Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for the health or medical-related industry.

Online Challenges For The Health & Medical Profession

Now, more than ever, health or medical practices must find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and source new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to allocate a bigger portion of your budget to developing and maintaining a website that drives new prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create a wider amount of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical and health services practitioners face online (as most other businesses do for that matter), is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to give visitors what they are searching for or they will leave the site.

“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 Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health-related industry that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways to generate more web traffic and establish online credibility for your medical-related business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Buyers And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business Owners – The Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Center Services Website

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

If you need website planning assistance, see this guide: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your medical or health-related website for best results.

Services And Products Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory, weight loss surgery, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, fertility services, optical services, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It should list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet Our Team

Are you looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction on your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add a simple and easy-to-manage list of employees in your web site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. This page could include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the medical and health industry.

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

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews go here: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates out of different locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news, updates, useful articles, discussions on current topics, educational videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established medical or health website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your company.

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will help begin attracting an ongoing stream of web traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

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

For more info, see this article:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whatever region you service.

Adding the following legal pages 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 sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online business economy, the ability to deliver valuable content free of charge has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing great content with useful tips, information and advice will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more content. Using content 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 weight management services, then some of the areas you can write about include the following:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• Tips for developing a better eating and exercise regime
• What salad dressings can derail your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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.

Include the keywords in your content that your readers will search for.

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

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or respected 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 RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, JAMA & Archives, Neurology India, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations press releases, health fraud, recalls, vaccines, blood and biologics, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – 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. Medications, Menopause, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Senior Health, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Seniors/Aging, Compliance, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Back Pain, Allergy, Statins, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “hospice care rss feeds”, “bones rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and medical forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. They can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your health or medical website using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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

To keep reading, click this link:

• Your Health & Medical Services Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors With Plugins

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