Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized business worldwide, it has also created a growing number of challenges and great opportunities for health providers.

Online Challenges For The Health And Medical Profession

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical and health sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your business online.

As well as spending dollars marketing offline, businesses in the health-related industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be allocated towards developing and maintaining a website that drives prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps them gain a wider marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many areas will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-planned website and content management strategy.

One other problem that health businesses (and most other professions) face, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to provide visitors with what they are searching 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 Digital Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the medical or health profession that are willing to evolve to meet online demands and can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will discover new opportunities to source more clients and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your health-related website or blog.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your medical website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what type of content works best for health-related websites, suggestions for improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your medical or health website, read this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Basic Guide For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

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

Services And Products Description Page

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology endocrinology, cosmetic surgery, stroke, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry palliative care, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, radiology, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social development services
• Alternative therapies – Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, natural therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – weight management, othopedics, reproductive endocrinology, optical services, medical genetics, prosthetics, hearing aids, home care, clinical information, medical equipment, 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 book an appointment with you.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

Remember to list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above the competition.

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

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow individual staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight your team member’s expertise, 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 an employee page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to WordPress using a free plugin here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory For Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within your business. It can include training, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your business, etc. You should also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

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

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

We have created a detailed article on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online here: All You Need To Know To Start Getting Better Results Online Using Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A functional contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide the following information:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

If your business services different locations you want to make this clear when showing the address and contact information.

You can also include links pointing to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as news and announcements, updates, useful articles, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

If you already have an established health site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your medical organization.

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

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

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

Learn more about this here:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is vital. This is not only important for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water 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
• and others

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

Tips For Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra-competitive online economy, having a sound content marketing strategy has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

Providing useful content with tips, advice or information will get your visitors sharing it with others and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide services that help people manage their weight, then some of the topics you could publish content about include the following:

• Common medical conditions that can cause weight gain
• Advice on ways to develop portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Atkins diet, GI diet, Weight Watchers diet (what these are, how they can benefit you, how effective they are)
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your 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 articles that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 100% FREE!

Improve User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

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

If you provide useful content, other sites will 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 in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• A feed provides links to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits 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.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed some RSS feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Environmental health, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, 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. The Oncologist, ADA ClinicalDiabetes, Stem Cells, The Journal of Physiology, Neuropsychopharmacology, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health - Get various health-related news feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Get FDA-related feeds (e.g. consumer health information updates, food safety, tainted products, radiological health, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Find many health-related feeds 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. 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 select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Cholesterol, Depression, Sexual Health, HIV, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Lung Cancer, Acid Reflux/GERD, Melanoma/Skin Cancer, Swine Flu, Medical Devices/Diagnostics, Respiratory/Asthma, Medical Practice Management, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “bipolar rss feeds”, “heart disease rss feeds”, “obesity rss feeds”, etc.

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

Provide Downloadable Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are also great client educational tools.

You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

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

Unique Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your visitors. Calculators are popular tools for your website. Other tools can include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed guide, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your health or medical business web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Grow Your Medical Services And Health-Related Web Presence With WordPress – Part 2

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