Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created many challenges and opportunities for health-related businesses.

Challenges Medical & Health Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning better ways to grow your services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to invest a greater share of your marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that drives new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other problem that health-related businesses (and most other businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to help users find what they are searching for or they will leave your site and 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 Practitioners

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical-related businesses that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and can think progressively about improving their online marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about opportunities to drive more traffic and improve your business results online.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Business
• A Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Business With WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Health Center Services Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your medical or health website and get better results. We will look at what pages a medical or health-related site needs, what content works best, useful tips for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

All websites require several basic web pages. Let’s review these.

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page could list services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, nephrology haematology, cosmetic surgery, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, renal, urology, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, natural therapy, meditation, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community services, etc.

This page should mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and position yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online or increase user interaction with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization 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 well-versed in health-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your 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 each employee’s expertise, 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 ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add a directory of employees to your website using free WordPress plugins, go here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any job or career opportunities available within your company. This page could include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

Also include 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.

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps your medical or health-related website to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online, go here: Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Chat

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

You could also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your practice.

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing health or medical-related website is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and business blog.

Something not many people know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that will begin delivering a stream of new visitors to your business, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Web Visitors Automatically With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucially important for health services professionals organizations to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online business economy, being generous with information has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

Providing useful content with great tips, information and advice will get your visitors to share your web pages online with others and come back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• How to set realistic, but challenging weight loss goals
• How to incorporate exercise into your weight loss program
• What salad dressings can ruin your weight loss program (and healthier choices)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include keywords and terminology in your content that readers will be searching to find you 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your 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!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful information, 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 updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing valuable information on your website 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 relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are some examples of feeds you could add to a medical website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, 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. Dermatology Times, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, BMJ Archives of Disease, BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 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 RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information, health fraud, pet health, cosmetics, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related 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 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 choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Neurology, Diabetes, Senior Health, Thyroid, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Medical News Featured 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. Stem Cell Research, Multiple Sclerosis, Surgery, Cholesterol, Parkinson’s Disease, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “health insurance rss feeds”, “quit smoking rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to complete steps. They can also be great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and 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, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools you can add to your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

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

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This is the end of part 1 of this guide on ways to grow your health business web presence.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• The Ultimate Guide To Building And Growing Your Health-Related Online – Part 2

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