Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for businesses in the health sector.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

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 develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health or medical businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that can drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and many areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical or health-related businesses (and other businesses) face online, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to provide users what 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 Medical Businesses In The Digital Economy

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

The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more traffic and improve your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, read this article we have written: Planning Your Web Site: A Cost-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Description Of services And Products

You need to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology blood disorders, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, renal, endoscopy, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, hearing, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, holistic medicine, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, fertility services, rehabilitation, neurosciences, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community programs, etc.

Remember to include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and position yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile

Are you looking for ways to sell more products online and get people to interact more on your site? Then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical 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 should also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each employee’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily create and add an updatable simple employee directory to your site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Add An Employee List Directory

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the organization. It would include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have risen within your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this 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.

Case Studies

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information:

• Name
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat/Skype

If you operate out of multiple areas you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You can also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like news, updates, educational articles, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established medical site, 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 very hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and your blog.

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that will deliver an ongoing stream of new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

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

For more details, go here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Increase Your Website Visitors For Your Business

Legal Information

It’s crucial to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical or health site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal 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/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with useful information, advice or tips will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to educate your visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

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

• How does fiber help you lose weight?
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• What salad dressings can sabotage your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

Using RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful information, 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds you could add to your 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 select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, Nutrition Journal, American Cancer Society, BMJ Tobacco Control, Respiratory Research, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, FDA drug shortages, product recalls, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – 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. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Neurology, Pregnancy, Senior Health, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Pain/Anesthetics, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Swine Flu, Primary Care/General Practice, Epilepsy, Tuberculosis, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “radiology rss feeds”, “pancreatic cancer rss feeds”, “huntingtons disease rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your health or medical website’s user experience.)

Add Forms & Checklists

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary steps. They are great client educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools to add to your website. Other applications would include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Tips For Health And Medical Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Driving More Visitors To Your Website

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