Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical providers today face a growing number of challenges.

Challenges Professional Health Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, health-related practices must find smarter ways to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your medical or health services services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to designate a more significant portion of your marketing budget to develop and manage a website that brings in prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to give your business a wider degree of 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 even more importantly, the needs of the website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health-related businesses (and most professions) face with their websites, is that they have only about 30 seconds to give users the information they need or they will look 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 Health Services Providers In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health industry that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think progressively when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

The article below will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Clients
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Small Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best for medical-related websites, ways to improve layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Pages

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

Services Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology diabetes, reconstructive surgery, gerontology, respiratory, gastroenterology, ophtalmology palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, restorations, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, chiropody, reproductive services, occupational therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, assisted living, home care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

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 these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.

Remember to include any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your practice and position yourself above the competition.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health 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 can include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each person’s expertise and qualifications, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Recruitment

This is a listing of job opportunities within the company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You should also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information about career opportunities in the medical or health 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, join your updates list, follow your social pages, 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 reviews from clients and case studies, you will also help to provide social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using client case studies and reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Create Better Results Online With Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Online Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If you operate out of multiple locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You should also include a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, booking request, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health-Related 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 using timely content like the latest announcements, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an medical site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your company.

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

Not many businesses know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Increase Your Website Visitors For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Pages

Having a compliant website is important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whichever location you service.

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 (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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 on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive global business economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

Providing useful content with great information, advice or tips will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about using your services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you can write content about include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• Is weight loss surgery right for you? (who should get it, risks, rates of success)
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to make smarter choices choices when eating in restaurants
• Etc.

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

Use keywords and terminology in your articles that readers would search for online.

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

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides links to your content
• RSS 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)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing content 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, search online for medical or health-related government departments and industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of 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 also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Evidence-Based Nursing, Bionet RSS, JCI – The Journal of Clinical Investigation, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, Pediatrics, 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
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, recalls, drugs, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Fitness & nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Men’s health, Cold & Flu, Diet & Weight Management, Prevention & Wellness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Eye Health/Blindness, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Swine Flu, Bones/Orthopedics, Mental Health, 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. “muscular dystrophy rss feeds”, “deafness rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

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

Adding Downloadable Charts & Checklists

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. They are great client instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could cover subjects such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Adding Other Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click here to view Part Two:

• How To Build And Grow A Health-Related Website – Part Two

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