Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed the way business is done worldwide, it has also created a number of challenges and opportunities for the medical or health-related profession.

Online Challenges For The Medical & Health Profession

Now, more than ever, health and medical services providers must work harder to stand out from their competition and source new clients. Not only do you have to participate in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having an effective website and searching for smarter ways to promote your practice online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, businesses in the medical or health-related industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated to developing and maintaining a website that will attract clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help them gain a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website may change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical or health businesses (and all other professions) face online, is that you have around thirty seconds to give visitors what they are searching for or they will 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 The Health & Medical Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the medical or health sector that can adapt to meet online challenges and think strategically about marketing their services better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways to increase web traffic and notice significant improvements in your business online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your medical or health-related business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your health business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Business
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business

Ways To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages your site needs, what content you need, ways of improving navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services

It’s essential to have a page that describes your services or products. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page can include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. acute pain management, neurosurgery haematology, maxillofacial surgery, neurology, renal, gastroenterology, optometry elective surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, cleaning services, veneers, crowns and bridges, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, coronary care
• Prenatal/Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, oral health, gynaecology, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration cytology, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, marriage counselling, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, reiki, tai chi, chiropractic services, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, podiatry, reproductive services, stomal therapy, neurosciences, artificial limbs, assisted living, home care, sexual health, medical equipment, 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 what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropical activities, etc.

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

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

Team Profile

Are you looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products online or get prospective clients to interact more with your site? Then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with health or medical terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas mean. This page should include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’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.

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your web site without coding skills here: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of job or career opportunities within your practice. This page should include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted or encouraged by your business, etc. You can include case studies of graduates who have risen within your business and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the medical or health-related industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to provide visitors social proof online for your business.

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

If you would like to learn more about using client testimonials and user reviews go here: Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Knockout Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following information:

• Name
• Your physical location
• Phone number
• Facsimile number
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Online chat feature

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

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, main pages, booking form, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like news and announcements, updates, educational information, opinions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an medical site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your medical practice.

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

Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can help begin to drive web traffic to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here:

• WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Increase Your Web Visitors For Your Business

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital for professional companies to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being broken wherever your business is located.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• 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 detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website

In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you start publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from other competitors.

Providing great content with useful information, advice and tips will get your visitors to share your information with others online and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if your business provides solutions that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you could write about include the following:

• Overweight vs. Obese – what are the differences?
• The role portion control plays in helping you achieve weight loss results
• Incorporating exercise into your weight loss program
• A guide to making the right choices when eating at restaurants
• And endless other content topics

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

Use the same keywords in your articles that your prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your presence online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your site’s 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.

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide plenty of benefits for your health-related business.

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

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to adding syndicated content to 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 a few feeds containing useful information that you could add to a medical or health website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can search by departments and select specific RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Fitness and nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Mental health, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), Neuroanatomy, BMJ Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, Radiology, The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 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 feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get FDA-related news feeds (e.g. consumer health information, food allergy reports, 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. Victoria – http://www.health.vic.gov.au/rss/newsfeed.xml
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention - Find various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Cold & Flu, Diet & Weight Management, Eyesight, Infectious Disease, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cardiovascular/Cardiology, Pulmonary System, Muscular Dystrophy/ALS, Veterinary, Parkinson’s Disease, Pediatrics/Children’s Health, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific areas, e.g. “public health rss feeds”, “nursing rss feeds”, “tuberculosis rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS feeds to improve your medical or health-related website’s user experience.)

Checklists And Charts

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide useful instructions and resources to get necessary steps performed. Checklists and forms are also great instructional tools.

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

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

Unique Tools

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

In part two, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to build your medical web presence.

Click on this link to continue:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Medical Clinic Website – Part 2

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