Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital business age has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for health and medical services providers and financial service providers.

Challenges Professional Health Practitioners Face Online

Today, more than ever, medical professionals must find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and generate new clientele. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having a website and figuring out better ways to market your health or medical services services online.

In addition to investing money in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to assign a larger share of your budget to develop and maintain a website that attracts prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and social media, and helps you create a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that medical businesses (and other professions) face with their websites, is that your site has only about thirty seconds or less to give users what they are looking for 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 Health Businesses

As well as facing significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to medical or health practices that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think progressively when it comes to marketing their services better online.

In this guide, you will learn new ways to attract more visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your medical business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health-related website.

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

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Money
• Using WordPress To Grow Your Business Online

Useful Tips For Improving Your Medical Center Services Site

We’ll start first by going over some basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

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

Essential Pages

Professional business websites need a number of essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, neurosurgery blood disorders, reconstructive surgery, hyperbaric medicine, respiratory, endoscopy, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, skin cancer, x-ray, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, yoga, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, medical genetics, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should choose you.

About Us

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 list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above your competitors.

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

Meet The Team

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online or get people to interact more with your site, then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

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

On this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise, 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 source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your website using free WP plugins, see this tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

This is a listing of job opportunities available within your practice. It could include training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your company and information about career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients also helps your medical-related website to provide social proof.

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

We have written a detailed article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews to grow your business online. To learn more about this go here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Captivating Client Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is vitally important.

It should provide:

• Name
• Location
• Telephone
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media profiles
• Live chat

If your business services different areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, useful pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health-related site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your practice.

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will begin attracting targeted visitors to your business, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive new visitors automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Info Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is crucially important. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened in whichever location you provide services.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Website

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

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

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• How to calculate how many calories you consume each day
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Volumetrics diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• What salad dressings can sabotage your diet (and healthier choices)
• And many other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your content that your prospective clients will be searching to find you online.

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

Improve Visitor Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• 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.

You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your website:

• 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 RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Healthy aging, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, The Psychiatrist, Journal of Cell Biology, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 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
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, food allergy reports, pet health, foods, 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 health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places 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 select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Men’s health, Neurology, Oral Health, Exercise & Fitness, HIV, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Sexual Health/STDs, Emergency Medicine, Heart Disease, Biology/Biochemistry, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “alternative medicine rss feeds”, “tropical diseases rss feeds”, “medical practice management rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your health site’s UX.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and explanatory charts are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and charts can also be great educational tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, active maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. Health-related calculators, for example, are useful tools for your website. Other applications can include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

In part two, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to build your health or medical web presence.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• Online Business Tips For Medical Services Professionals – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation

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