Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health practitioners face many challenges in today’s digital economy, especially in terms of growing a successful business online.

Online Challenges For The Health Profession

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and searching for better ways to grow your practice online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are now finding that they will need to delegate a greater part of their budget to develop and maintain a website that will drive new clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and give them a wider degree of marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change over time and some aspects will need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that health or medical-related organizations face, as do most other businesses for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds or less to give users what they are searching for or they will find what they are looking for 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 Medical And Health Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical or health-related practices that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover opportunities to source new client accounts and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical or health-related web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your medical website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• WordPress For Small Business – The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Successful Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips To Improve Your Medical Services & Health-Related Site

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, read this detailed guide: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Web Pages

All business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Description Of services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that describes your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, your page could include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology blood disorders, plastic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rheumatology, gastroenterology, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, reiki, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home care, clinical information, 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 what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It’s important to also include any health or medical-related awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and to position yourself above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online, then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One 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 bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-manage directory of employees or team members in WordPress without messing around with code here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

List any career opportunities within your organization. This page could include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. You can include information about new career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also helps to establish social proof.

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Meaningful User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely vital.

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

• Name Of Your Business
• Location of consulting practice
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media pages
• Chat feature (optional)

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

You could also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as announcements, product releases, useful articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an medical website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your clinic.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing website is 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 business blog.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic machine that can begin driving new targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Web Visitors For Your Business Automatically

Legal Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaking laws and regulations wherever you practice.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health and 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: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra-competitive global economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with useful information, tips and advice will get your visitors sharing your web pages with others and coming back for more content. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business and services.

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

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• How to get support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
• How to curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include the keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching 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 or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your business.

If you provide information 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, 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 feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), ADA (American Diabetes Association), Stem Cells, Radiology, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, FDA drug shortages, product recalls, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS 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 select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Prevention & Wellness, Travel Health, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT 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. Cystic Fibrosis, Caregivers/Homecare, Depression, Conferences, COPD, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Psychology/Psychiatry, 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. “surgery rss feeds”, “dyslexia rss feeds”, “clinical trials rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Add Checklists

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide step-by-step information and resources to perform steps. Forms and checklists can also be great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools you can add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we look at a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your health or medical site that can improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• Tips For Health And Medical Services Providers – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes

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