Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The online economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and opportunities for health services practitioners.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Providers Face Online

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical 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 website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to delegate a greater portion of your budget towards the development and management of a website that can attract new clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help you gain wider exposure online.

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

One other difficult challenge that medical-related organizations (and most other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to provide visitors what they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Practitioners In The Online Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health or medical-related practices that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think outside the box about marketing themselves better online.

In this comprehensive guide, you will discover a number of ways to drive more traffic and improve your business online.

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

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Money
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section explains how to improve your health-related website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what type of content works best for medical or health sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health-related website, check out the detailed guide we have written here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All business websites require several essential pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need and how to structure your website for best results.

Description Of Services

You need to include a page that explains your products or services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology haematology, plastic surgery, continence management, renal, infection control, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral health, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, oral health, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, functional medicine, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, stomal therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community events, etc.

Remember to also list any business awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your practice and set yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you searching for ways to grow your business online and increase user interaction on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your team 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 staff member’s experience, 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 employees or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create and add a simple team members directory in your website here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

We’re Hiring

List any job opportunities within your company. This page could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the medical industry.

Also include 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 & Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to provide visitors social proof.

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

If you would like to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to grow your business online, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions Using Captivating User Testimonials

Contact Page

A clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Interactive chat

If you operate in different locations you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content like announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can begin delivering targeted visitors to your business, 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:

• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Get More Traffic For Your Business With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s really important for professional companies to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you practice.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. For more details: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s highly competitive global economy, the sooner you start to publish content on your site, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with information, tips and advice will get your visitors to share your information and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides weight loss services, then some of the topics you can write content about include:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, identifying yours)
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure permanent weight loss
• How to develop an exercise regimen you can enjoy and will stick with
• 10 tips that will help you curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. sleep earlier)
• Etc.

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

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

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

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Adding RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

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

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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 loads of useful content by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a health 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 select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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. Rheumatology, ADA (American Diabetes Association), Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, Medscape, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find many health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, health fraud, pet health, radiological health, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related news and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: 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 – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Asthma, Neurology, Diabetes, Senior Health, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Anxiety/Stress, Caregivers/Homecare, Lymphology/Lymphedema, Veterinary, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Cleft Palate, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “multiple sclerosis rss feeds”, “neurology rss feeds”, “IBD rss feeds”, etc.

(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s UX.)

Provide Charts And Checklists

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide visitors with useful information and resources to get necessary tasks done. They are also great instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms could address subjects such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing useful tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your potential clients. Health-related calculators, for example, are popular tools for your website. Others could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins 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 1.

To keep reading, click here:

• Your Medical And Health Practice Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins

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