Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only revolutionized business around the world, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health-related services.

Online Challenges For Medical Businesses

Now, more than ever, health-related businesses must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain an active web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your health or medical services services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the medical or health industry are now also finding that they need to designate a larger part of their marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that attracts new clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps give their business a wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health-related businesses (and most professions) face, is that your site has around 30 seconds to give visitors 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

Opportunities For Health & Medical Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health profession that can adapt to meet digital demands and who can think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about a number of ways to attract more potential clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your medical or health business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• WordPress For Business – The Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section covers how to improve your health website and get better results. We show you what pages a health or medical-related site needs, what content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this detailed step-by-step guide we have written: The Website Planning Process - A Basic Guide For Business Owners

Improve Your Web Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services And Products Description Page

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, pulmonology blood disorders, plastic surgery, continence management, renal, infection control, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, aromatherapy, colloidal silver therapy, meditation, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, othopedics, reproductive endocrinology, occupational therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, community health, medical transport, 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 choose you.

Who We Are

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

It’s important to list any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for 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 team members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can include social buttons so your visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each person’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to create and add an updatable directory of employees in your website without coding skills, see this step-by-step tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities

List any job or career opportunities available within the organization. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include information about new career opportunities in the medical-related industry.

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

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also helps to establish social proof.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and testimonials from past clients. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

If you want to learn more about using testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using More Effective Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is essential.

Your contact page should include:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Fax number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media links
• Chat feature

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

You should also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

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

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your medical practice.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that will help begin attracting a stream of targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

For more info, see this article:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

It’s important to 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 laws or regulations wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

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

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a well-planned content marketing strategy has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

By providing useful content with information or tips, you will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if your business provides services that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you could write content about include:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• The role portion control plays in helping you you lose weight
• Weight loss pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords in your articles that your 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides plenty of benefits for your business.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website 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 loads of useful content for your website by searching online for medical and health-related government departments or respected industry bodies.

Here are some examples of useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, The Psychiatrist, The Journal of Immunology, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like consumer health information, food safety reports, pet health, tobacco news, 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 various feeds on health-related news 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. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Cold & Flu, Depression, Sexual Health, Sleep, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Tropical Diseases, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “dentistry rss feeds”, “prostate rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Downloadable Charts & Checklists

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide visitors with step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are great educational tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists, charts and forms covering a range of topics such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators are great tools you can add to your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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