Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created many challenges and great opportunities for businesses offering health or medical services.

Online Challenges For The Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, medical services providers must work harder to stand apart from their competition and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the health or medical-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that will bring new prospects, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help create a wider amount of marketing reach 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, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other problem that health providers (and other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to help visitors find what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Medical And Health Services Practitioners

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for medical or health businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital challenges and think progressively about marketing their business better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your medical or health business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health-related website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Business
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Health Practice Site

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content you need, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health-related website, check out the article we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process - A Practical Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

Professional business websites need several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to structure your website for best results.

Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology haematology, cosmetic surgery, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, urology, eye diseases elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, restorations, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, x-ray, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home care, sexual health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

This page should list any health or medical-related awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors 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 employees. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your person’s experience, why they are an 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 team to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily add a simple team members directory in your web site using free WordPress plugins, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within your organization. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have risen within your company and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

Include also 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof online for your business.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a comprehensive article about using testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online. To learn more about this go here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Knockout Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should include:

• Name
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media profiles
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business services multiple areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, online booking request, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content like announcements, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your medical company.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly attract a stream of web traffic to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Info Pages

As a professional health or medical services provider, having a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken wherever you practice.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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
• and others

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

By providing great content with tips, information or advice, you will get your readers sharing your web pages with others online and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

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

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals)
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to use keywords in your content that prospective clients will search for.

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 website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

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

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses 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 kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great content on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by visiting sites of medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some 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 also select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Smoking and how to quit, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, CDC USA, The Journal of Physiology, 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) - Find many feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. criminal investigations press releases, food allergy reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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 health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS 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. Medications, Menopause, Migraine Headaches, Diabetes, Digestion, 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. Cystic Fibrosis, Lupus, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Body Aches, Food Intolerance, Epilepsy, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “immune system rss feeds”, “food intolerance rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Charts and checklists can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Checklists and charts are also great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are popular tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your medical website that can also help to 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.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• Your Health Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins

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