Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical and Health professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Medical Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to promote your practice online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a more significant share of your marketing budget to developing and managing a website that brings new prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and gives your business wider marketing reach online.

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

One other difficult challenge that health organizations face online, as other professions do for that matter, is that you have around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are looking for or they will leave the 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 And Health Services Professionals In The Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health industry that can adapt to meet digital economy challenges and who can think outside the box about improving their online marketing skills.

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn a number of ways to attract more client bookings and establish online credibility for your health or medical business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical or health business website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business
• WordPress And Small Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your medical website and get better results online. We will look at what pages your website needs, what content works best, ways to improve your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, go here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites need some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your medical website for best results.

Products And Services

You need a page that describes your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery hematology, maxillofacial surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, infection control, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, radiology and imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive services, occupational therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to 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 your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

Remember to also list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your business and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to highlight your staff member’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.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees or team members in your web site using free WP plugins, go here: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any job opportunities available within the business. This page could include training, employee benefits, professional development, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the medical or 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 the page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies, you are also helping to establish social proof online for your business.

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

For a detailed article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online, go here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Engaging Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide:

• Company Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Online Chat/Skype

If you have multiple areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like announcements, updates, educational articles, opinions on current topics, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will begin delivering targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Attract More Website Visitors For Your Business

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is really important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your medical or health website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: 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 success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with tips or information will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How small efforts in portion control can help your weight loss efforts
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, South Beach diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, are they effective)
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching to find you 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 website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for medical-related government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you could add to a medical-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, The Journal of Immunology, BMJ Tobacco Control, American Institute of Biological Sciences, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get feeds on fda-related topics like criminal investigations, FDA drug shortages, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Digestion, High Blood Pressure, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Hypertension, Immune System/Vaccines, Eczema/Psoriasis, Aid/Disasters, Transplants/Organ Donations, Biology/Biochemistry, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lymphedema rss feeds”, “breast cancer rss feeds”, “ear, nose and throat rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Add Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Charts and checklists can give them useful step-by-step information and resources to perform necessary steps. Forms and checklists are great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of forms, charts and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. 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 the next section of this detailed guide, we will look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your medical or health-related site that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to view the rest of this guide:

• A Practical Guide On How To Successfully Build And Grow A Medical Practice Services Business Online With WordPress – Part Two

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