Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business globally, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for businesses offering medical or health-related services.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

Today, more than ever, medical and health services providers must work harder to stand apart from their competition and source new clients. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning better ways to grow your services online.

As well as investing money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be allocated to developing and managing a website that drives new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to give your business a wider degree of reach online.

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

Another challenge that medical services practitioners face, and all other businesses for that matter, is that they have an average of 30 seconds to give users what they are looking for 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 Professionals

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related profession that can adapt to meet digital economy challenges and can think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover opportunities to increase traffic and see significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, 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 website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• How To Grow Your Small Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Practice Site

This section explains how to improve your medical website and get better results. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content you need, useful tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical-related website, check out the guide we have written here: How To Plan Your Web Site: A Basic Guide For Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All business websites need several basic pages. Let’s review these.

Your Products And Services

It’s essential to have a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery haematology, oncology, rehabilitation medicine, rheumatology, infection control, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, hearing, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, lymphedema therapy, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical transport, 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 the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic activities, etc.

It’s important to also include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your services and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for visitors to get to know 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. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients 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 outline your employee’s experience, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to add an easy-to-manage list directory of employees in your web site using a free WP plugin, go here: How To Add An Employee List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Recruitment

List any job or career opportunities available within the company. This page can include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. It should include information about upcoming career opportunities in the health industry.

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

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof for your business.

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

We have written extensively on using testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. For more info, see this article: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

If you operate in different locations you should make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, updates, educational information, informative posts, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical site is very hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and your blog.

Not many people know this, but WordPress can become an automated traffic machine that will help begin to attract web traffic to your website, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical or health-related site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

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

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

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s highly competitive global business economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By providing useful content with tips, advice or information, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to inform and 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 cover in your web content include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• What are calories and how they play a role in weight loss
• How to incorporate exercise into your busy schedule
• Smartphone apps for tracking calories and exercise
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients will be searching for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s 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 visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on your website 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 searching online for medical and health-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Smoking and how to quit, 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. Journal of Applied Physiology, Epidemiology – Featured Articles, JCI – The Journal of Clinical Investigation, BMJ Archives of Disease, Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information updates, food safety, pet health, cosmetics, 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 - Find various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.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. Lung Conditions, Mental Health, Cold & Flu, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Women’s Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Featured 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, Multiple Sclerosis, Health Insurance, Flu/Cold/SARS, Men’s Health, HIV/AIDS, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “hypertension rss feeds”, “neurology rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s user experience.)

Add Online Forms

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and charts can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to perform steps. Charts and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can cover subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools could include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part 2, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins you can add to your site that improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to improve your medical business presence online.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Tips For Medical And Health Services Practitioners – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins

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