Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created increasingly difficult challenges and opportunities for the health-related industry.

Online Challenges For Health And Medical Practitioners

Now, more than ever, businesses in the health and medical sector must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the community your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your health services online.

In addition to investing dollars in offline marketing, businesses in the medical or health industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be directed to develop and maintain a website that drives clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and gives them wider 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 the needs of the website may change over time and many areas will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-developed web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that health organizations face (as do most other professions for that matter), is that you have only around thirty seconds or less to provide visitors with what they need or they will look 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 challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for health or medical practices that can evolve to meet online challenges and can think progressively in terms of marketing their business services better online.

In this detailed guide, you will discover opportunities to find new bookings and establish online credibility for your medical-related business.

As well as providing practical tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your web presence, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your health-related business website or blog.

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

• Discover Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Potential Buyers
• WordPress In Business – The Complete Guide To Building A Successful Business With A WordPress Blog

Tips To Improve Your Medical Center Services Site

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your health or medical website and get better results. We will look at what pages your site needs, what content works best, layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your health or medical-related website, visit this page: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Comprehensive Blueprint For Business Owners

Essential Pages

Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Services And Products

You need to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer. Depending on which area of health you specialize in, your page can include services such as:

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, pulmonology blood disorders, cosmetic surgery, gerontology, renal, colon/rectal surgery, ophtalmology emergency surgery, etc.
• Dental Services – e.g. preventive dentistry, children’s dentistry, gum disease, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal/Neonatal – e.g. birthing, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – mammography, skin cancer, medical imaging, women’s health, psychosis, food allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology services – laboratory testing and analysis, routine pathology testing, food and water testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling services – mental health services, alcohol, tobacco & other drug counselling, domestic abuse, diet and nutrition counselling, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, natural therapy, shiatsu, chiropractic services, hypnosis, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, chiropody, reproductive endocrinology, optical services, neurosciences, artificial limbs, sleep therapy, 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 these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to also list any professional awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote your medical, dental, chiropractic, surgery services, etc. and set yourself above similar service providers.

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

Team Profile

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to sell more products online and get people to engage more with your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors won’t be familiar with medical or health-related terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Screenshot image source: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to easily create and add a list directory of employees in your site using free WordPress plugins, go here: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff Directory In Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

List any job or career opportunities within your company. This page can include training, employee benefits, professional development, etc. You should also include stories of graduates who have risen within your business and information about upcoming career opportunities in the medical-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, subscribe to your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase what type of services you offer. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide potential clients with social proof online for your business.

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

If you want to learn more about using client testimonials and client reviews, see this article: Create Better Results Online With Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

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

• Name Of Your Business
• Physical location
• Phone
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Live chat (optional)

If your business operates out of several areas you should make this clear when showing your address and contact information.

Consider also including links pointing to the most commonly asked questions page, useful pages, online booking form, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news, updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to market your services.

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

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that can instantly deliver web traffic to your site, simply by adding content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more about this:

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

Legal Pages

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

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal 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 Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive online economy, being generous with information has become one of the key differentiators for businesses selling similar products or services.

By committing to providing useful content with information, advice or tips, you will get your readers sharing your information online with others and coming back for more content. Content marketing is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospects about your services.

For example, if you provide weight loss services, then some of the topics you can write about include the following:

• What’s the difference between being overweight and obese?
• How to identify the bad habits that need to be corrected to ensure sustainable weight loss
• How you eat your food - just as important as what you eat (eat at table, chew slowly)
• What processed foods can derail your diet (and healthier choices)
• Etc.

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

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

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

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of medical and health-related government departments and key industry bodies.

Here are a few useful RSS feeds you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Latest news feed: http://www.hhs.gov/rss/news/hhsnews.xml, etc. You can search by departments and choose specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Body image, Health care for women, HIV/AIDS, Minority women’s health, Screening tests and vaccines, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from well-known medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care, ADA DiabetesCare , RadioGraphics, BMJ Archives of Disease, BMJ British Journal of Ophthalmology, 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 RSS feeds here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Find feeds on fda-related topics like consumer health information updates, FDA drug shortages, pet health, radiological health, 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 many health-related 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. 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 select specific RSS feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Neurology, Depression, Senior Health, Heart, etc.)
• Medical News Today – Medical News Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• MedicalNewsToday.com – You can also choose individual RSS feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Stem Cell Research, Pharmacy/Pharmacist, Sexual Health/STDs, Aid/Disasters, Endocrinology, Dyslexia, Ear, Nose and Throat, etc.)

You can also just search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “gerd rss feeds”, “fitness rss feeds”, “liver disease rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your medical-related site’s user experience.)

Add Online Checklists And Forms

Adding checklists and educational charts to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and set yourself apart from the competition. They can give them useful information and resources to complete steps. Forms and checklists are also great instructional tools.

Forms, charts and checklists can cover subjects such as:

• Checklists/forms for booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific systems
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists and charts
• General charts & infographics (e.g. acidity level of different foods, sleep requirements at different ages, etc.)

Other Tools

Providing unique online tools and applications on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Health-related calculators are popular tools for your website. Other applications could include things like nutritional tools, and even recipes.

In part two of this guide, we look at a several WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help improve your seo, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view the rest of this article, click here:

• A Complete Guide On How To Build And Grow A Health-Related Website – Part Two

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