Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only revolutionized businesses around the world, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health-related services.

Challenges Professional Medical And Health Services Practitioners Face Online

Now, more than ever, medical and health services providers must work harder and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd and obtain new clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active digital presence. This includes having a website and figuring out smarter ways to promote your business online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., businesses in the medical or health industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned to develop and maintain a website that can attract new prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase their marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and many areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that medical-related organizations face, as do most other businesses for that matter, is that they have around 30 seconds to provide users with what they need 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

Online Opportunities For Health Practitioners

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to medical or health businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think outside the box in terms of marketing their business better online.

This article will help you uncover new ways to find more potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your health-related website.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money
• How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Medical Clinic Website

In this section we’ll show you how to improve your website and get better results. We show you what pages a health or medical-related site needs, what type of content works best for health sites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: A Basic Guide To Website Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require some basic web pages. Let’s discuss 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 lists your products or services. Depending on which area of health or medical services you specialize in, this page could include services like:

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology haematology, cancer, aged care, rheumatology, gastroenterology, ophtalmology surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, holistic dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, dental braces, emergency dental, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac monitoring, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, lung screening, oral health, pap smears, MRI scanning, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, clinical trials, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, natural therapy, shiatsu, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, othopedics, reproductive services, physiotherapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, community health, medical equipment, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment with you.

Who We Are

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

Remember to mention any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A 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 will not tend to be very well-versed in health-related terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. This page should include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow selected team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add an employee page. Image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in your WordPress site here: Adding A Staff List Directory

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your practice. This page should include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include stories of recruits who have risen within your company and information about additional career opportunities in the health-related industry.

Also include 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 you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

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

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

We have written a comprehensive article about using case studies, testimonials and reviews get better results online. For more info, see this article: Achieve Better Results Online Using Highly Effective User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

It should include the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature

If your business operates in different locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, booking request, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Medical Or Health Blog Section

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content such as announcements, new releases, useful articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing health-related website, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to create more exposure for your medical company.

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

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help begin to deliver new targeted traffic to your website, simply by adding regular content to your web site.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

For more info, see this article:

• Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s important for medical services providers businesses to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being contravened in whatever location you service.

Depending on what services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your health or medical website will help keep you out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, being generous with information has become one of the key success differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

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

For example, if your business provides weight management services, then some of the topics you could write content about include:

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (carbs, proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals)
• How to figure out how many calories you burn each day
• Comparing different diets, e.g. Paleo diet, Raw Food diet, Volumetrics diet (what these are, how they work, how effective they are)
• Could a personal chef help you lose weight (what they do, is it affordable)
• And endless other content topics

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

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

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, 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 updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are multiple ways readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site 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 visit sites of medical or health-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Here are examples of useful RSS feeds you could add to a medical or health-related site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog posts RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select individual feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Fitness and nutrition, Illnesses and disabilities, Menopause, Pregnancy, 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. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Obesity, Neurology.org, BMJ Evidence-Based Mental Health, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Get many RSS feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information, food safety reports, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, drugs, 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 (www.cdc.gov) - Get many health-related news feeds and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News Feeds: You can search medical news RSS feeds by going to publications like the NYTimes RSS feeds section (e.g. Research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Men’s health, Neurology, Diabetes, Exercise & Fitness, Travel Health, etc.)
• Medical News Today – MNT 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. Anxiety/Stress, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, ADHD/ADD, Autism, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy, Women’s Health/Gynecology, 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. “colorectal cancer rss feeds”, “physical therapy rss feeds”, “alzheimer’s rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to improve your website’s UX.)

Add Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and explanatory charts to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can give them useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great instructional tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, caries prevention program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other Tools

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

In part two of this detailed guide, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your site that improve your search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

To view the rest of this article, click this link:

• The Complete Guide To Successfully Growing Your Medical Services And Health Clinic Business Online – Part 2

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