Combined vet websites and operating systems

It seems appealing to have your practice management system and website combined into one system.

One supplier. One invoice. One login. One person to call if there are issues.

Happy Days!

So what’s the downside? Is there any?

In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of combined systems. We consider marketing results, future-proofing of your assets and ownership and control.

Let’s start with results.

For some reason, creating websites and developing IT and operating software are often lumped together as one skill set.

However, like veterinary science and computer science, these skills are poles apart.

Knowing code doesn’t mean you know marketing.

Knowing how to develop a fantastic vet operating system doesn’t mean you can create an effective website that will bring clients into a vet practice.

The websites that come tacked onto operating systems are generally after-thought templates that you ‘slot your business into’.

These websites used to work years ago when no one was online, so anything you put up was better than nothing.

And they’ll work OK for you if you’re the only veterinary practice in your rural town.

But if you are in an urban area or competitive speciality, an afterthought website will not cut it in today’s crowded digital landscape. Your cookie-cutter website will fail to deliver and represents a wasted opportunity.

If your veterinary website is going to rank on Google and drive ideal clients to your practice, it needs to be high quality, unique to your practice and built by skilled veterinary marketing professionals.

Over the past 15 years of working in the world of websites and system integration, I’ve watched the longevity of software decline at an exponential rate.

Think about your iPhone, Google Chrome and your laptop’s operating system.

How often are new versions coming out? It feels like every 5 minutes.

Website software is very vulnerable to these updates.

Every time a new iphone comes out, Chrome updates or Google changes its ranking system, your website software has to evolve to keep up.

And by keeping up, I mean your vet website has to

• Continue to rank on Google
• Display properly on every device and
• Stay secure from the ever-increasing hack attacks.

Honestly, if the operating system underlying your website code has been developed by a small company, they will fail to keep up as the pace of change accelerates.

The implication for you is building again from scratch before you know it.

See here for a discussion of why we use WordPress as the foundation for our vet websites.

And finally, let’s talk about control, usability and ownership.

Control means you own your website.

You choose where it’s hosted and who works on it.

You and your team can make changes if you want.

And you can easily change providers if you wish.

When websites are tacked onto operating systems they can be clunky to use and difficult to stay in control of.

Adding new content hits the ‘too hard’ basket, and you resort to social media or PDF handouts instead, which, in the long run, are hard to manage and way less effective than a good website.

This might be perfectly fine with you – but again, it’s important to understand the choice you are making with this increasingly significant business investment.