Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed businesses worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the health profession.

Challenges Medical Professionals Face Online

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 an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your medical services online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other medical or health businesses, you will need to assign a larger amount of your marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that can drive leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help give you a wider degree of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical services professionals face with their websites, and all other professions for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to provide users with what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 Online Economy

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

In this detailed guide, you will learn new opportunities to generate more web traffic and see significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system to power your health business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical & Health Center Services Website

This section looks at how to improve your health website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best, ways to improve your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

Professional websites require some essential pages. Let’s review these.

Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, pulmonology endocrinology, reconstructive surgery, geriatric medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, community 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 why they should choose you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your business and set yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then help your prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

You want prospective clients 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 biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in health terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your team member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to add a list directory of employees in a WordPress site without messing around with code, go here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory In WordPress

Work With Us

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your organization. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

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

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also helps to provide social proof online.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more about this: Achieve Better Results Online Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Business Name
• Address of clinic
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Chat (optional feature)

If your business operates in several locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will help deliver web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Drive More Website Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

As a professional health provider, having a compliant website is vitally important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on what services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health or medical website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Website

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

Provide great content with useful tips, advice and information that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Incorporating exercise into your weight loss program
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• And endless other content topics

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

Remember to use specific keywords and terms in your content that your prospective clients would search to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 100% FREE!

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide many benefits for your business.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site 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 and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, 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 directory of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, Medscape, 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 various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food allergies, pet health, 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 news 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. Medical 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 RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Sexual Health/STDs, Veterinary, Parkinson’s Disease, 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 topics, e.g. “lymphedema rss feeds”, “irritable-bowel syndrome rss feeds”, “personal monitoring rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Adding Forms And Checklists

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and charts can provide useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. They can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance 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 ages, etc.)

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this comprehensive guide on ways to build your health or medical-related web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow Your Health Practice Services Website Successfully – Part 2

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