Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services practitioners today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health industry 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 a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to develop and manage a website that drives new prospects, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase your presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and some areas may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that medical-related organizations face with their websites, as most businesses do for that matter, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to provide users what they are looking for or they will leave your site and go 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 & Health Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health industry that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and think strategically in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn a number of ways to attract more visitors and notice significant improvements in your online results.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Potential Clients
• The Beginner’s Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Center Site

We’ll start first by covering the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, visit this page: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need several basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your 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 such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics diabetes, oncology, neurology, rheumatology, infection control, optometry elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

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

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

Our Team

Are you searching for ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A 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 are probably not that well-versed in health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It can include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in WordPress using a free WP plugin here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities

List any job or career opportunities within your company. It can include training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also provides social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates from multiple areas you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

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

Add A Medical Or Health Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as the latest news, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical company.

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

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that will drive new visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

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

For more info, see this article:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Drive More Website Visitors For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

It’s crucially important for medical services professionals businesses to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health or medical-related website will help you stay 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 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
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Learn more here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

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

By committing to providing great content with tips, information or advice, you will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide services that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you could cover in your web content include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• How to modify recipes for healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable 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 many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Oncologist, ADA DiabetesCare , Obesity, BMJ Tobacco Control, BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food safety, product recalls, cosmetics, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news 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.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Men’s health, Migraine Headaches, Diabetes, Exercise & Fitness, Thyroid, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Body Aches, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Epilepsy, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “medical training rss feeds”, “plastic surgery rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your medical or health site’s UX.)

Provide Charts & Checklists

Checklists and explanatory charts are a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They can also be great client educational tools.

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

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

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are useful tools you can add to your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health or medical site that improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

***

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

To continue, click this link:

• Your Health & Medical Center Website – Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic To Your Business Generation Using WordPress Plugins And Themes

***

***