Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionised the way business is done worldwide, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for medical and health services providers.

Online Challenges For Health And Medical Services Providers

Now, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your medical services online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to develop and maintain a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to increase your marketing exposure online.

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

One other problem that health providers face online (and most other professions for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide users what they are searching for 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

Opportunities For Medical & Health Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical-related sector that are willing to evolve to meet online economy demands and think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and build more online credibility for your health or medical business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System to power your medical-related business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, go here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Practical Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need 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 and products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, nephrology haematology, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, renal, colon/rectal surgery, ophtalmology elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, reflexology, holistic medicine, yoga, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, reproductive services, speech therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

This page should also list any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your business and set yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust 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. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in medical or health terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

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 outline your person’s experience, how their skills add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage directory of staff or team members to your website without coding skills, see this tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

Job Opportunities Page

List any job or career opportunities available within your business. It could include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

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

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

We have written extensively on using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Create Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following information:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online chat feature

If your business operates in multiple areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as events, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin to attract web traffic to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Driving More Website Traffic Automatically Using WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s crucial to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws and regulations wherever your business is located.

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

• Contact Us
• 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

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

Providing useful content with information, advice and tips will get your readers sharing your web pages online with others and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to educate your 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:

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• 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 educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include the keywords and terms in your content that readers will be searching for online.

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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your presence 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 your site’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your website.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing valuable content on your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for medical-related government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could add to your 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, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, ADA (American Diabetes Association), Neurology India, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Pediatrics, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related news feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, cosmetics, 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) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in major news publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Cancer, Neurology, Diet & Weight Management, Sexual Health, Heart, 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. Bipolar, Bird Flu/Avian Flu, Fibromyalgia, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, Respiratory/Asthma, Erectile Dysfunction/Premature Ejaculation, 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. “multiple sclerosis rss feeds”, “AIDS rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Add Online Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Charts and checklists can provide users with useful step-by-step information and resources to complete steps. Charts and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic 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 site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators, for example are useful tools to add to your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can also help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click here to read the rest of this guide:

• Grow Your Medical & Health Clinic Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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