Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and opportunities for health providers.

Challenges Health & Medical Businesses Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services providers must find smarter ways to stand apart from the crowd and find new clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as investing money advertising offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other web-marketing savvy health-related businesses, you will need to assign a greater part of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that brings in clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and many aspects may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that health businesses face online (as do other businesses for that matter), is that your site has only around thirty seconds to provide users what they need or they will leave your site and go 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 Services Providers

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health-related industry that are willing to adapt to meet online economy demands and think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways to increase web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your medical or health-related website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• How A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Potential Buyers
• WordPress For Small Business – An Online Guide To Building A Successful Business Using A WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for health-related websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical website, go here: How To Plan Your Small Business Website: A Practical Primer For Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

Professional websites need some basic pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your website for best results.

Products And Services Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, orthopedics diabetes, reconstructive surgery, stroke, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, eye diseases surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient education, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screening, skin cancer, medical imaging, pap smears, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, inherited diseases, prosthetics, hearing aids, home and community care, clinical information, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It should mention any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and position yourself above the competition.

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

Team Profile

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want prospective clients to relate to your business. One 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 are probably not well-versed in health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual team members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-update simple employee directory to your site with no coding skills required here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within the business. This page should include training, benefits, professional development, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the health-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 newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

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

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Compelling Customer Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should include:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat

If your business services multiple areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like events, updates, educational articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your business.

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

Something few people know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can begin to attract new visitors to your web site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Website Visitors Automatically

Legal Pages

It’s important to make sure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened in whatever area or location you do business.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you start to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

By providing great content with information or tips, you will get your readers sharing it with others and coming back for more. This is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your services.

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

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• What are calories and how they play a role in weight loss
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, Mediterranean diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• Vitamins and minerals that aid in weight loss (chromium, calcium, magnesium, etc.)
• 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 medical or health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Use the same keywords and terminology in your content that 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 you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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 To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

If you provide valuable content, other businesses may 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing information on your website from other sites, 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 and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Healthy aging, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), Journal of Biological Chemistry, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, The Journal of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find FDA-related RSS feeds (e.g. enforcement reports, food allergies, pet health, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various 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 major news publications 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 select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Arthritis, Migraine Headaches, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Eyesight, HIV, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Colorectal Cancer, Headache/Migraine, Surgery, Preventive Medicine, Smoking/Quit Smoking, Mental Health, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “bipolar rss feeds”, “medical malpractice rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. Charts and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering areas such as:

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral hygiene program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different ages, etc.)

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this guide on ways to grow your health business web presence.

Click on this link to view the rest of this article:

• A Practical Guide On How To Grow A Medical Services And Health-Related Online – Part Two

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