How to build a website for your vet practice

We live in a highly digital world, and a website has become necessary for every business, big or small. Veterinary practices are no exception! They deal with different types of clients – from different ages, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds to different priorities – but most of them have one common language: technology. Many of your clients are probably used to smartphones and finding answers online.

If you are not up there, you are probably losing a lot of clients to practices that have a solid online presence. Websites are available and accessible 24 hours a day, every day of the year, which means that you can get booking requests even when your practice is closed ⌛ and you can reduce the time spent on phone calls by making the basic information available online.

What’s the secret of a great website?

Your website should tell a story in order to build trust while providing the right information for your audience.

Pet parents want to understand why you do what you do and what your experience is, so make sure you let them know what your passion is!

Here is a list of what a veterinary practice website should have:

• Story & Team (who are you, what you do and why)
• Services (what kind of services do you offer for pets – make sure to use words that pet parents understand, so avoid terms such as ovariohysterectomy and use spay instead)
• Schedule & Online Booking (make sure you keep your calendar updated)
• Contact & Emergency Phone (if applicable for your vet practice)
• Testimonials (it’s a great way to build trust and show what other pet parents think)

What are the best tools to build a website?

We put together a list of some easy to use Website Builders:

Powering over 30% of the websites on the internet, WordPress is arguably the most popular website builder out there. Whether you want to develop a website for your business or your own personal projects, you can use WordPress’ intuitive editor to build an entire website and blog.

With WordPress, you can also easily add images to your website with its drag-and-drop editor and embed audio, video, and documents on your website. If you want visibility into your website’s analytics and SEO data, WordPress has these features built into its platform. Read a step by step tutorial on how to get started with WordPress

But maybe the most important aspect is that WordPress offers hundreds of themes that you can use to build a great website without much coding knowledge. Have a look here for some great templates for veterinary practices websites

Cost: while WordPress is free to use, you need to pay for the hosting (from $5/ month) and a premium template (between $29 – $59, one-time fee)

Wix is one of the most versatile website builders on the market. Wix’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create a professional website – without having to know a line of code! With hundreds of templates and great tools, Wix lets you build your site fast and easily. Have a look here for some great templates for veterinary practices websites

Cost: from $11/ month

With award-winning, fully customizable website templates designed by their own team of web designers, Squarespace gives you the ability to craft some of the most visually aesthetic websites that a website builder can possibly develop. However, they don’t have some specialized veterinary themes that you can use directly.

Squarespace also offers some robust marketing tools, like email campaigns, SEO features, blogging, social integration, analytics, and lead capture features.

Cost: from $12/ month

In June 2017, Google gave every business with a Google My Business account access to a free, intuitive single-page website builder. The tool is fully customizable, automatically updates with the account user’s GMB listing information, and works with AdWords Express.

Tailored for small businesses, Google Sites can automatically generate your company’s information on your website with information from your Google My Business profile. You can also customize your website’s text, photos, and design themes. Additionally, Google Sites are mobile responsive, can use custom domains, and can display your Google Maps location.

If you decide to use Google Sites, you should know that it only includes one template with several style options (called “Themes” in Google Sites). This is why all the examples below have a similar look and feel. The ones with most unique looks have made the most of Google Sites by using their own photography and typography.

Cost: FREE

Did you know that Digitail automatically builds an online appointments page for you?

You can check your page in Administration → Clinic Account → Online Appointments page

While the main purpose of the webpage is to enable your practice to receive online appointments, you can also add extra information, such as some information about you and your practice, emergency phone number or other special announcements.

Digitail takes care of the rest, so your schedule, services, and staff members are automatically displayed based on your configurations!