Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services practitioners today face a growing number of challenges.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to market your services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards developing and maintaining a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help you gain a wider amount of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and some areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical-related businesses face with their websites, and other professions for that matter, is that they have only about thirty seconds to help users find what they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 Services Providers In The Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health-related businesses that can evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think progressively about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn ways and opportunities to source more clients and establish online credibility for your medical business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Money
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Understanding WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Health Clinic Services Site

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical-related site needs, what content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require a number of basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your health or medical website for best results.

Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology hematology, cancer, gerontology, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, dental implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, oral health, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, yoga, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, physiotherapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, 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 book an appointment.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to mention any business awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and set yourself above your competitors.

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

Team

Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online and get visitors to engage more on your site? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will 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)

If you need help how to easily create and add an easy-to-update directory of employees in your web site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities

List any job opportunities available within your company. It can include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can also include case studies of graduates who have risen within your business and information about career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Maintain 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to establish social proof online.

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

We have created a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Engaging Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide the following information about your organization:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat (optional)

If you operate in several areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as events, new releases, useful articles, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical services.

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help drive targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s really important for health professionals companies to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken in whatever region you do business.

Depending on what services you provide, 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 and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

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

By providing great content with information, advice or tips, you will get your visitors sharing your information with others and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• What are calories and how understanding them helps in weight loss
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• Vitamins and minerals that help with weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Remember to use relevant keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients will be searching to find you online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide valuable content, 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website by searching online for medical-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, 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 RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BioMed Central, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, Stem Cells, The Journal of Physiology, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food safety reports, pet health, radiological health, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Oral Health, Digestion, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Surgery, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Breast Cancer, Personal Monitoring/Wearable Technology, etc.)

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

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

Add Online Checklists

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and medical forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary steps completed. Checklists and charts are also great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are popular tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health or medical site that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click here to continue reading:

• Your Medical Services & Health-Related Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

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