SEO for Veterinarians
and Veterinary ClinicsWhen pet parents want to schedule a wellness visit or need emergency care for their cat, dog, or other companion animal, they use a search engine to find a veterinarian. Get more business for your veterinary clinic with our affordable SEO software tool.
Exactly What is SEO?
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, helps get your veterinary website to appear in search engine results when people are searching for keywords like “veterinarian,” “animal clinic,” “vet hospital near me” and other terms people enter when searching for vets.
What Does SEO for Vets Cost?
Help from a pro costs between $500-750 (or even more per month), and your actual cost will depend on the scope of the SEO engagement.
New and small veterinary practices need a more affordable solution. If you have some time to work on your marketing, consider a DIY SEO software tool for veterinary clinics like the one offered by Jess. For $29 per month, you get step-by-step instructions that show you exactly how to optimize your website yourself, analytics tracking that measures your results, and access to “Office Hours” webinars to get tips from our SEO experts.
How Does SEO Make My Veterinary Website Rank Better?
SEO involves making many small changes to the pages on your business website that makes them more likely to rank higher in the search engine results. When users type in keywords, they are really asking questions. Pages that answer these questions better and load quickly, securely, and without errors are viewed as more trustworthy by search engines and are more likely to rank higher.
- Making sure your current website thoroughly describes all of the veterinary service options you offer
- Improving user experience throughout your website
- Showing your website is authoritative and trustworthy
- Developing new content on your website that describes all of the services offered by your vet clinic in more detail or that educates your prospects about the questions they should ask before making an appointment with a veterinarian
The above outcomes are achieved through SEO tactics called on-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and content development.
Keyword Research
On-page optimization involves knowing what terms people use when searching for a vet for their cat, dog, or companion and making sure you use these words and phrases on your site. The first step is keyword research which helps you know exactly what people are searching for and how often. “Vet near me” is the most popular keyword phrase people search for when they are looking for businesses like yours and “veterinarian near me” is the second most popular. It also helps to know about more specific keywords people use to search. For example, people search for animal hospitals and emergency vets as well as vets for different types of animals including birds, horses, and guinea pigs. Next, you place keywords on your page in your site’s title tag, meta description, page text, and headings. While there are plenty of keyword research tools and articles on how to title tags, you will get better results and save hours of time by hiring an SEO pro or leveraging a DIY SEO platform with suggestions specifically for vets, like Jess.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO makes sure your site is fast, secure, and can be crawled by search engines. Google’s Page Experience update that went live in June, 2021 makes technical SEO a bigger priority than ever. Contact your web developer if your site isn’t secure or if it seems slow. They should be able to help you speed it up. You can also improve site speed yourself by editing the photos in your gallery and throughout your site so they are as small as possible as well compressed and optimized for use on your vet website.
Content Development
Most vet practice websites are just a few pages. This doesn’t give you much space to tell search engines or your prospects much about your services and rates. If this describes you, consider adding some new pages to your website. Consider creating separate pages that go into detail about each of your services or that talk about specific animals you will serve, for example reptiles or birds.
Do you need help with your vet practice website’s SEO? Contact us for a free 30 minute consultation. We’re here to help you.