Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical professionals today face growing challenges.

Challenges Medical Services Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning smarter ways to promote your services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, businesses in the health-related industry are now finding that they need to assign a greater portion of their budget to develop and maintain a website that drives new prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change over time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical or health organizations (and most other professions) face with their websites, is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are searching 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 Health Services

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

In this detailed guide, you will discover new ways to generate more web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your health business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Prospective Buyers
• WordPress For Small Business Owners – A Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Small Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Site

This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content you need, useful tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: How To Plan Your Business Website - A Practical Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites require several essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your medical-related website for best results.

Products And Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics endocrinology, plastic surgery, incontinence, respiratory, urology, ophtalmology operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology and imaging, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, functional medicine, yoga, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

Remember to also include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Your Team

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site, then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. A 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 mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily create and add a list of employees in a WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: Adding A Staff List Directory In WordPress: Plugin Tutorial

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within the company. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored or encouraged by your business, etc. You can include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the 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 this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. Learn more about this here: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Address of clinic
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate from multiple locations you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like events, updates, educational information, informative posts, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing medical or health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your company.

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin driving web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a compliant website is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever your practice is located.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Provide great content with useful tips or information that will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• Apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your medical or health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• 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 medical and health-related government departments or key industry bodies.

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

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, JAMA & Archives, BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, Occupational Medicine, 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) - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information updates, 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 (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) - Find 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Depression, Prevention & Wellness, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Vascular, Surgery, Swine Flu, Parkinson’s Disease, Respiratory/Asthma, Genetics, 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. “bipolar rss feeds”, “epilepsy rss feeds”, “oncology rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Provide Downloadable Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide useful instructions and resources to complete steps. Charts and checklists are also great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms, charts and checklists covering topics such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your health or medical web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow A Health Clinic Services Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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