Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only revolutionised business around the world, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for health and medical services professionals.

Challenges Professional Health Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical providers must work hard to stand apart from the crowd and find new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and searching for better ways to market your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to designate a bigger amount of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that will drive clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical or health organizations face with their websites (and other businesses for that matter), is that they have around thirty seconds to give users the information they need or they will go away.

“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 Providers

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to health or medical businesses that can adapt to meet online demands and can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

The guide below will help you uncover ways to attract new business and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your medical or health web presence, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health business website.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Money
• The Complete Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Services And Health-Related Website

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

If you need help with website planning, go here: Planning A Website - A Money-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional business websites require several essential web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology blood disorders, plastic surgery, gerontology, respiratory, infection control, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, skin cancer, radiology and imaging, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, holistic medicine, yoga, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, supported community projects, etc.

Remember to include any medical or health-related awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your medical services and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical or health 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 visitors to follow selected 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 your staff member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a list directory of employees or team members to WordPress using a free plugin here: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory: Tutorial

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. This page should include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your business and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Include also 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to will also be providing social proof for your business.

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online. For more details: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

It should include the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Email address
• Google Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like news and events, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your medical organization.

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing 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 – Discover How To Drive More Website Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s vitally important for professional organizations to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Adding the following legal pages to your health or medical website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By providing useful content with information and tips, you will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more. Using content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about using your services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can cover in your web content include:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• The role portion control plays in helping you your weight loss efforts
• Incorporating exercise into your weight loss program
• Vitamins and minerals that help with weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include the keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers would search for.

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 teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS 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 several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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 for your website by searching online for relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to a medical or health-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 search by departments and choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, HIV/AIDS, 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. Dermatology Times, The Psychiatrist, The Journal of Immunology, Occupational Medicine, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), tainted products, foods, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• 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 feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – 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, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Depression, Exercise & Fitness, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Public Health, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Blood/Hematology, Pancreatic Cancer, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “ADD rss feeds”, “nursing rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to perform necessary steps. Forms and checklists are also great instructional tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering areas such as:

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

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to improve your medical business web presence.

To view the rest of this guide, click here:

• The Ultimate Guide To Building And Growing Your Medical Practice Presence Online Successfully – Part Two

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