Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized business globally, it has also created difficult challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical sector.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to promote your services online.

In addition to investing money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other medical or health-related businesses, you will need to invest a greater amount of your budget towards the development and management of a website that can bring new leads, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and many areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health-related businesses face with their websites (as other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds or less 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 Practitioners

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

This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways to generate web traffic and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health or medical website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• Understanding WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Tips To Improve Your Website

This section will show you how to improve your health-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best for health or medical-related websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

All business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to set up your health website for best results.

Your Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology haematology, oral surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, eye diseases elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community programs, etc.

Remember to mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your visitors get to know your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. 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 are probably not well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value 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 to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an updatable list directory of staff members in your website, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your business. It would include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients also establishes social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Profit-Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

Your contact page should provide:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat feature (optional)

If you operate in several areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Blog

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like news, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help drive targeted visitors to your site, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Web Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Provide useful content with great information, advice or tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• What calories really are and how they play a role in weight loss
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the 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 sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or 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 search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, The New England Journal of Medicine, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Cold & Flu, Diabetes, Digestion, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News 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, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Men’s Health, Allergy, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “cardiovascular rss feeds”, “medical devices rss feeds”, “ultrasound rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform tasks. Charts and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable checklists and forms covering subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Add Online Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins that can also help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to continue:

• How To Successfully Grow A Health-Related Business Online – Part 2

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