UX and SEO Considerations for Health and Wellness Businesses

Intro

Health and wellness businesses are designed to help people, but at the end of the day, they’re still individual businesses that need to attract the right audience. It can be a tricky space for marketing. There’s a fine line between pushing your business onto your audience and letting them know you’re there for their needs. If you cross that line, your audience will assume that you have little empathy for their needs and their health.

Luckily, inbound marketing efforts, like improving UX and SEO, can help health and wellness businesses balance this line while simultaneously reaching a wider audience.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how improving your website/app UX, understanding how to use UX and SEO for marketing, and taking various industry considerations into account can make a big difference in your marketing efforts. When you’re able to market your business in an ethical way that focuses on relationships over sales, you’ll build trust with your audience, and end up with greater word-of-mouth advertising throughout your community.

Improving Your Website Experience

One of the best and easiest ways to improve the user experience for your target audience is to take a look at your current digital presence. Most businesses understand the importance of having a website and a presence on at least one social media platform, if not the three largest platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. However, if your digital presence isn’t one that’s easy to follow or understand, or it’s not giving people the information they need, they’ll likely look elsewhere.

As such, it’s important to stay regularly updated with clear engagement on all social media platforms. In addition, you should make sure that your actual website receives the same amount of attention, especially if you’re concerned about user experience.

There are also a few key factors that impact user experience. Making sure your website is optimized for all of them will make a big difference. Some of the most notable include:

• Site speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Visual stability
• User-friendly permalink structure
• Navigational elements
• Healthcare website design

In addition, you should make sure all aspects of your website include these elements and your website and its features are functional. For example, many healthcare businesses have increasingly adopted telehealth practices as a way to compensate for the shortage of mental health professionals and reach out to more patients that may live farther away. If you also provide telehealth services through your website, it's your responsibility to make sure that patients have an optimal experience.

Anything from buffering or a confusing interface can not only drive patients away from this type of healthcare treatment but any kind of treatment altogether. They may also look into other competitors with a better UX system. Either way, a bad experience is the worst kind of marketing you can have. The better the experience, the better your expansion can be.

UX design helps to drive brand loyalty, so the happier you can make your audience while they’re visiting your website or social media platforms, the more likely they’ll be to share your business with friends and family.

Increase Your Educational Reach

One of the best ways to improve your website, increase your audience reach, and advance UX is to expand your published content. Think of this as advice you can give to potential patients that can serve as a starting point for their medical experience.

Like all marketing strategies, however, you want to use expanded content to your advantage. You don’t want to give out free advice that you’d normally give within an individual appointment. However, you do want to give a sample of expert knowledge that is refutably known within the healthcare industry.

For example, preventative health measures are typically one of the best things patients can do to maintain their health. Advising on how to keep up preventative health habits is a great way to reach a broader audience while also avoiding prescriptive information that could easily be misinterpreted or prevent patients from actually coming in to seek more advice.

You can also use this information as a teaser of what your healthcare field can provide. So if you’re providing information on how to prevent skin cancer, as an example for a dermatologist’s practice, you can discuss who to turn to and what to do if the reader is worried they have skin cancer.

It also just so happens that expanding your online content, as a UX marketing strategy, is a naturally good way to improve your SEO rankings.

(Image Source: Ranktracker SEO Checklist)

Understand How To Improve Your SEO

It’s important to note that UX has a heavy impact on SEO. Things like slow load times, a site that isn’t mobile-friendly, and content that isn’t up-to-date or relevant can all cause search engines to knock down your ranking, giving your competitors a hefty advantage. UX should be one of your top priorities — not only when it comes to being at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), but to make your audience feel comfortable and well-informed as they navigate your digital space.

Once you’ve prioritized UX, you can start digging into more nuanced practices that can boost your overall SEO and bring more people to your business. Some of those practices include:

• Using keywords your audience might be searching for
• Ranking locally with Google My Business (GMB)
• Building a stronger social media presence

It’s especially important as a health and wellness business to boost your SEO with accessibility. All websites should be accessible to everyone, but if you’re promoting a healthcare product or service, it’s essential. Use correct headings to structure your content, give each link a unique name, and focus on colors that make everything easy to see and navigate.

There are millions of people across the country with hearing and vision issues, and it’s estimated that 15-20% of the population is neurodiverse. It can be difficult for those individuals to navigate websites that aren’t optimized for things like screen readers or visual aids. Making your site more accessible will cater to everyone’s needs and help them feel more comfortable as they navigate that space. Not only will that boost your SEO, but it will improve UX all at once.

(Image Source: Pexels)

Use Google to Your Advantage

There’s no denying that Google seems to change what it views as “important” fairly often. It can be difficult to keep up with algorithms and stay on top of what is considered “good” SEO. However, certain industries can take advantage of concepts Google has put into place.

If you’re in the health and wellness industry, one of those concepts to consider is “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL). Google defines YMYL as “topics that could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.” Obviously, any business focused on health and wellness falls into that category, but what can you do to take advantage of it?

Google takes YMYL very seriously when it comes to evaluating where certain websites and pages will show up. Because the information you’re providing can have such a big impact on someone’s life, the search engine wants to make sure they’re showcasing the most reputable, trustworthy sources first. That’s why it’s so essential to follow some of the best SEO practices from above.

Be Clear About Your Ethical Practices About Data

Finally, the most essential UX practice today is to ensure your patients’ data is safe, and you regularly communicate about practices to make it so. With more businesses turning to online data storage in the healthcare industry, it’s important now more than ever before to be clear with your patients on what you’re doing to keep this data safe. In 2021 alone, over 45 million people were impacted by healthcare cyber attacks, so it’s a prevalent concern that many patients may have experienced.

As such, it’s important to not only communicate your plans about cybersecurity, but to also follow through. Here are just a couple of practices you should opt for:

• Utilize two-factor authorization;
• Store encrypted data in an offline location;
• Consider a VPN service;
• Train employees about cybersecurity best practices;
• Regularly monitor your network and software for potential weak spots;
• Develop a recovery plan.

Establishing yourself as a trusted healthcare source is one of the best types of marketing you can do, and it’s one of the best ways to show your patients that you care for their well-being — not only their financial well-being but their physical well-being as well.

When you’re able to strike a healthy balance between marketing and building relationships, your business is far more likely to thrive. That starts with improving user experience on your website, app, and social media, prioritizing cybersecurity, and boosting your SEO practices in ways that make your audience feel comfortable and informed from the start.