Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and great opportunities for the medical or health-related sector.

Challenges Health Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be allocated towards developing and managing a website that will bring in leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help you gain a wider amount of reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a well-developed web and content management strategy.

Another problem that health or medical-related businesses (and other professions) face, is that they have only around thirty seconds to help users find what they need 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 Health And Medical Services Practitioners In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health industry that can adapt to meet digital economy challenges and can think progressively about improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover ways to drive more web traffic and build more online credibility for your medical business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your medical-related website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health-related business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section looks at ways to improve your health or medical-related website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a medical-related site needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process - A Money-Saving Primer For Business Owners

Essential Web Pages

All business websites need some essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery haematology, oral surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, respiratory, gastroenterology, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, 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 what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community activities, etc.

Remember to include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Meet The Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s 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 staff description page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your organization. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted by your organization, etc. You can also include information about new career opportunities in the health or medical-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 this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps your health or medical business to establish social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online. To learn more about this go here: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online With Standout Client Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your clinic:

• Company Name
• Street address of consulting practice
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype

If your business services different locations you should make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as announcements, updates, educational information, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your company.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will help attract targeted traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

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

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is crucially important. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened in whatever region you service.

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. If you are interested in learning more about this here: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive digital economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. This is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

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

• Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
• How to ask for support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, GI diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And endless other content topics

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, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use keywords and terms in your articles that your readers would search to find you online.

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 website, save money creating useful content for 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 your user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help you keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds you could add to a health or medical 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 RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, 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 list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (American Association for Cancer Research), Bionet RSS, RadioGraphics, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food allergy reports, pet health, tobacco news, 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. 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 news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Chronic Pain, Pregnancy, Prevention & Wellness, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eating Disorders, Stroke, ADHD/ADD, Aid/Disasters, Diabetes, Biology/Biochemistry, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “skin cancer rss feeds”, “primary care rss feeds”, “erectile dysfunction rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary steps completed. They are great educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can use in your health website that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to grow your medical or health web presence.

Click on this link to view Part 2:

• Your Medical And Health Practice Website – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Website Generation Using Plugins

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