Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed businesses worldwide, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for medical-related businesses.

Online Challenges For Medical Businesses

Now, more than ever, medical and health services providers must work hard to remain competitive and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical-related industry are now also finding that they will need to designate a more significant part of their budget towards the development and management of a website that can attract new prospects, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects will need to be updated often. This requires a sound website and content management strategy in place.

One other difficult challenge that health and medical services practitioners (and most other businesses) face with their websites, is that you have around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 & Medical Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical profession that can evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and can think progressively in terms of marketing their services better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new ways to attract new clients and create noticeable improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical business website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business
• Mastering WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Tips To Improve Your Medical Services And Health Center Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services or products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology endocrinology, oncology, aged care, respiratory, weight loss surgery, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Meet Your Staff

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each person’s expertise and 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 page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily create and add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory in your web site, go here: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of career opportunities within your company. It should include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You should also include 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 the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and testimonials also helps your health-related website to provide social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews improve your business online here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include:

• Name Of Your Business
• Location
• Phone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services different locations you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, updates, educational information, informative posts, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin to drive web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s extremely important to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or medical-related website will help you stay 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 Policy
• Terms 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
• and others

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

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra-competitive digital economy, the sooner you start publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By providing great content with information, advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages online and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can write content about include:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. HCG diet, Raw Food diet, Weight Watchers diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, are they effective)
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your articles that your readers will search for 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 you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your 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!

Improve User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

If you provide useful information, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for medical-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a medical website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), Human Molecular Genetics, BMJ Injury Prevention, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, Cambridge Journals Online, 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
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food safety reports, product recalls, radiological health, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Cold & Flu, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Sexual Health, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Pulmonary System, ADHD/ADD, Pancreatic Cancer, Nursing/Midwifery, Biology/Biochemistry, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “biotech industry rss feeds”, “transplants rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and medical forms can provide useful instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and charts can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health or medical site that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your health web presence.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Online Business Tips For Medical Professionals – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Traffic

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