Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals today face difficult challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Health Practitioners

Today, more than ever, medical or health-related businesses must work hard to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to grow your business online.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, businesses in the medical industry are also finding that they will need to allocate a greater part of their marketing budget towards developing and managing a website that drives new prospects, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and increases their reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout 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 may need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

Another problem that health-related businesses face with their websites (and most other businesses for that matter), is that they have an average of thirty seconds or less to help visitors find what 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 The Medical & Health Profession In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available for health-related practices that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This comprehensive guide will help you uncover a number of ways to generate web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your medical-related business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical or health business website or blog.

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

• How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Business
• Understanding WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

Practical Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your medical or health-related website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best for health-related sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, read this detailed guide we have written: How To Plan A Web Site - A Cost-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional business websites require some essential pages. Let’s discuss these.

Services And Products

It’s essential to have a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology haematology, cancer, gerontology, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, restorations, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, radiology and imaging, women’s health, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, natural therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, lymphedema therapy, stomal therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, 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 the benefits of using your services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

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

It’s important to also list any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Staff

Are you looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in health or medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow your team members on their social pages.

On 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 each person’s experience, how their skills and knowledge 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 staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a list of staff members to your WordPress site without messing with code here: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site: Tutorial

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. This page could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the 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 this page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps your medical-related site to provide social proof.

(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have created a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews improve your business online here: Improve Your Sales With Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat feature (optional feature)

If you have different locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, product releases, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an health website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your services.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin attracting targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

For more details, go here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health site 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 Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with content that educates and informs visitors has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

You will want to provide useful content with tips and information that will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more content. This is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, Raw Food diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• Etc.

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

Include keywords and terminology in your content that your readers would search for online.

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

Ways To 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 engaging with your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and user experience.

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are 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 site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of 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.

To find RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of medical or health-related government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds containing useful information that you could add to your site:

• 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 select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Rheumatology, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, RadioGraphics, Medscape, Infectious Agents and Cancer, 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 topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information, food allergies, pet health, tobacco news, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Get various RSS feeds on health-related topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications 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 feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Digestion, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Acid Reflux/GERD, Palliative Care/Hospice Care, Swine Flu, Heart Disease, Litigation/Medical Malpractice, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “ADD rss feeds”, “alcohol addiction rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Forms and checklists are also great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two, we will be discussing a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your medical or health website that can help to improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Your Medical Services And Health Practice Website – WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic

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