Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital information age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of challenges and great opportunities for medical-related businesses.

Online Challenges For The Medical And Health Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, you will need to designate a greater portion of your marketing budget towards the development and management of a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to give your business wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that medical-related organizations face online (as all other businesses do for that matter), is that you have an average of 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information 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

Online Opportunities For Medical And Health Services Providers

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for health practices that can adapt to meet the challenges of the digital economy and can think progressively when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress CMS platform to power your health or medical-related business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – A Complete Guide To Building Your Successful Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your medical or health website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content works best for health or medical websites, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, go here: The Website Planning Process: A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional websites require several basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  need to have and how to structure your health website for best results.

Your Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology endocrinology, maxillofacial surgery, aged care, renal, gastroenterology, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, hearing, gynaecology, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, occupational and environmental testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, sports medicine, fertility services, speech language therapy, medical genetics, prosthetics, mobility, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your business and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with medical or health terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected team members on their social networks.

On this page, 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.

(Add a page that introduces your employees or team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-manage directory of staff members to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff List To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities Page

List any job or career opportunities available within the business. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your organization and information about career opportunities in the health or medical industry.

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

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase your services. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also provides prospective clients with social proof online.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and client reviews here: Learn How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Lead Conversions Using Meaningful Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Social media URLs
• Online chat feature (optional)

If your business operates from several areas you will want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, main pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical-Related-Related Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as news, product releases, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing medical-related site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to market your medical business.

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

Very few people know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Drive More Website Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

As a professional medical provider, ensuring that you have a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any laws or regulations wherever you practice.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), 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 Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive global business economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

Provide great content with advice and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about using your products and services.

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

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• How to make right choices when eating out at any restaurant
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your health services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Remember to use the same keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients 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 useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your website using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful information, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing content on your website 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 for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or respected industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of 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 select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental 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 various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care, BMJ, European Heart Journal, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), Transplantation – Most Popular Articles, 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 news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food allergies, recalls, animal and veterinary news, 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 - 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 in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Mental Health, Chronic Pain, Oral Health, Exercise & Fitness, Skin, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Arthritis/Rheumatology, Sexual Health/STDs, Cholesterol, Transplants/Organ Donations, Dyslexia, Restless Legs Syndrome, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “pharmacist rss feeds”, “midwifery rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase visitor engagement and add value to your readers. Forms and checklists can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary steps done. Forms and checklists are also great educational tools.

You can provide forms, charts and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of subjects 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, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Online Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we discuss a number of WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your site that can also help improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Medical-Related Web Presence With WordPress – Part Two

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