Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed business around the world, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the medical-related profession.

Challenges Health Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical industry 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 an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your practice online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the medical industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that can drive new prospects, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your site 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 sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-developed website and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that health services practitioners (and other professions) face, is that they have around thirty seconds to provide users what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Health And Medical Services Professionals

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the health-related sector that can adapt to meet digital challenges and can think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about new ways to source new clients and create noticeable improvements in your medical 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 to power your health or medical-related business website.

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

• Learn How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Buyers
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing Your Small Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a health or medical website needs, what type of content works best for medical or health sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: How To Plan Your Small Business Web Site: A Money-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s discuss these.

Your Services

You need to include a page that lists your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology endocrinology, maxillofacial surgery, geriatric medicine, respiratory, urology, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, dental braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, audiology, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, fertility services, stomal therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, hearing aids, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

It’s important to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your business and set yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile Page

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in health-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your staff member’s qualifications, how their skills add value or 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 to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain list of staff members in your website using free WP plugins, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Career Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities within your company. This page can include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also helps your medical site to provide social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a comprehensive article about using testimonials and client reviews improve your business online. To learn more about this go here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Compelling User Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Location of consulting practice
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online Chat/Skype

If your business operates out of different locations you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Add A Health-Related Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as events, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or if your existing medical website 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.

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly deliver targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

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

Legal Pages

As a professional business, having a compliant website is essential. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws or regulations wherever you provide services.

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

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• 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
• etc.

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

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing great content with information, advice and tips will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

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

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to identify the bad habits you need to correct to ensure sustainable weight loss
• How to develop a better eating and exercise regimen
• Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your website.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Here are some useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health or medical-related website:

• 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 feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Violence against women, 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. Haematologica, The Psychiatrist, Neurology India, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get feeds on fda-related news and topics like FDA drug safety, food safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, cosmetics, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. 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 select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Senior Health, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT 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. Bipolar, Stroke, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Neurology/Neuroscience, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Medical Innovation, Clinical Trials/Drug Trials, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “stem cell research rss feeds”, “children’s health rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical site’s UX.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Charts and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we will look at a several online tools you can use in your health or medical website using WordPress plugins that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to grow your health or medical-related web presence.

Click here to view Part 2:

• Your Medical Services And Health Clinic Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes

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