Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created significant challenges and great opportunities for the health or medical sector.

Challenges Professional Health And Medical Services Providers Face Online

Today, more than ever, businesses in the medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a website and searching for better ways to grow your services online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, businesses in the medical or health industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be assigned to developing and managing a website that drives leads, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps to create wider reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of the website will change over time and some areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

One other challenge that medical services professionals (and most other professions) face, is that you have around 30 seconds to give visitors what they are looking 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 And Medical Services Practitioners

As well as facing a number of challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the health or medical-related sector that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and think progressively when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this article, you will discover opportunities to source new client accounts and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform to power your medical website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, see the articles below:

• Discover Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business Online

Useful Tips To Improve Your Medical Services And Health-Related Site

This section will show you how to improve your website and get better results. We will look at what pages your website needs, what type of content works best for medical-related websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, read this detailed step-by-step guide: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Website Pages

Professional business websites require several essential pages. Let’s review these.

Your Products And Services

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

• Medicine & Surgery – e.g. pain management, orthopedics hematology, oncology, aged care, rheumatology, weight loss surgery, optometry day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. general dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, restorations, orthodontics, emergency dental services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. heart surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal & Postnatal – e.g. birthing, midwifery, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, audiology, pap smears, MRI scanning, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – lab testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, fine-needle aspiration, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, reflexology, reiki, massage therapy, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, podiatry, reproductive endocrinology, rehabilitation, inherited diseases, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home care, community health, medical transport, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to mention any medical or health-related awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and to position yourself above similar service providers.

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

Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in health or medical-related terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialized areas do. This page can include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow selected team members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your team member’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a team profile page. Screenshot image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a simple and easily updatable simple team members directory in WordPress without coding skills here: How To Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills Required

Work With Us

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the business. It can include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities promoted by your organization, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the medical industry.

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

Case Studies

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. Adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using case studies, testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Captivating User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a contact page is vitally important.

It should include:

• Name
• Location of consulting practice
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Chat/Skype

If your business services several areas you want to make that clear when displaying the address and contact information.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content like news and events, product releases, educational articles, opinions and discussions, educational videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to create more exposure for your medical clinic.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that will begin driving a stream of new visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

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

Go here to learn more:

• Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information Pages

As a professional business, having a compliant website is really important. This is not only important for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you do business.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding the following legal pages to your medical 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 Policy
• Terms And Conditions 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
• etc.

Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin publishing good content on your site, the faster you will begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with useful tips, advice or information that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more content. Using content is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and services.

For example, if your business provides products that help people lose weight, then some of the topics you could cover as content on your site:

• Emotional causes for weight issues (possible causes, how to identify yours)
• How to get support when embarking on a weight loss program (friends, family, weight loss seekers)
• Characteristics of different diets, e.g. Low carb diet, Mediterranean diet, Nutrisystem diet (what these are, how they work, are they effective)
• How a personal chef can 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 prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Include the keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients will search to find you online.

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

Improving User Experience

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

Syndicating Content Using RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing 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 relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

For example, here are some examples of useful RSS 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 choose individual RSS feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Pregnancy, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. AHA Journals (American Heart Association Journals), The Journal of General Physiology (JGP), Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Molecular Biology and Evolution, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like FDA drug safety, MedWatch safety alerts (human medical products), 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. NSW – http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pages/rss.aspx
• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (www.cdc.gov) - Get various RSS feeds on health-related news 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. Medical research: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Research.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also choose individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Chronic Pain, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Digestion, Heart, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose specific RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Gout, Headache/Migraine, Asbestos/Mesothelioma, Pancreatic Cancer, Transplants/Organ Donations, Prostate/Prostate Cancer, 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 subjects, e.g. “urology rss feeds”, “leukemia rss feeds”, “restless legs syndrome rss feeds”, etc.

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to provide your visitors with a better user experience.)

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a great way to help increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform necessary steps. Checklists and forms are great instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for pre or post treatment
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. caloric level of different foods, sleep requirements at different stages of development, etc.)

Add Other 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. Health-related calculators are useful tools for your website. Others would include things like diagnostic tools, or even recipes.

In the next section of this detailed article, we discuss a several online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To keep reading, click this link:

• Grow Your Health & Medical Services Website – Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins And Themes

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