Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for businesses in the medical-related profession.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Today, more than ever, medical and health services practitioners must work hard to remain competitive and find new clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your medical or health services services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that brings in prospective clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps them gain a wider reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website 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 implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical services practitioners face online (as most other businesses do for that matter), is that they have an average of thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they need 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 Medical Providers

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing their business better online.

In this guide, you will discover new opportunities to attract more potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your medical business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical or health-related web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your health or medical-related website or blog.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section will show you how to improve your health or medical website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for medical or health sites, suggestions for improving your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: Planning Your Small Business Website: A Comprehensive Guide For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

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

Services And Products

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. pain management, nephrology endocrinology, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, respiratory, infection control, optometry operating theaters, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, lung screening, medical imaging, gynaecology, magnetic resonance imaging, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, holistic medicine, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, chiropody, fertility services, speech therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical equipment, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community activities, etc.

This page should include any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your services and to set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Meet The Team

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and increase user interaction with your site? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your business better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be that well-versed in medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff member’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a ‘meet the team’ page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add a simple team members directory in your site without coding skills, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site

Recruitment Page

List any job or career opportunities within the practice. It could include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working with your business, etc. You can also include information about career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Maintain 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also establishes social proof online.

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

If you want to learn more using testimonials and reviews to grow your business online, go here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is essential.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Physical location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates from multiple areas you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

You could also include links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using timely content such as the latest news, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, educational videos, webinars, etc.

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

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will help begin delivering new visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Increase Your Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s vitally important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being broken wherever you provide services.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of 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 Links Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors sharing your information and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

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

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• What are calories and how they play a role in weight loss
• Tips for developing a better eating and exercise regime
• How to make right choices when eating at restaurants
• Etc.

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include the keywords and terminology in your articles that readers will be searching for online.

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 website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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 websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes 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 useful RSS feeds for your website, search online for relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding 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 also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BioMed Central, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, Journal of Cell Biology, American Chemical Society, Cambridge Journals Online, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, FDA drug shortages, tainted products, foods, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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 - Get various health-related RSS feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Mental Health, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Prevention & Wellness, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Fertility, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Heart Disease, Dyslexia, Crohn’s/IBD, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “headache rss feeds”, “plastic surgery rss feeds”, “crohn’s rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and charts are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. They are great client educational tools.

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

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

Provide Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your visitors. Calculators are some of the most popular tools for your website. Other tools would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we discuss a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help to improve seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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

To continue reading, click here:

• The Step-By-Step Guide To Growing Your Medical-Related Presence Online Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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