Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services professionals today face a number of challenges.

Online Challenges For Health Services Professionals

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and figuring out better ways to market your practice online.

In addition to spending money advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their presence online.

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

Another challenge that health or medical-related organizations face (as do all other businesses for that matter), is that they have only about thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are searching for 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

Opportunities For Medical Services Providers In The Web Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to health or medical businesses that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover opportunities to generate web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your medical-related website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Health Practice Services Site

Let’s start by going over the basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best, layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Essential Web Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your health or medical-related website for best results.

Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, pulmonology haematology, cancer, gerontology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, holistic medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

Remember to include any professional awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online and get prospects to interact more with your site? Then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and 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 team. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in health or 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. This page can include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, 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 a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-manage list directory of staff members in your WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin, see this tutorial: How To Create A Simple Employee List For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

List any job opportunities within the clinic. It would include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include information about career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from past clients also provides visitors social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews, refer to this article: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include some or all of the following information about your consulting practice:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat feature (optional feature)

If you have several areas you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your business.

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

You may not know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help begin driving new visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more details:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s essential for medical practitioners businesses to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you start to publish good content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

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

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the areas you can cover in your content include:

• How does fiber help you lose weight?
• How to get support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Hypnosis and weight loss
• What salad dressings can ruin your diet (and healthier choices)
• And endless other content topics

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

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will search for online.

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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses may 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 in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing information on your website 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 by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to your 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 choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, 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. Dermatology Times, BMJ, RadioGraphics, jobs.ac.uk health and medical jobs, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, recalls, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Digestion, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Immune System/Vaccines, Surgery, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, COPD, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “nuclear medicine rss feeds”, “food intolerance rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Checklists and charts can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Charts and checklists are great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical 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.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your users. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your health website that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to improve your medical-related business presence online.

To continue, click this link:

• A Complete Guide On How To Grow Your Health And Medical Services Website – Part Two

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