Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and health services professionals today are facing an ever increasing number challenges thanks to the web economy.

Challenges Medical And Health Services Professionals Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must work harder to stand apart from the crowd and source new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

As well as investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that attracts new prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and creates wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that health and medical services practitioners face with their websites, as other businesses do for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help users find the information they need or they will look 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 The Medical Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health practices that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their business better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract new visitors and improve your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical or health business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health or medical-related website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

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

Useful Tips To Improve Your Health Site

Let’s start by reviewing the basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what type of content works best, navigation structure, etc.

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

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services

You need to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery hematology, cancer, neurology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, x-ray, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, fertility services, rehabilitation, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It’s important to also mention any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Our Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your visitors get to know you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in health or medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each employee’s experience, how they add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to your site using a free WP plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the practice. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have risen within your business and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to are also providing potential clients with social proof.

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

We have created a comprehensive article on using client testimonials and client reviews improve your business online here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

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

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat feature

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as events, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, 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 site is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your website and business blog.

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Pages

It’s important to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s ultra-competitive digital economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing useful content with great tips, advice and information will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your content include:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to incorporate a little fast food into a healthy diet plan
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content 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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing. 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 your site’s user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your website.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing content on 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 health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical-related website:

• 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 specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care, Bionet RSS, TheLancet.com, Current Psychiatry, BMJ British Journal of Ophthalmology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products, drugs, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & 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 RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Neurology, Oral Health, Senior Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – 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. Colorectal Cancer, Fertility, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Emergency Medicine, Transplants/Organ Donations, Sports Medicine/Fitness, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “public health rss feeds”, “leukemia rss feeds”, “psychiatry rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and medical forms can give them step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Charts and checklists are also great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your medical-related website using WordPress plugins and themes that improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• The Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Grow Your Medical-Related Web Presence – Part 2

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