Want a Better Veterinarian Website? Check Out These Tips

Do you feel like your website is dated or you’re paying too much for a marketing subscription that is just sitting on your account? We understand that you’re busy being a veterinarian and marketing isn’t something you really need to handle in-house. Either way, your website deserves the same level of care and attention that you give your patients.

Here at Optuno, we design agency style websites that are Done FOR You, Not BY You™. We provide fully custom, agency style websites at an affordable price. We have developed thousands of websites over the last few years so we definitely have a few tricks up our sleeves.
 

1 - Use a Real Developer and Build a Fast, Responsive Website

There are typically two options for website development. The first is to have the site built out for a one-time fee and the second is the SAAS model (service as a subscription). Many niche specific marketing firms market themselves as boutique firms that “know your industry so well.” The reality is, many of these marketing services are cookie-cutter firms that outsource their web development and charge you a jacked up monthly rate.

Because of our proprietary CMS (content management system), we are able to build better websites, faster than our competitors. Because of our efficiency in the development process, we are one of the few companies that will build agency quality websites without an upfront fee. By building websites for an affordable monthly commitment, we are effectively investing in your business and banking on retention. We have built countless veterinary websites and can help you during every step of the process. Whether you are developing a new site from scratch or redeveloping your current site, we have been there and done that.

“Mobile friendly” used to be a buzzword but now it’s the status quo. In fact, the phrase mobile friendly is dated. It’s 2020 and your website should be fully RESPONSIVE across every device. A modern website should display and function beautifully on everything from the smallest smartphone to a tablet and even a large desktop. All of the websites made by Optuno are fully responsive across every device and every browser.

In addition to being responsive, it’s important that your veterinarian website loads quickly. The best way to speed up your site is to use the smallest image files possible without sacrificing quality and clarity. Banner shots should have a higher resolution but thumbnails should have reasonable file sizes. We resize all of the images for our clients during development to ensure that our sites load and function properly.

If your website features videos, it’s best to embed these from a third party site such as Vimeo or YouTube. Video galleries can have as many videos as you would like but again, it’s best to have these embedded.

All of our websites are hosted and protected in-house through our sister company, EndLayer, LLC. This ensures that the sites are fast and secure because we abide by the most stringent industry standards.
 

2 - Use Unique Content for Your Veterinary Website

Many independent marketing firms have strings attached to their service. They might lure you in with a fancy website proposal and great content for you to only find out that the intellectual property is copyright protected and not entirely yours. Intellectual property that is owned by your marketing provider can lead to several issues:

1. You may have “duplicate content” or shared information with other veterinary websites that use your same marketing company. It may seem like these other websites aren’t an issue because they are located out of state but search engines don’t look at geography when it comes to duplicate content. All of the content on your website should be completely original or else you may face severe penalties in how your website ranks in search engines.

2. Intellectual property with niche website developers may be used to hold you hostage even if you are unhappy with your service or paying a premium. The articles and videos that “help” your website are often used as a way to retain you as a client. If you want to leave their service, you may be faced with a situation where you have to completely rebuild your website.

Your website should be 100% yours. If you have an existing marketing company that is using “copyright protected” photos, videos, or content, feel free to reach out. We can always help you redesign your website, update your content, and get rid of outrageous monthly commitments.  
 

3 - Use Your Blog!

Blogs are crucial if you want your website and business to stay up to date and have an improved presence in search results. Every article you post is an opportunity to target new keywords and establish your business as an expert in your field. Blogs build trust for your business and website.

Each blog post has a unique URL and can be used to target keywords that the core pages on your site may not focus on. It’s helpful to post to your blog on a monthly basis but if you don’t have the time, we understand. This is exactly why we offer a Premium Blog Writing Service to help keep your website up to date with monthly posts. Our blog writing service heavily considers SEO in the way we map out topics and format posts.
 

4 - Incorporate a Social Feed

Every animal that comes through the door presents an opportunity to create content. First of all, people love showing off their animals (no matter how cute or ugly). Have your receptionist or vet-tech take high quality photos of your little patients and you should have nonstop content for social media.

Search engines have stated that “social signals” are one of the many variables they incorporate into their algorithm. It’s important that all your social media accounts are consistent and linked to your website. It’s important that your website displays links to your social media accounts but if you want to take it a step further, “social walls” or “feeds” from Facebook or Instagram can be a great way to keep your website up to date on a daily basis as well.
 

5 - Incorporate Reviews Onto Your Site

We offer a review generator that can be great on multiple fronts. First of all, the software streamlines the review process for happy customers so they aren’t forced to deal with frustrating obstacles like creating accounts and downloading apps to write a simple review. In addition, our Review Generator can be set up to automatically solicit reviews from customers that can be pulled from your patient management software. Not only does our software generate reviews, it can help turn negative reviews into constructive criticism by encouraging customers who would have left unfavorable ratings to contact you directly.

The review generator is a service we offer exclusively to Optuno clients. It is a great resource for reputation management and also an awesome way to display reviews from multiple websites in real time on a review section of your website. Instead of a simple review block like you would see on most websites, our review generator can be synchronized with your site so that it displays all of your recent and older reviews from reputable third party sites on your website.
 

6 - Use Veterinary Specific On Page SEO

It’s important to have veterinarian specific SEO on your site. On-page SEO is an important element of website design as format plays a huge role. Our unlimited page website plan is a perfect way to display every service you offer with its own specific page and relevant metadata. If you offer pet boarding for example, this should be under the services section of your site as its own independent page. Your pet boarding page should have information in the title and description that describes the service and also considers geography i.e. “Pet Boarding in Chicago.”

All of our metadata is written during site development to strategically target all the services your business provides. Many of our clients choose to provide us with their content but if not, we have industry specific copywriting services that can be utilized to really build infrastructure for your website. This is an important investment for any business as on-page SEO is the first step toward generating organic traffic for your business. Always outline all of your services on your website as it will pay dividends in the long run.
 

7 - Include a Veterinarian Biography

A vet’s biography is more than just a statement of credentials. Biographies humanize your practice and make your clinic approachable. It’s important to have a good headshot and some information about your education, experience, specialties, etc.  Many veterinarian clinics go a step further by including team members on their website. Establishing familiarity and rapport with your staff is important in setting the tone for a great experience.
 

8 - Utilize a Call To Action

What good is a website if it doesn’t generate leads? A CTA (Call to Action) is what translates website visitors into customers. We can often integrate your site with third party booking solutions so that visitors can have a streamlined experience. If booking software isn’t for you, we always feature contact information and links to contact forms throughout the site so no matter where the customer is, they are one click away from contacting you.

To speak to a member of our dedicated sales team, give us a call today at 1-888-678-8662 or click here to schedule a free consultation.