Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services professionals today face a number of challenges.

Challenges Professional Medical Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical industry 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 an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings new leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and many areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical providers (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to provide users what they are looking 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 Providers

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical sector that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover opportunities to generate more potential clients and establish online credibility for your business.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Online With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Services & Health Clinic Site

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

If you need assistance or help planning your health-related website, check out the article we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, pulmonology blood disorders, oral surgery, neurology, renal, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, hearing, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellness, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

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

Remember to also list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Core Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then help prospective clients get to know your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s experience, how their skills and knowledge 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 staff description page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in a WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your clinic. It can include training provided, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can include information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical industry.

Include also 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 And Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials also helps your medical or health-related site to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Business Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like news, updates, training information, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your services.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health site is hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and your blog.

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin attracting a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

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

For more details, go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Getting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically

Legal Info Pages

It’s extremely important for medical and health services providers businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding the legal pages below to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• 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 detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s highly competitive online business economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

You want to provide useful content with advice, information and tips that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if you provide services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can write content about include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure sustainable weight loss
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Low carb diet, Mediterranean diet, Jenny Craig diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthier diet plan
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients would search for online.

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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses 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 in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical 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 choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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 Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice, JAMA & Archives, Neurology India, Toxicological Sciences, Cambridge Journals Online, 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
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, pet health, tobacco news, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: 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 individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Depression, Digestion, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Medical Students/Training, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Surgery, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Food Intolerance, Respiratory/Asthma, Genetics, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “obstetrics rss feeds”, “neurology rss feeds”, “MRI rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Add Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Charts and checklists can give them useful information and resources to get necessary steps done. Charts and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we will look at a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your health or medical website that can also help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

To continue, click this link:

• The Complete Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Medical Practice Presence Online Successfully – Part Two

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