What can a good website do for your veterinary practice?

I think many people underestimate the power of a good veterinary website.

In its very basic form, a website is somewhere I can go to look up your address and phone number and know where to park. And sure, that saves the practice a lot of phone calls.

But the opportunity is so much more than that.

A good veterinary website will deliver educated clients into your waiting room and support you and your team in your quest to improve patient outcomes.

These are the 3 main functions of a great veterinary website.

• Awareness
• Education
• Saving you time

Let’s start with awareness.

Owners can’t bring their pets to your primary care practice, and vets can’t refer cases to your specialist centre unless they know you exist.

Where do most people go when they are actively looking for a vet?

Google. Google. And Google.

Sure, they’ll ask friends and family. Sure, they might have seen you on social media.

But coming up on the first screen when people search for a vet like you on Google is absolutely key to the growth of your veterinary business.

How does a good website support that?

Unless your website is structured for key Google searches from day one, it will not feature at the top of the free listings in today’s competitive online landscape.

Just to be clear. Setting your website up for Google can’t be an afterthought or a retrofit process.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) must be woven into the very fabric of the design and code from the get go.

And trust me, that’s not easy. I’ve found my 25+ years working with search engines just as challenging as my years of owning a vet practice.

Secondly education.

The right content on your website can educate clients (and colleagues) about anything and everything you want them to understand.

That’s powerful when you stop and think about it.

An online resource giving out your message 24/7 to everyone who has found you on page one of Google.

Nice.

So, what should your vet website say?

The first step is education about your practice.

Not just where you are and where to park but how you do things. What’s important to you. Why your team care so much about each and every patient.

These are the things that matter to potential clients and referring vets and these are the things that will attract the right clients to you.

After that, it’s good to consider the things you and your team say over and over again.

I remember days in veterinary practice where I felt like a broken record. I felt like I was having the same conversations about fleas, worms, dental care and weight management 20 times a day.

And that was what drove me to turn the leaflets on my practice walls into a pioneering website in the late 1990s.

I wanted to direct people to what I wanted them to know (not what a drug company, pet food manufacturer, or dog breeder thought was important).

The truth is that your clients will listen to whoever is talking.

I figure it’s best to give them more chances to listen to you.

The more you educate your clients with great information on your website the more they walk into your consulting room with knowledge of your practice, pet health care and disease and their part in the process.

The result is a better mutual understanding and improved patient outcomes.

And there’s a lovely side-effect to this extra education.

Because you have more content on your website – you come up on page one of Google for more search terms and so more people become aware that you exist. Happy days.

Saving your time is the final part.

Less time explaining how the practice works means more time for your team to focus on caring for patients.

Less time talking about fleas and weight control means more time using your highly evolved brain for more challenging diagnostic puzzles and deeper conversations. Or even taking a mental health break and a walk outside.