Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health and medical services providers face a number of challenges in today’s web economy, especially when it comes to growing a presence online.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Now, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must work hard and find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to give your business wider exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout 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 often. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that health or medical-related organizations face (as do most other businesses for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds to give users the information they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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

Online Opportunities For Health Providers

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health sector that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and think outside the box about marketing their business services better online.

In this guide, you will learn about new opportunities to find new clientele and see noticeable improvements in your online results.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your medical-related business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your medical-related business website.

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

• Discover How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Business With WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this article we have written: Planning Your Business Web Site - A Money-Saving Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services Page

You need to include a page that lists your products and services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page could include services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology haematology, plastic surgery, stroke, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, skin cancer, oral health, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, yoga, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, neurosciences, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community 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 the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to also include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical services and to set yourself above the competition.

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

Your Staff Page

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in medical-related 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 include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social pages.

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

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an updatable list of employees or team members in your website using free plugins here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job opportunities within the practice. This page can include training offered, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your business, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your business and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also helps to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews improve your business online here: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Business Name
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat feature (optional)

If your business operates out of several areas you will want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

You should also include links to an FAQ page, main pages, online booking request, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Most 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 like news and announcements, new releases, training articles, discussions on current topics, educational videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can instantly begin delivering an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Grow Your Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s important to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws and regulations wherever you provide services.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your website here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing great content on your site, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You want to provide great content with information, tips and advice that will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you can write about include the following:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How small efforts in portion control can help your weight loss efforts
• How to recover physically and emotionally after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• 7 tips that will help you avoid late night snacking (e.g. sleep earlier)
• And endless other content topics

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

Use keywords and terminology in your content that readers 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Syndicate Content With RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

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

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites 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
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also 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 useful RSS feeds just visit sites of health or medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Healthy aging, 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 feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Haematologica, BMJ Heart, BMJ Medical Humanities, BMJ Journal of Clinical Pathology, BMJ British Journal of Ophthalmology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Find various health-related RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information updates, food safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, animal and veterinary news, 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 many RSS 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. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Asthma, Migraine Headaches, Pregnancy, Digestion, Skin, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Seniors/Aging, Sexual Health/STDs, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Breast Cancer, Statins, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “cystic fibrosis rss feeds”, “general practice rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Downloadable Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. They can give them step-by-step information and resources to complete necessary steps. They can also be great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your medical-related site that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to grow your health or medical business presence online.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• The Step-By-Step Guide On How To Grow Your Medical & Health Center Services Business Online – Part Two

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