Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and health services practitioners today are facing significant challenges created by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Health Services Providers

Today, more than ever, medical practitioners must work harder to stand out from their competition and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that brings in clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and creates a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another problem that health-related businesses (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to give users the information they are looking for or they will leave your site 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 Health Providers

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health sector that can adapt to meet online economy demands and think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover new opportunities to increase web traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical or health business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Customers
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business Online

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical And Health Center Website

We’ll start first by covering the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your health-related website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

All websites require several basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, neurology, renal, bariatric surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, x-ray, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive services, physiotherapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, 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 what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

It should mention any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to grow your business online, then help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and qualifications, 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 team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your business. It can include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information about 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients, you are also helping to establish social proof for your business.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews improve your business online. To learn more about this go here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your clinic:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established medical or health site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your practice.

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 serve both as your business website and your blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin to attract targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

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

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• 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
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving Your Content

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

By committing to providing great content with useful tips, information or advice, you will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write about include the following:

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• How to develop an exercise routine you can enjoy and will stick with
• How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthy diet plan
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your medical or health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing strategies. 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 you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide useful information, other sites may 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
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing 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 by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, 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. Haematologica, ADA (American Diabetes Association), BMJ Medical Humanities, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products, radiological health, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - 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 in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Exercise & Fitness, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Fertility, Blood/Hematology, Cholesterol, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Epilepsy, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “arthritis rss feeds”, “myeloma rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide useful instructions and resources to perform tasks. Charts and checklists are great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

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

In the next section, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To continue reading, click this link:

• The Complete Guide To Building And Growing A Medical And Health Services Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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