Three Ways to Promote Your Veterinary Clinic Better Online

This week, many people were alarmed and disgusted to hear that a “vampire veterinarian” has been operating out of a Texas office. The veterinarian, Millard Tierce, has been accused of keeping pets alive in order to use their blood for the treatment of other animals, after he promised to euthanize them.

Last fall, the Harrises brought their dog to Tierce for a minor issue. When they came to collect their pet, Tierce claimed he had a congenital spinal defect that was incurable, and advised euthanization. The family agreed. Yet several months later, they received a call from a veterinary technician who told them that their dog was not only alive but being neglected and used for blood extraction. The dog is now in their care fairly well, with no spinal defect present. The doctor has been charged with animal cruelty.

If you consider yourself a caring veterinarian, you would never allow something like this to happen at your own clinic. Yet, around the country, poorly run veterinary offices continue to deliver shoddy services with little oversight. You can connect your better services with the pet owners who need them through developing and re-designing your website. Today, the internet is key for recruiting new clients. How can you improve your website? Here are three website promotion tips.

1. Give Your Veterinary Website Design a Spring Cleaning

Many websites have been happily trucking along since 2007 with the same exact web page. It’s time to update your website. Get rid of any flashing images, and stick to only one or two professional typefaces. Make sure that information is easy to find, and not just limited to your contact information. If you have dead links or images, it’s time to cut them out. Try not to rely on stock images, considering the personal nature of your business. You’re real people, with real patients — why not feature them on your site?

2. Incorporate Social Media for Better SEO

At the end of the day, everyone is interested in knowing how to improve their website for search engine results, because Google search is what pet owners are going to use when they need a new vet. For this reason, it’s a good idea to use social media to boost your search engine results. Start keeping a blog on your website — blogs increase pages for search indexing by an average of 430%. Maintain social media networks so that you can share what you write with all your clients. If it’s useful information, they’ll share it in turn, helping to boost how relevant Google thinks your website is.

3. What You Should Look for in Veterinary Website Designers

The key to having a better website will be using a professional designer. Anyone who is going to work on your website should be able to show you a portfolio of their past work, and it should be in line with what you expect for your veterinary website design. Make sure they have experience working with responsive web design — this means that your website will show up correctly on multiple device types. Otherwise, you may end up losing out on people using mobile devices, which are quickly becoming an essential part of the search market. About 31% of people now report that their phones are their primary way of accessing the web.

Do you have any tips for how people can improve their veterinary clinic websites? Read more: vethubs.com