Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Medical services professionals face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially when it comes to growing a successful presence online.

Online Challenges For Medical Practitioners

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health industry must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to actively participate in the community you serve, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete with other health or medical-related businesses, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated to develop and manage a website that will bring in leads, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and increase your reach online.

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

Another challenge that medical or health businesses face with their websites, as most other professions do for that matter, is that you have an average of 30 seconds to provide visitors what they are searching for or they will leave the 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 Medical And Health Services Providers

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical or health-related practices that can evolve to meet online demands and think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover opportunities to attract more visitors and build more online credibility for your business.

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

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• Discover Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Prospective Buyers
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow Your Small Business Online Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what type of content you need, navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical-related website, go here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

How To Improve Your Website Pages

All websites require some basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your website for best results.

Your Products And Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, neurosurgery diabetes, cosmetic surgery, incontinence, respiratory, bariatric surgery, eye diseases palliative care, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, gum disease, teeth whitening, dental implants, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screening, lung screening, radiology and imaging, gynaecology, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, homeopathy, reiki, massage therapy, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, othopedics, fertility services, occupational therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, community health, medical supplies, etc.

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

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes that you support, etc.

It should also include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above other competitors.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for simple ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you and your organization better.

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

On this page, make sure to highlight each employee’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

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

For a detailed tutorial on how to easily add a simple and easy-to-manage simple team members directory to your site without editing code, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Career Opportunities Page

List any job or career opportunities available within your practice. This page could include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your business and information about new career opportunities in the health 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 your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what kind of services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials from past clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide social proof online for your business.

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

To learn more about using client testimonials and client reviews, refer to this article: How To Get Better Results Online Using Profit-Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a clean contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide visitors with some or all of the following information:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat feature

If your business operates in multiple areas you should make that clear when showing your address and contact info.

You can also include links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical-Related Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using content such as events, new releases, educational articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an existing medical or health site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to create more exposure for your practice.

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

Not many people know this, but WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that will help begin to drive targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Generate More Web Traffic For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken wherever you provide services.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your medical or health site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms 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 comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: Adding Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, committing to the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing great content with useful information, tips or advice will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if you provide weight management services, then some of the areas you could cover in your web content include:

• What is BMI (what it stands for, what it does, how to calculate yours)
• How to get support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Diet sodas (common ones, side effects, long term results, do they work?)
• How to make right choices when eating in restaurants
• And many other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your readers understand your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, terminology, etc.

Include the keywords in your articles that readers will be searching for.

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

Tips For Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your site.

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

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

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

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

To find useful RSS feeds just search online for health or medical-related government departments and respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a health or 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 also choose individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Minority women’s 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. ACS Publications, JAMA & Archives, The Journal of Immunology, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news and topics like FDA drug safety, FDA drug shortages, recalls, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (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 RSS feeds section (e.g. 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 specific feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Asthma, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Oral Health, Sexual Health, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Medical News Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Urology/Nephrology, Immune System/Vaccines, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Neurology/Neuroscience, Food Intolerance, Epilepsy, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “HPV vaccine rss feeds”, “drugs addiction rss feeds”, “fitness rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your medical site’s user experience.)

Provide Forms

Checklists and medical forms are a great way to help increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them useful instructions and resources to perform necessary tasks. Forms and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists, charts and forms covering a range of topics such as:

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Fitness and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications on your site can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to users. Calculators, for example are great tools to add to your website. Others can include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In part two of this detailed article, we look at a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to build your health or medical business online.

To keep reading, click here:

• Grow Your Medical Clinic Services Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Traffic

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