Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals face many challenges in the online economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful business presence online.

Challenges Professional Health Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that can attract clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your site 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 implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical-related businesses face online, as most other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to help visitors 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 Health And Medical Services Practitioners

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital challenges and think strategically in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover opportunities to generate more 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 WordPress to power your health or medical-related website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Business With A WordPress Blog

How To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you how to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what pages a health or medical site needs, what content you need, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: The Website Planning Process: A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

Professional websites require a number of essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to set up your medical or health-related website for best results.

Services Page

You need to include a page that lists your services or products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics diabetes, maxillofacial surgery, incontinence, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology elective surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

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.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your medical services and position yourself above the competition.

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

Your Team

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online and get people to engage more on your site, then help prospective clients get to know you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It can also include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s qualifications, 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 page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain list directory of employees or team members in WordPress using a free WP plugin here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the clinic. It can include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. You should also include information about 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, subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies 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 will also be providing social proof online.

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials and user reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Effective Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat feature

If your business operates out of several areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as the latest news, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing site is very hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and blog.

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help begin to attract targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Information

It’s really important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever you practice.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site 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 Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Content

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

Providing useful content with information, advice and tips will get your readers to share your web pages online with others and come back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• Smartphone 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, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords in your articles that prospective clients 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 actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS feeds provide plenty 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 syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

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

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could add to a health-related 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 feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, 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. Nucleic Acids Research, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Toxicological Sciences, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related news and topics like criminal investigations press releases, food safety reports, tainted products, drugs, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get many health-related 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. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.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. Medications, Arthritis, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Caregivers/Homecare, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Hearing/Deafness, Primary Care/General Practice, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “colorectal cancer rss feeds”, “orthopedics rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Add Online Forms And Checklists

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and charts can also be great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Other applications could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your website that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

To continue reading, click here:

• Your Health Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins & Themes

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