Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health or medical professionals today face a growing number of challenges.

Challenges Health Businesses Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that will bring in leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, 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 website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that health or medical organizations face, as do most businesses for that matter, is that you have only around 30 seconds to provide users with what they need 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 Medical Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health-related practices that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn new ways to increase web traffic and notice significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your health or medical business website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what content works best for medical or health websites, useful tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical website, read this article we have written: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site - A Basic Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists 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. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics hematology, cancer, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory, urology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, dental implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It should also list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and set yourself above the competition.

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

Staff Page

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization 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. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s experience, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a simple employee directory to your site without editing code here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add A Staff List Directory To WordPress

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health industry.

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

Testimonials

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

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Engaging User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include the following information:

• Name
• Address of clinic
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Chat

If your business services several locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You should also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, updates, training information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical-related website is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that can drive new targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important for professional businesses to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being broken in whatever area you provide services.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health-related website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra-competitive global business economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Providing useful content with advice or tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
• Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords in your articles that readers will search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your 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 website user experience (known as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites will 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
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users 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 providing valuable content on your site 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 search online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few RSS feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, 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. PhysiologicalReviews, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Toxicological Sciences, Infectious Agents and Cancer, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Arthritis, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Eyesight, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT 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. Colorectal Cancer, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Swine Flu, Diabetes, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

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

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your health or medical-related website’s user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists And Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a task. They are great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

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

In part 2, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your health or medical website using WordPress plugins that can also help 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.

Click here to continue:

• Online Business Tips For Health Practitioners – WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Help Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic

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