Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for medical and health services providers.

Online Challenges For Health And Medical Businesses

Now, more than ever, medical services practitioners must work hard to stand out from their competition and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to maintain a strong presence in the community you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline, businesses in the health or medical industry are now also finding that they need to invest a greater part of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts new clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps give their business a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, 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 some aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that medical-related businesses face with their websites, as do other professions for that matter, is that they have around thirty seconds to provide users what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 The Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health practices that are willing to evolve to meet the demands of the online economy and can think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover ways to generate web traffic and establish online credibility for your health business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your medical website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Potential Customers
• Learn How To Grow Your Small Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips To Improve Your Health Clinic Website

We’ll start first by reviewing some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a medical-related website needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services Description Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery diabetes, cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rheumatology, colon/rectal surgery, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, hearing, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, holistic medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, optical services, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, 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 your services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community activities, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to position yourself above other competitors.

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

Our Team

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in health terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize 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 can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

For a detailed tutorial on how to add an updatable simple team directory to your site using free plugins, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Work With Us

This is a listing of job opportunities within the clinic. This page would include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical or 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 updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: How To Improve Your Sales With Highly Effective User Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Business Name
• Address of clinic
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Interactive chat feature

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

Consider also including links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, new releases, educational articles, opinions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your company.

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin to attract targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more:

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

Legal Info Pages

Having a compliant website is vital. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any local, regional and federal laws or regulations in whichever area or location you provide services.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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 Links 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 about this: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing great content with useful information, advice or tips will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could write about include the following:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

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

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. 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 (generally referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your medical-related business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Allows users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your 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 valuable information 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 many useful RSS feeds by searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are some examples of feeds you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Fitness and nutrition, Heart health and stroke, Minority women’s 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BioMed Central, ADA DiabetesCare , European Heart Journal, Neurology.org, 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) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, food allergy reports, pet health, radiological health, 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 - Get various health-related feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Menopause, Neurology, Depression, Senior Health, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Schizophrenia, Seniors/Aging, Blood/Hematology, Preventive Medicine, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Statins, 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. “ebola rss feeds”, “parkinson’s disease rss feeds”, “clinical trials rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step information and resources to complete tasks. Charts and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could cover areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Online Tools

Providing unique tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, for example are useful tools you can add to your website. Others would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we take a look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your health-related site that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

Click here to access Part 2:

• Grow Your Health And Medical Practice Services Website – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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