Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals face many challenges in the online economy, especially when it comes to growing their presence online.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to promote your practice online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are now also finding that they need to invest a bigger part of their marketing budget towards developing and maintaining a website that drives new leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps them gain wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that medical professionals face, and most businesses for that matter, is that they have only around 30 seconds or less to give visitors the information 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

Online Opportunities For Medical And Health Professionals

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health sector that can evolve to meet online demands and think strategically when it comes to marketing their services better online.

The guide below will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage more visitors and see significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• A Complete Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, visit this page: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Description Of Products And Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology hematology, oncology, geriatric medicine, respiratory, bariatric surgery, optometry day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, women’s health, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home and community care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

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

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

Your Staff Page

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each employee’s qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-update simple team directory to WordPress with no coding skills required, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within your organization. It can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the 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 you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to will also be providing visitors social proof for your business.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a comprehensive article about using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. For more details: Improve Your Sales With Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is vitally important.

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

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat

If your business operates out of multiple areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content such as news and announcements, updates, training information, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help drive targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing content to your website on a regular basis.

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

For more details:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important for professional companies to have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential 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.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By providing great content with useful advice, information or tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages with others online and come back for more content. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about using your services.

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

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to calculate how many calories you burn each day
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. substituting sugars, fats, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content that prospective clients 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 and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. 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 website 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.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read 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 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 for your website, search online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are a few feeds you could consider adding to your 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. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food safety, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, foods, 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) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics 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 and 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Exercise & Fitness, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News 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. Urology/Nephrology, Pulmonary System, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Primary Care/General Practice, Dyslexia, Genetics, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “cervical cancer rss feeds”, “insomnia rss feeds”, “fitness rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and medical forms can give them step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks completed. They are great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness 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.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, for example are great tools you can add to your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your medical-related website that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your health or medical web presence.

To view Part 2, click here:

• Your Medical Services And Health Clinic Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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