Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for medical and health services practitioners.

Challenges Medical Firms Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical or health businesses must work harder to remain competitive and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the medical-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that attracts leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to create a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change in time and some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical professionals face online (as do most other professions for that matter), is that they have only around thirty seconds or less to give visitors the information they are looking for 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 Medical Services Providers In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health profession that can evolve to meet online challenges and can think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this guide, you will learn new ways to find new potential clients and notice significant improvements in your business presence online.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by reviewing the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health-related website, read this guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need and how to set up your health or medical-related website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology diabetes, cosmetic surgery, stroke, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, medical imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, optical services, medical genetics, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

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

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

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

Staff

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online? Then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be 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. This page 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 each 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 page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add a simple team members directory to a WordPress site without messing around with code here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the business. It would include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your business, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the medical or health 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, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also helps your health or medical-related business to establish social proof online.

(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

For a detailed article on using client testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Awesome User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services several locations you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You could also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will help deliver targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Grow Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Information Pages

It’s important for professional businesses to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you 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
• etc.

Go here for a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content to visitors at no cost has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

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

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could cover in your content include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• What are calories and how understanding them helps in weight loss
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to make smarter choices choices when eating out at any restaurant
• And many other content topics

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

Use the same keywords 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 teach 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 business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide information 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 updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for health and medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, 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. Haematologica, ADA DiabetesCare , American Cancer Society, BMJ Archives of Disease, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like enforcement reports, food safety reports, tainted products, animal and veterinary news, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: 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 individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Heart, etc.)
• Medical News Today – 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. Eating Disorders, Caregivers/Homecare, Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Cholesterol, Parkinson’s Disease, Dyslexia, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lymphedema rss feeds”, “asthma rss feeds”, “dementia rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical or health-related site’s UX.)

Adding Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can give them step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary steps. Checklists and forms can also be great client instructional tools.

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

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

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click here to read Part Two:

• Online Business Tips For Medical And Health Services Providers – WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic

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