Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical providers today are facing an increasing number challenges created by the digital economy.

Challenges Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to assign a bigger amount of your marketing budget to develop and manage a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and gives your business wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical services practitioners (and all other professions) face, is that they have only about thirty seconds or less to provide visitors what they are searching for or they will leave and go 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

Opportunities For Medical Services Providers

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health or medical businesses that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and see significant improvements in your business results online.

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

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Business Owners – A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Health & Medical Clinic Services Website

We’ll start first by covering the basic information you need. 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 works best for medical or health-related websites, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical website, go here: How To Plan Your Business Website: A Basic Primer For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need some essential pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Description Page

You need a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, neurosurgery hematology, oncology, incontinence, renal, weight loss surgery, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, hearing, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home and community care, clinical information, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical donations, etc.

It’s important to include any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online or get people to engage more on your site, then help visitors get to know you and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical or health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s experience, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your business and information about new career opportunities in the medical or health-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 your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with reviews from clients and case studies also provides social proof.

(Add a web page with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

To learn more about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using More Effective User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is vitally important.

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

• Name Of Your Business
• Your address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you operate in multiple areas you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog Section

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 promote your business using timely content such as news, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your company.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin delivering a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

You can learn more about this here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information

It’s essential to have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health or medical site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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 about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive global economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide useful content with information and tips that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you could cover in your content include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• What are calories and how understanding them aids in weight loss
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• Apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Include the keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful information, other businesses will 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Allows for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other sites, 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 well-known industry bodies.

Here are some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, American Cancer Society, Journal of Cell Science, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food allergy reports, 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) - Find various feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Chronic Pain, Diet & Weight Management, Prevention & Wellness, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Nursing/Midwifery, Respiratory/Asthma, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “arthritis rss feeds”, “drug approvals rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

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

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators are useful tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we look at a several online tools you can use in your medical website using WordPress plugins that can improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

Click here to read the rest of this guide:

• How To Grow Your Medical Services & Health Clinic Business Online Successfully – Part 2

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