Grow Your Medical Or Healthcare Business Online With WordPress

Health services providers today face increasing challenges.

Challenges Medical Services Providers Face Online

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

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities like advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other health or medical-related businesses, you will need to designate a larger part of your budget to developing and managing a website that can drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help you 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 your site’s needs will change over time and many areas will need to be updated often. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other difficult challenge that medical or health organizations (and most businesses) face with their websites, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to help users find what they need or they will leave the site and 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

Online Opportunities For Medical Practitioners

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to medical businesses that are willing to evolve to meet online economy demands and think outside the box when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to find new bookings and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your health or medical website, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your health business website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see these articles:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Lose You Customers And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

Let’s start by reviewing the basic stuff. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, see this detailed guide we have written: How To Plan A Website: A Useful Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Pages

All business websites require some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Your Services

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

• Medical And Surgical – e.g. anaesthetics, nephrology endocrinology, plastic surgery, continence management, rheumatology, urology, optometry day surgery, etc.
• Dentistry – e.g. cosmetic dentistry, children’s dentistry, bad breath treatment, veneers, crowns and bridges, braces, emergency dentistry, etc.
• Cardiology – e.g. cardiac surgery, chronic heart conditions
• Prenatal and Postnatal – e.g. obstetrics, maternity services, etc.
• Child Health services – paediatrics, child development, children services, etc.
• Diagnostic – breast screens, lung screening, audiology, women’s health, psychosis, allergy testing, etc.
• Pathology – laboratory testing and analysis, emergency pathology testing, insurance and corporate testing, speech pathology, etc
• Counselling – mental health, alcohol, tobacco & other drug services, domestic abuse, wellbeing, social development services
• Alternative therapies – acupuncture, homeopathy, natural therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, etc.
• Other medical services/therapies – weight management, sports medicine, reproductive endocrinology, speech language therapy, medical genetics, artificial limbs, mobility, home and community care, sexual health, medical transport, etc.

List all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also mention any industry awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your practice and position yourself above your competitors.

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

Team Profile Page

Are you searching for ways to sell more products online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors won’t be well-versed in health or medical terms it should tell who they are and what they specialize in. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should also include social buttons so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight your staff member’s expertise, how they add value to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff description page. Image sourced from: southperthchiro.com.au)

If you need help how to add an easy-to-update simple employee directory in your website without using code, go here: How To Create A Simple Employee Directory In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities within your practice. It could include training, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social aspects of working for your business, etc. It should include case studies of trainees who have risen within your business and information about additional 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to attract potential clients and showcase the services you offer. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also helps to establish social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: arrowsmiledental.com)

We have written a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more about this: How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely vital.

It should provide the following information about your business:

• Name Of Your Business
• Your physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media URLs
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate from different locations you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, online booking form, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful business marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, new releases, educational information, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an health or medical website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your services.

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

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic system that will help begin delivering a stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more:

• Website Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your Website Into A Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Info Pages

It’s vital to ensure they have a compliant website. This is not only important for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching local, regional and federal laws or regulations wherever you do business.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your medical-related website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of 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 Links Policy
• Health and Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more about this: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s fiercely competitive digital economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing useful content with information, tips or advice will get your readers to share your information and come back for more content. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your services.

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

• Nutrients your body needs on a daily basis (protein, carbs, minerals, fats, vitamins)
• Easy portion control habits (smaller plate, don’t put food on the table, more vegetables)
• Tips for developing a better eating and exercise plan
• What processed foods can derail your weight loss goals (and healthier choices)
• And endless other content topics

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients understand your health-related services, by explaining benefits, procedures, costs (including payment plans, insurance coverage, etc).

Use keywords and terms in your content that readers will search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your website using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Adding RSS Feeds

Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in several ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides various ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and key industry bodies.

Below we have listed some feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your site:

• US Department Of Health And Human Services – e.g. Blog RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelectedHhsBlogPosts, etc. You can also select specific feeds, like feeds on women’s health issues (e.g. Emergency preparedness, Healthy aging, Heart health and stroke, Mental health, Violence against women, etc.) here: http://womenshealth.gov/news/rss/rss-feeds.html
• US National Libraries Of Medicine – For a directory of RSS feeds from leading medical journals, publications and websites (e.g. PhysiologicalReviews, BMJ, European Heart Journal, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 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) - Get various feeds on health-related topics here: http://www.nih.gov/Subscriptions.htm
• US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) – Get feeds on fda-related topics like enforcement reports, health fraud, tainted products marked as dietary supplements, drugs, etc. and podcasts here: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds
• UK Department Of Health (www.gov.uk) – 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 various RSS feeds on health-related news and topics and podcasts here: http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
• Medical News: You can search medical news RSS feeds in places like the NYTimes feeds section (e.g. Health news: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Health.xml)
• MedicineNet.com – Weekly Health and Medical News Digest: http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/weeklyhealth.xml. You can also select individual feeds here (http://www.medicinenet.com/rss/article.htm) (e.g. Lung Conditions, Men’s health, Nutrition, Food, & Recipes, Diet & Weight Management, Senior Health, Heart, etc.)
• MedicalNewsToday.com – MNT Featured Headlines: http://rss.medicalnewstoday.com/featurednews.xml
• Medical News Today – You can also choose specific feeds here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsfeeds-rss (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Vascular, Pregnancy/Obstetrics, Swine Flu, Primary Care/General Practice, Medical Innovation, Liver Disease/Hepatitis, etc.)

You can also search online for general RSS feeds, e.g. “medical rss feeds” or search for feeds on specific subjects, e.g. “seniors rss feeds”, “endocrinology rss feeds”, “cancer rss feeds”, etc.

(Add RSS feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)

Add Online Forms & Checklists

Adding checklists and charts to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. They can provide users with useful information and resources to perform necessary steps. Charts and checklists are also great client instructional tools.

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

• Booking appointments
• Checklists for post-surgery recovery
• Health checklists and charts for specific conditions
• Dental checklists – e.g. first visit, oral maintenance program, cosmetic dentistry, etc.
• Weight loss and nutrition program checklists
• General charts & infographics (e.g. sugar content in different foods, the importance of sleep at different stages of development, etc.)

Online Tools

Providing unique online tools 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 to add to your website. Other applications could include things like nutritional tools, or even recipes.

In part 2 of this detailed article, we take a look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to improve your health-related web presence.

To keep reading, click this link:

• How To Successfully Grow Your Medical Services And Health Center Business Online With WordPress – Part Two

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