Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals face many challenges in the web economy, especially when it comes to growing a business online.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated to developing and maintaining a website that drives prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to increase their reach online.

This means that your site 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, your site’s needs may change in time and some aspects may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that medical businesses face online, and most other professions for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“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 Providers

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical practices that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and who can think strategically about marketing their services better online.

In this article, you will learn about ways to increase traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

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

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

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Clients
• WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

How To Improve Your Medical Center Site

This section explains ways to improve your health-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, useful tips for improving your site’s layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this detailed step-by-step guide: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Website Pages

Professional websites need a number of basic pages. Let’s go over these.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology endocrinology, cancer, gerontology, rheumatology, bariatric surgery, eye diseases emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, holistic medicine, meditation, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, rehabilitation, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. 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 Page

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to list any business awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team Profile Page

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

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in medical or health-related terms your bio 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 so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise and qualifications, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your site using free WordPress plugins here: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your organization. This page should include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your company and information about new career opportunities in the medical industry.

Also include a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you are also helping to provide social proof for your business.

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

For a detailed article about using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online, go here: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information about your business:

• Company Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat

If your business services several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like news and events, new releases, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your medical practice.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical-related site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

It’s important for health and medical services professionals businesses 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 and regulations are being contravened in whatever area you service.

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

• Contact Page
• 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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

By providing useful content with great tips or information, you will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• Is using a measuring tape better than a scale when it comes to weight loss progress?
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your medical or health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords and terms in your articles that 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 that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses will 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
• Can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing great content on your site from other websites, 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 health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds you could add to a health or medical-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 also select individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, 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 feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Medscape, Infectious Agents and Cancer, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations press releases, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products marked as dietary supplements, drugs, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various 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 by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diabetes, Eyesight, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Acid Reflux/GERD, Infectious Diseases/Bacteria/Viruses, Aid/Disasters, Water – Air Quality/Agriculture, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “compliance rss feeds”, “mad cow disease rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Charts and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your site that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to keep reading:

• Your Health & Medical Center Services Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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