Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only revolutionized the way business is done globally, it has also created growing challenges and great opportunities for the health or medical profession.

Challenges Health Services Professionals Face Online

Today, more than ever, health services practitioners must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive and generate new clients. Not only do you have to be fully involved in the community you serve, you must also maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better market your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the health or medical-related industry are also finding that they will need to assign a more significant portion of their marketing budget to develop and manage a website that can bring new leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that medical and health services practitioners face with their websites, as do most professions for that matter, is that your site has an average of 30 seconds to give users what they need 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 Medical & Health Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health businesses that can evolve to meet digital economy demands and who can think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business better online.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to generate more traffic and create significant improvements in your business results online.

As well as providing general 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.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:

• Why A Poorly Built Website Can Lose You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• A Complete Guide To Building A Successful Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips To Improve Your Website

We’ll start first by covering some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your health or medical website and get better results online. We show you what pages your site needs, what type of content works best for medical or health-related websites, tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, go here: The Website Planning Process: A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your medical or health-related website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that lists your products or services. Depending on which area you specialize in, this page can list services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose & throat, orthopedics blood disorders, oncology, gerontology, respiratory, colon/rectal surgery, eye diseases elective surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, teeth whitening, orthodontics, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac patient rehabilitation, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – mammography, lung screening, medical imaging, women’s health, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, couples, wellness, social development services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, hydrotherapy, tai chi, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – diet and nutrition, sports medicine, fertility services, occupational therapy, inherited diseases, 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. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.

Remember to list any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote your services and to set yourself above other competitors.

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

Your Staff

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know you and your business better.

Your business needs 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 biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with 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 do. It can also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your website using free WordPress plugins, go here: Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job opportunities available within your practice. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include case studies of recruits who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the health or medical-related industry.

Include also a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Testimonials from past clients and case studies are a great way to attract prospective clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a page with client reviews and case studies also provides social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with testimonials from past clients and case studies. Screenshot image source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials and client reviews to improve your business results online here: Create Better Results Online Using Highly Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide:

• Name
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live chat

If you operate in several locations you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include a few links point to commonly-asked questions page, useful pages, booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content like announcements, updates, educational information, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that can instantly begin attracting an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your business, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Get More Web Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

As a professional health or medical services provider, ensuring that you have a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important. This is not only important for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever your practice is located.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Links Policy
• Health/Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to differentiate yourself from other competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful tips, information and advice, you will get your readers sharing your information with others and coming back for more content. Using content is the most effective way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

For example, if you provide products or services that help people manage their weight, then some of the areas you can cover as content on your site:

• What to do before starting any weight loss program (e.g. consult with doctor, record measurements, set goals, etc.)
• How to ask for support for your weight loss efforts (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Comparing different diets, e.g. HCG diet, South Beach diet, Jenny Craig diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• Useful apps for tracking calories and exercise
• Etc.

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

Use the same keywords and terms in your content that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Experience

Improving your site’s user experience (known as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

An RSS feed provides plenty of benefits for your business.

If you provide valuable information, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

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

Below we have listed examples of feeds you could add to a health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts 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, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, 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 well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. ACS Publications, BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics, BMJ Medical Humanities, Occupational Medicine, 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 - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find feeds on fda-related topics like FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), pet health, tobacco news, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• Department of Health UK (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 - Find various health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – MedTerms Medical Word of the Day: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyword.xml. You can also choose individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Allergies, Menopause, Neurology, Diet & Weight Management, Prevention & Wellness, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Ovarian Cancer, Dentistry, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Autism, Primary Care/General Practice, Medical Innovation, Obesity/Weight Loss/Fitness, etc.)

You can also just search online for general feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “anxiety rss feeds”, “sports medicine rss feeds”, “wearable technology rss feeds”, etc.

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

Checklists & Charts

Checklists and charts are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and charts can provide users with step-by-step information and resources to perform a necessary task. They can also be great client instructional tools.

Checklists, charts and medical forms can address areas such as:

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

Add Online Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are great tools to add to your website. Other tools would include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a several online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can also help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to build your health or medical-related business web presence.

Click here to access Part 2:

• Tips For Health Professionals – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site Using WordPress Plugins And Themes

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