prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your person’s qualifications, why they are an asset 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. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory to your web site here: Adding A Staff List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Work With Us

List any job or career opportunities available within the company. This page would include training, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include stories of trainees who have risen within your organization and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to provide prospective clients with social proof online for your business.

(Add a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online here: How To Get Better Results Online With Engaging User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is vitally important.

It should provide:

• Business Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat (optional feature)

If your business services different locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You could also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like the latest news, updates, educational articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will help drive web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Drive More Website Visitors For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding the legal pages below to your medical-related site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

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

By providing useful content with information, advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

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

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Low carb diet, Raw Food diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• A guide to making the smarter choices choices when eating at restaurants
• And many other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing information on 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 just visit sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nucleic Acids Research, Epidemiology – Featured Articles, BMJ Injury Prevention, BMJ Tobacco Control, Neuropsychopharmacology, 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 and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, health fraud, recalls, cosmetics, 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 - Get various health-related 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Exercise & Fitness, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Immune System/Vaccines, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Swine Flu, Food Intolerance, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “bipolar rss feeds”, “breast cancer rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical or health-related website’s user experience.)

Add Downloadable Forms

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to complete steps. Charts and checklists are great client educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could include subjects such as:

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

Online Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your users. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that improve search engine optimization, 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 medical or health business web presence.

To continue, click here:

• How To Grow A Medical Services Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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