Search is changing - optimising vet websites to stay visible on AI search

Do you always ask Google when you’re looking for something?

Or have you started to search the web using a language model (LLM) AI chatbot like Chat GPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude or Perplexity AI?

Like many people, I now do a mixture of Google and AI searches depending on whether I’m looking for a local or national service or deeply researching a topic.

As I’ve mentioned before in this vet marketing blog, search is changing very quickly, and I believe all of us will soon be creating our own unique mix of search engines and enjoying our own unique search experience.

So, as search options explode, what’s the implication for your vet practice and the visibility of your website?

Two key points.

Firstly, all the search engines, whether traditional or AI language bot are looking for the same thing. Consistent, reliable, high-quality information they can trust.

If you create a hub of high-quality, original content on your website that’s genuinely useful to pet owners and veterinary colleagues, you will be rewarded with visibility on all the engines today, tomorrow and next year.

Secondly, it’s unrealistic to chase one search engine or another. You’ll simply run around like a mother hen trying to care for several broods of chicks. Stressed out and failing.

Instead, to secure your search visibility now and into the future, you need to take a broad brush approach. This means making sure your website is optimised for both traditional and AI-driven search engines, giving you maximum exposure across them all.

In this article, I focus on strategies to optimise your veterinary website for AI search while maintaining your Google visibility.

These are the five areas we focus on to optimise veterinary websites for AI search.

1. High-quality, authoritative content that’s genuinely useful to owners and colleagues
2. Conversational language that appeals to owners but also adds context and helps AI to learn and understand
3. Superb brand position, design and user experience – ensuring our clients’ websites are ahead of the pack
4. Optimising for zero-click searches and featured snippets
5. Technical SEO – website structure, optimisation for all search types and domain authority

Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these

1. Consistent, useful, high-quality content

This is not new. Google has always wanted and ranked quality content that is trustworthy, reliable and backed by expertise.

And of course, vets are professionals and in a great position to provide content that the search engines trust.

The difference with the AI-engines is that they are looking for more depth. They value a long, deep dive with comprehensive coverage of any given subject.

Long doesn’t mean boring or filling pages with waffle.

Your content must be high-quality, clear and well-structured. Bullets, headings and summaries help both readers and search engines.

AI search also favours new, up-to-date information. Diligently adding new content to your vet practice website builds trust with all the engines and, ultimately, trust in your business.

And talking of trust… yes, AI does measure trust signals in a similar way to Google.

If you’re a new vet business, your website will take time to rank in the top spots across all engine types.

2. Conversational language 

AI is not just looking for keywords sprinkled through text – it actually uses context to understand the meaning of each website page and the site as a whole.

The more your veterinary educational content flows in a natural, conversational way, the more AI will understand your business and show your website to ideal clients.

Dropping in examples like people, places and stories helps AI bots to create a complete picture.

The more your content feels like a conversation with a client, the better the outcome will be.

AI also trusts a vet practice that maintains a consistent brand voice across all digital channels.

This is great news because a consistent voice and message are also what good clients are looking for.

4. Optimising for featured snippets and zero-click searches

No doubt you’ve noticed that Google’s AI search pulls content from websites and displays it as snippets at the top of search results.

All AI search uses snippets and highlighted sections of text to answer questions people ask it. This is also known as zero-click search.

The key to your website appearing in the zero-click and highlighted search results is to answer pet owner questions in short paragraphs of text.

Bullets, lists and FAQ sections are great technical additions.

5. Technical SEO – website structure, optimisation for all search types and domain authority

The technical optimisation of your website is still vital for AI search visibility.

Structuring your website correctly for search in the first place, on-page optimisation, and domain authority remain key.

Then, as always, data analytics and strategic content planning based on results, opportunities and business case drive your business growth in the right direction.

The news here is good.

Everything discussed above to optimise your vet clinic website for AI-generated results will also improve results in traditional searches.

Google has always ranked high-quality content on optimised websites, and AI simply wants a more evolved version of this.

At the time of writing, Google’s search volume is not declining despite the rise in AI search. And we are seeing AI traffic in addition to Google traffic for our clients.

So, as search fractures further, your vet clinic website can appear in more places for more people to see.

Let’s roll up our sleeves!