Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services professionals face many new challenges in the online economy, especially in terms of growing a presence online.

Challenges Professional Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services professionals must find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clientele. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give their business a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that health or medical businesses (and most businesses) face online, is that your site has only around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors 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

Online Opportunities For Medical & Health-Related Businesses Online

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health practices that are willing to adapt to meet digital demands and can think strategically when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

The guide below will help you uncover new ways to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Potential Clients
• WordPress In Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Business With A WordPress Blog

Practical Tips To Improve Your Website

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

If you need additional information about website planning, read this article we have written: A Comprehensive Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

Professional websites require some essential pages. Let’s review these.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology haematology, cancer, incontinence, renal, infection control, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, x-ray, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, reproductive services, physiotherapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

Remember to also include any business awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical-related 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 should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight your staff member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to create and add an updatable simple staff directory to your site using free WordPress plugins, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Recruitment Page

This is a listing of job opportunities available within the company. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Also include 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 updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof for your business.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials and case studies. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a detailed article about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content like news and announcements, updates, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

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

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Get More Website Visitors For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s important for professional companies to ensure they have a compliant website. 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 your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health or medical-related website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive digital 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 the competition.

You want to provide useful content with great tips and information that will get your visitors sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• 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 prospective clients understand your medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords and terms 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 easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your health or medical-related business.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great information 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 RSS feeds with useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• 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 individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, PsychiatryOnline Journals, TheLancet.com, Toxicological Sciences, ADA DOC News, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get RSS feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various health-related news 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. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.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. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Dermatology, Heart Disease, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “cardiology rss feeds”, “neuroscience rss feeds”, “huntingtons disease rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform tasks. Charts and checklists are also great educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your site that improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to access the rest of this guide:

• Grow Your Health Website – Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins & Themes

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