Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical or Health professionals today face increasing challenges thanks to the web economy.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your medical or health services services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now also finding that they will need to allocate a more significant share of their budget towards the development and management of a website that attracts new prospective clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and creates wider exposure online.

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

One other problem that health services providers face, and most other businesses for that matter, is that you have an average of thirty seconds to help users find what they are looking for or they will find what they are looking for 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 Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for medical or health-related businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital demands and can think progressively in terms of marketing their business better online.

This article will help you uncover ways to attract new visitors and notice significant improvements in your online results.

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

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Business And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Growing Your Business Using WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Website

This section explains how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a medical or health website needs, what type of content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s go over the pages your  need to have and how to structure your medical or health-related website for best results.

Your Services

You need a page that describes your services or products. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery haematology, plastic surgery, continence management, renal, endoscopy, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, teeth whitening, braces, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, medical imaging, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, speech therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should choose you.

About Us

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

It should also include any industry awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your services and position yourself above other competitors.

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

Your Team

Are you looking for ideas to grow your business online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical or health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page can include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight your employee’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee description page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple employee directory to WordPress using free plugins here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of job opportunities within your practice. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and additional 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 the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you are also helping to are also providing visitors social proof for your business.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Achieve Better Results Online Using Standout Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name Of Your Business
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates in several areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like news, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical company.

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will deliver targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your website)

For more info, see this article:

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

Legal Information

It’s essential to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and regulations wherever you do business.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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 website here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content free of charge has become one of the key success factors for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Provide useful content with tips, information or advice that will get your readers sharing your information and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides products or services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can write content about include:

• What is fiber and how can it help you with weight loss?
• How to figure out how many calories you consume each day
• How to develop an exercise plan you can enjoy and will stick with
• 3 tips that will help you curb the late night urges for a snack (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• And endless other content topics

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

Remember to use the same keywords and terms in your content that your prospective clients would search to find you online.

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

Improve User Experience

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

Syndicate Content Using RSS Feeds

An RSS feed provides lots of benefits for your site.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read 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 site 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, visit sites of medical-related government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of RSS feeds you could add to a health or medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Environmental health, 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 list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Neurophysiology, ADA (American Diabetes Association), BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, American Chemical Society, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 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
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), pet health, radiological health, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find many RSS 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 RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical 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. Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Neurology, Diet & Weight Management, Digestion, Hearing, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, ADHD/ADD, Sleep/Sleep Disorders/Insomnia, Men’s Health, Cleft Palate, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lung cancer rss feeds”, “mad cow disease rss feeds”, “weight loss rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and medical forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and charts can also be great client educational tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering topics such as:

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

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools to add to your website. Others would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your medical or health website using WordPress plugins and themes that can also help to improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this article on ways to grow your health-related business presence online.

Click here to read the rest of this article:

• The Ultimate Guide To Building And Growing Your Health & Medical Center Services Business Online – Part 2

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