Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals today face a number of challenges.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical 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 a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning smarter ways to promote your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the medical-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be delegated to develop and maintain a website that can attract new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to give them a wider degree of reach online.

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

Another problem that medical or health businesses face with their websites (and most businesses for that matter), is that your site has around thirty seconds to give users 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 Services Practitioners In The Online Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the health or medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and can think progressively about marketing their business better online.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover new ways to drive more web traffic and establish online credibility for your health business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your medical or health business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Money
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online Using A WordPress Blog

How To Improve Your Website

Let’s start by going over the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed step-by-step guide: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Practical Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Pages

Professional business websites need some basic pages. Let’s discuss these.

Products And Services Description Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology diabetes, cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rheumatology, infection control, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, radiology, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, holistic medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Your Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products online and get visitors to interact more with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It should also include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a team profile page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to WordPress, go here: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory In WordPress

Work With Us

List any job opportunities available within your practice. It can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include information about additional career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

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

Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also establishes social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online, go here: Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is essential.

It should provide visitors with some or all of the following information about your company:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business services different locations you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and events, updates, training information, informative posts, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health or medical site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your medical company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your website and blog.

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can drive targeted traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here:

• WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to make sure they 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 you are not contravening local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your health-related site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s fiercely competitive online business economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

Providing useful content with advice, information or tips will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your services and products.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. HCG diet, GI diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• How a personal chef can help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords in your content that your readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your business.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 for your website by searching online for health-related government departments or industry bodies.

Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could add 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 search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, 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. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Neuroanatomy, CDC USA, American Chemical Society, Infectious Agents and Cancer, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), product recalls, animal and veterinary news, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Menopause, Chronic Pain, Pregnancy, Exercise & Fitness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Depression, Hearing/Deafness, CJD/vCJD/Mad Cow Disease, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, 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 subjects, e.g. “nephrology rss feeds”, “women’s health rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms can also be great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can address areas such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your site that can improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your health business web presence.

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

• Your Health Clinic Services Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Visitors To Your Site Generation Using WordPress Plugins And Themes

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