Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed businesses worldwide, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for health and medical services providers and financial service providers.

Online Challenges For The Health & Medical Profession

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to market your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the medical or health industry are also finding that they need to invest a more significant share of their marketing budget to developing and managing a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase their presence online.

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

Another difficult challenge that medical and health services practitioners face online (and most other professions for that matter), is that your site has around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors with what they are looking for or they will 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 Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related sector that can adapt to meet digital demands and can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will learn about ways and opportunities to find new potential clients and improve your online results.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your medical or health-related business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing A Successful Business With A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by reviewing some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical website and get better results online. We show you what pages a medical or health-related website needs, what type of content works best for health-related sites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health-related website, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to structure your health-related website for best results.

Your Services And Products

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology diabetes, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, rheumatology, colon/rectal surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, hearing, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, natural therapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, podiatry, reproductive services, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, assisted living, home 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 these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community services, etc.

It’s important to mention any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Team

Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical or health terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual 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 each team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to your website without messing around with code here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities Page

List any job opportunities available within the organization. It can include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have risen within your organization and information about career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Also include 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

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also provides social proof.

(Add a page with testimonials and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively on using client case studies and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more about this: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects Using Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is essential.

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

• Name
• Address of premises
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Interactive chat (optional)

If you operate in several areas you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an 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 medical website is very hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and your blog.

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can help begin to attract web traffic to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being broken in whatever area you do business.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You will want to provide useful content with information and tips that will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your services and products.

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

• What to do before you start any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Incorporating exercise into your busy schedule
• How to make right choices when eating out at any restaurant
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers understand your medical-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords and terms in your content that your prospective clients would search to find you 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 that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide useful information, other sites 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your 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 providing great content on 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 search online for relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds you could add to a health-related 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 select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Violence against women, 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. BioMed Central, Nutrition Journal, TheLancet.com, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, food allergies, pet health, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Mental Health, Cholesterol, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT 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. Abortion, Pain/Anesthetics, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Lymphoma/Leukemia/Myeloma, Back Pain, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, MRI/PET/Ultrasound, 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. “cardiovascular rss feeds”, “pediatrics rss feeds”, “psychiatry rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are also great client educational tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can include areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• How To Build And Grow Your Health-Related Presence Online Successfully With WordPress – Part 2

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