Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health practitioners today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For Health Services Professionals

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv spots, etc., businesses in the health-related industry are now also finding that they will need to designate a greater amount of their marketing budget to developing and managing a website that brings new leads, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and increases their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your website has to 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 aspects will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

One other problem that medical services professionals face, as other professions do for that matter, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to give users what they are searching 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 Medical & Health Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think strategically when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will discover opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your health or medical-related business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health-related website, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• WordPress And Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing A Small Business Using A WordPress Blog

Ways To Improve Your Medical Center Site

We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical-related website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best for health websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, visit this page: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Products And Services Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services or products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, neurosurgery endocrinology, cancer, continence management, respiratory, bariatric surgery, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, reflexology, functional medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, fertility services, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It should also mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your business better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to outline your team member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable 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 members to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to easily add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory in your WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Add A Staff List Directory To WordPress

Work For Us

This is a listing of job opportunities available within your company. It could include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to are also providing potential clients with social proof online for your business.

(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using client testimonials and user reviews get better results online here: Learn How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting Client Testimonials

Contact Page

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat

If your business services different areas you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You should also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, main pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as news and announcements, new releases, useful articles, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established health or medical website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your organization.

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

You may not know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Information

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 local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your health or medical site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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

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

How To Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online business economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Provide useful content with great information, tips and advice that will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the areas you could write content about include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• Vitamins and minerals that help with weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for.

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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides many benefits for your business.

If you provide useful information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes 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.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of health-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of feeds you could add to a medical or health-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Violence against women, 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. Haematologica, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, Neurology India, American Chemical Society, 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) - Get various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food allergies, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, vaccines, blood and biologics, etc.) and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (www.gov.uk) – 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) - Get various health-related 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 feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Depression, Digestion, HIV, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Fertility, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Aid/Disasters, Nursing/Midwifery, Nutrition/Diet, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “public health rss feeds”, “mad cow disease rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms are also great educational tools.

You can provide a range of forms and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• 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 stages of development, etc.)

Provide Online Tools

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

In part 2 of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress-based tools you can add to your medical site that 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.

To view Part 2, click this link:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow A Health Clinic Online – Part Two

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