Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionized business around the world, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for health-related businesses.

Challenges Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical professionals must work harder and find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to promote your medical or health services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are also finding that they will need to assign a more significant portion of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings in prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their marketing exposure online.

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

Another difficult challenge that medical and health services professionals face online (as do all other professions for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to help users find 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 Services Practitioners In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health practices that can adapt to meet online demands and think strategically in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn opportunities to attract new bookings and establish online credibility for your business.

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

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your medical or health website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best, ways to improve your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, visit this page: The Website Planning Process - A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

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

Services

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services or products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology diabetes, reconstructive surgery, continence management, rheumatology, infection control, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

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

Remember to list any industry awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet The Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills 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 page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily add a simple and easy-to-manage simple team members directory to WordPress using free plugins here: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site: Plugin Tutorial

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your company. It can include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information about additional career opportunities in the health industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. To learn more about this go here: How To Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Awesome Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include the following:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Online chat feature

If your business operates out of several locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You could also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as the latest news, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin driving a stream of web traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Info Pages

As a professional health services practitioner, ensuring that you have a compliant website is important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical or health site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• 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 comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Provide great content with useful tips, advice and information that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can write about include the following:

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• What are calories and how understanding them aids in weight loss
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, Raw Food diet, Weight Watchers diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• How to incorporate an occasional fast food into a healthy diet plan
• Etc.

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

Use keywords and terminology in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

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 or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your presence online using content. 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 website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your site.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for health-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, ADA DiabetesCare , RadioGraphics, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food safety reports, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Dermatology, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Respiratory/Asthma, Ear, Nose and Throat, 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”, “alcohol addiction rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete steps. They are great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could include subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

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

In the next section, we take a look at a several online tools you can add to your medical or health-related website using WordPress plugins that can also help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to grow your medical or health business web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• Tips For Medical Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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