Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical professionals today face difficult challenges brought about by the digital economy.

Online Challenges For Health Professionals

Now, more than ever, health or medical-related practices must work harder and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd and find new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be delegated to developing and managing a website that brings new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps create a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and sections may need to be updated often. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that health services practitioners face online, as most other businesses do for that matter, is that they have around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they are looking 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

Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Providers

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

In this guide, you will learn new ways to generate traffic and notice significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical-related business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

How To Improve Your Medical And Health Clinic Website

This section will show you how to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical site needs, what content works best, suggestions for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this article: Planning Your Website - A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services

It’s essential to have a page that lists your services and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page can list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics endocrinology, oral surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, urology, ophtalmology day surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, audiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, natural therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

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

This page should also include any business awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above the competition.

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

Staff Page

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your person’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-manage directory of employees or team members to a WordPress site with no coding skills required here: Adding An Employee Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Recruitment

List any job or career opportunities within your company. It could include training, employee benefits, professional development, social aspects of working for your business, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the health and medical industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof for your business.

(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

For a detailed article on using testimonials and user reviews improve your business online, go here: Create Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include:

• Business Name
• Your physical location
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business operates out of multiple locations you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You could also include a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as the latest announcements, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, educational videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical clinic.

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

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

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s vital to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• 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 comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. If you would like to learn more about this here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful tips, advice or information will get your readers to share your web pages and come back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide solutions that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can write content about include:

• How does fiber help you lose weight?
• The role portion control plays in helping you your weight loss efforts
• Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and suggestions
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Remember to include keywords in your content that readers will search for.

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

Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful content, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of health-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Haematologica, PsychiatryOnline Journals, Stem Cells, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), BMJ British Journal of Ophthalmology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information, food safety reports, pet health, cosmetics, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find many health-related news feeds 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. 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 choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Diabetes, Senior Health, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Featured 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. Pharma Industry/Biotech Industry, Pulmonary System, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Flu/Cold/SARS, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, 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 areas, e.g. “pregnancy rss feeds”, “emergency medicine rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

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

Adding Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and medical forms can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. They are great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of forms, charts and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects 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.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your health website that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• Online Business Tips For Health Professionals – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Traffic

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