Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical & Health professionals face many challenges in today’s online economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Challenges Health Services Professionals Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical services practitioners must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive and source new clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your practice online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television spots, etc., businesses in the health industry are now finding that they will need to allocate a larger share of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that will bring in clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, 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 in time and some aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that medical or health-related organizations face, and most professions for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help users find what they need 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

Opportunities For Health Services Providers In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical sector that can evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think strategically in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more web traffic and build more online credibility for your medical or health-related business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:

• Discover How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Business Online With A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your health-related website and get better results online. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: Planning A Website: A Comprehensive Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Description Of Products And Services

You need to include a page that lists your products and services. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, this page can include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, orthopedics haematology, cosmetic surgery, aged care, respiratory, weight loss surgery, optometry emergency surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, magnetic resonance imaging, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, trauma counselling, wellness, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, fertility services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, assisted living, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, 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 appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

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

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

Team Profile Page

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to grow your business online or get people to interact more with your site, then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It should also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

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

(Make sure to add an employee page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory to WordPress using a free plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the clinic. It should include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information about new career opportunities in the medical and health 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, subscribe to your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase your services. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to provide social proof.

(Add a page to your site with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a comprehensive article about using testimonials and user reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Chat

If you operate in multiple locations you want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links point to the most commonly asked questions page, frequently-visited pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and announcements, updates, educational information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something not many people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin to attract targeted traffic to your web site, simply by publishing content to your website on a consistent basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Traffic For Your Business Automatically With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s important for medical and health services practitioners businesses to 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 no laws and regulations are being breached wherever you provide services.

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. To learn more about this go here: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start publishing great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

Provide useful content with tips, advice or information that will get your visitors sharing your information with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

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

• Potential health issues caused by being overweight
• Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Dieting pills (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to modify recipes for achieving healthier results (e.g. replacing sugars, fats, etc.)
• And endless other content topics

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

Include the keywords and terminology in your content that your readers would search for.

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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

Improving your 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.

Adding RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your health business.

If you provide information that adds value to others, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Allows users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, search online for health or medical-related government departments or well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds you could consider adding to a health site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Mental health, Pregnancy, 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. Journal of Neurophysiology, BMJ Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition, BMJ Sexually Transmitted Infections, The AAPS Journal (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists), American Institute of Biological Sciences, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like criminal investigations press releases, food safety, product recalls, 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news feeds in major news publications 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 choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Pregnancy, Eyesight, Hearing, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News 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. Anxiety/Stress, Immune System/Vaccines, Surgery, Veterinary, Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs, Cosmetic Medicine/Plastic Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat, 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. “viruses rss feeds”, “nutrition rss feeds”, “personal monitoring rss feeds”, etc.

(RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s user experience.)

Add Online Charts & Checklists

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step information and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists could cover topics such as:

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

Provide Unique Tools

Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, for example are great tools you can add to your website. Others can include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we will look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To continue, click here:

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

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