Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created significant challenges and opportunities for businesses offering health services.

Challenges Health And Medical Firms Face Online

Now, more than ever, health and medical services professionals must work hard and find smarter ways to stand apart from their competition and find new clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the community you serve, you must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the health industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to develop and maintain a website that will bring in leads, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give them a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that health or medical-related organizations face (as most businesses do for that matter), is that you have an average of 30 seconds or less to provide users what they need or they will go away.

“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 Medical Services

As well as facing many challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to health-related practices that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy challenges and can think strategically about marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will discover new ways and opportunities to attract new visitors and build more online credibility for your medical-related business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your health or medical website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Small Business With A WordPress Site

Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for medical or health websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: How To Plan Your Web Site: A Basic Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need some basic pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your health or medical website for best results.

Services And Products

You need to include a page that explains your services and products. Depending on which area you specialize in, your page can include services like:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. ear, nose and throat, nephrology endocrinology, cosmetic surgery, gerontology, renal, weight loss surgery, optometry surgical outpatients, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, oral hygiene, veneers, crowns and bridges, implants, emergency dentistry services, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, coronary care
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birth suites, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic services – breast screens, lung screening, hearing, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, trauma counselling, wellness coaching, social work services
• Alternative treatments – acupuncture, homeopathy, colloidal silver therapy, tai chi, osteopathy, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services – diet and nutrition, podiatry, lymphedema therapy, speech therapy, neurosciences, prosthetics, sleep therapy, home and community care, clinical information, medical supplies, etc.

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us Page

This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community involvement, etc.

This page should list any business awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Our Team

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical-related terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. You may also want to explain what those specialized areas do. It can also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight each staff 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.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot source: southperthchiro.com.au)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain list directory of employees in WordPress with no coding skills required here: How To Add A Simple Employee Directory On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Career Opportunities Page

This is a listing of job or career opportunities available within the practice. It could include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the health or medical-related 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 contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

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

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

We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online. To learn more about this go here: How To Improve Your Sales Using Compelling User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is vitally important.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information:

• Name Of Your Business
• Location
• Phone
• Fax
• Contact email address
• Google Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Online chat feature

If your business operates in different areas you will want to make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

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

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using content such as news, updates, training articles, opinions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few people know about, is that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic machine that can instantly begin delivering a stream of targeted visitors to your site, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

If you would like to learn more here:

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

Legal Info Pages

It’s really important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online. This is not only important for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you do business.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your health website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), 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 detailed article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the willingness to deliver valuable content to visitors at no cost has become one of the key business differentiators.

Provide useful content with great advice, information and tips that will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Content marketing is a great way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business and services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the areas you could cover as content on your site:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• How to set realistic, but achievable weight loss goals
• Is hypnosis and effective weight loss treatment?
• How to avoid late night snacking (e.g. drink water with lemon)
• Etc.

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 keywords and terminology 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your site visitors and grow your website using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% 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.

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

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

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• Allows for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are some feeds you could add to a health-related website:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Breastfeeding, Health care for women, Heart health and stroke, Menopause, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a list of feeds from various medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. Journal of Applied Physiology, Neuroanatomy, JCI – The Journal of Clinical Investigation, BMJ Occupational and Environmental Medicine, BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal, etc.) go here: http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_RSS_feeds_on_health
• National Institutes Of Health (www.nih.gov) - Find many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• FDA – Find RSS feeds on fda-related news like consumer health information updates, food allergies, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, 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 - Get many RSS feeds on health-related news and topics 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 feeds section (e.g. Fitness and nutrition: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Nutrition.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Daily Health and Medical News: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/dailyhealth.xml. You can also select individual RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Medications, Cancer, Migraine Headaches, Pediatrics / Healthy Kids, Digestion, Sleep, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also select individual feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Pharma Industry/Biotech Industry, Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP, Cervical Cancer/HPV Vaccine, Flu/Cold/SARS, Food Intolerance, Allergy, Statins, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific topics, e.g. “lymphology rss feeds”, “cold rss feeds”, “drug trials rss feeds”, etc.

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your medical-related website’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and educational charts are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists are also great educational tools.

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

• Checklists and forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific medical conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, general dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and exercise program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications on your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, for example are great tools you can add to your website. Other applications would include things like diagnostic tools, and even recipes.

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

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This is the end of section one.

To continue, click this link:

• Grow Your Health Clinic Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Driving More Visitors To Your Website

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