Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health professionals today face significant challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Health & Medical Businesses

Today, more than ever, medical services practitioners must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and obtain new clients. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your services online.

As well as spending money advertising offline, you will probably find that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health businesses, you will need to delegate a greater amount of your marketing budget to develop and manage a website that will bring new prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you create wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing sound web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that health or medical-related organizations face online, as other professions do for that matter, is that your site has around thirty seconds or less to provide users with 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 Health Businesses In The Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health sector that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover ways to drive more traffic and notice significant improvements in your online results.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your health-related website, 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, go here:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Prospective Customers And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Blog To Grow A Successful Small Business Online

Ways To Improve Your Website

This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content you need, ways of improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this guide: Planning Your Business Web Site: A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your medical-related website for best results.

Services

You need a page that explains your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page could list services such as:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. acute pain management, nephrology endocrinology, plastic surgery, hyperbaric medicine, renal, colon/rectal surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, dentofacial orthopedics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, skin cancer, radiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, functional medicine, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive services, speech therapy, inherited diseases, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, 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 why they should choose you.

About Us Page

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropic programs, etc.

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

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

Core Team

If you are looking for quicker and simpler 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, like and trust your business better.

Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health 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. It should also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your team members to prospective new clients. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff or team members in your WordPress site using a free plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work With Us

List any career opportunities within your business. This page could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Also include 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

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

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

To learn more about using testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: Achieve Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Customer Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

Your contact page should include the following information:

• Name
• Physical address
• Telephone number
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media URLs
• Online Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business operates out of multiple areas you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You should also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Health Or Medical Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Many blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content such as the latest announcements, product releases, training information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to market your clinic.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will drive new targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your site)

To learn more about this go here:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

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

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms 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
• and others

We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to your site. For more info, see this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

By providing useful content with great tips and information, you will get your visitors sharing your web pages online and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide products that help people lose weight, then some of the areas you could write content about include:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• Weight loss surgery – benefits vs risks (who should get it, risks, success rates)
• Recovering after weight loss surgery – useful tips and recommendations
• What salad dressings can derail your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use the same keywords and terms in your content that readers would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Content Syndication – RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your business.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing information 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 many useful RSS feeds for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and industry bodies.

Here are a few RSS feeds you could add to a medical-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breast cancer, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Dermatology Times, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Obesity, Neurology.org, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations, FDA drug shortages, pet health, drugs, 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. Western Australia – http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/feed/?types=news
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get 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. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.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, Arthritis, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Pregnancy, Digestion, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Abortion, Complementary Medicine/Alternative Medicine, Eczema/Psoriasis, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, Food Intolerance, GastroIntestinal/Gastroenterology, Huntingtons Disease, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “viruses rss feeds”, “general practice rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome 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 increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Charts and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Forms and checklists are great client educational tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could include topics such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post surgery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Provide Other Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Other applications can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins you can use in your site that can improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this comprehensive article on ways to build your medical-related web presence.

Click here to continue reading:

• Grow Your Medical Clinic Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website Using Plugins

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