How do pet owners interact with your business for the first time? Online! Ranking higher in your local area’s Google Search is crucial for attracting new patients to your veterinary business.

Not feeling like a digital marketing pro? We've got you covered with some helpful tips to kickstart your marketing strategy. Keep reading this detailed SEO guide for veterinary clinics that our Red Brick Partners team built especially for you.

This guide aims to help veterinary clinics improve their Google ranking and attract new clients.

Google Goodies:

Ever wonder, "Why Google when there are other search engines?" Good question! Google is the global search engine champ, with over 1 billion users daily, leaving even the next player, Bing, in the dust. Here's the scoop: the tips we're sharing aren't just for Google—they'll amp up your game on other search engines, too! 

Establish your Google Business Page to ensure your listing is findable.

Do you want pet owners to find you when they Google “veterinarian near me“? Of course, you do! Setting up your Google Business page is fast, easy, and a great place to start. Visit this link to learn more.

Your Google Business page provides essential details like your operating hours, location, and other information people might be curious about.

Google Analytics - Track all your metrics

After setting up your website’s business page on Google, you should implement Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 is like your personal data tracker, tracking everyone who visits your website. Read more about implementing GA4 on your website.

Google Reviews

Have strong client relationships? Add a sign with a QR code on your reception desk that links to your Google review page. Ask your existing clients to drop a quick review while you get their paperwork together.

Having these signs throughout your veterinary practice will encourage more pet parents to leave Google reviews for your website.

Pro-Tip: Make a QR code and place it in key locations throughout your hospital to encourage pet owners to share a review of their experience.
You can create your own QR code from a variety of websites.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is like a digital assistant that analyzes the data coming to your site from search queries. It can pinpoint areas of success and areas needing improvement. Google reveals why some pages may not index and offers insights to enhance your site.

(Indexing is when search engines discover your webpage and store that information to help searching prospects find you.)

GSC allows you to keep tabs on your top-performing keywords in one easy-to-reference location. If you’re new to SEO, here are our top 2 tips for veterinary clinics:

#1 Local Focus

Geographic keywords are particularly beneficial for local companies like veterinary hospitals. If your vet clinic is in Wilmington, Delaware, include "Wilmington, Delaware" in your meta description*. This will help for searches that include terms such as “veterinary clinics near me” or “veterinarian in Wilmington, Delaware.”

#2 Image Optimization

Apply meta tags to the code of each image and name it using descriptive keywords in your content management system (CMS) to boost your Google ranking. By doing this, you may see your images popping up in both Google Images and Google Search. (Meta description is a brief summary of what appears on your webpage.)

For example, an image’s meta name would be ”VeterinaryClinicName_Wilmington_Delaware”

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File Size Matters:

Keep image sizes under 1MB to optimize the loading times. By keeping your webpages and file sizes small and less than 5 MB, your mobile site will load much faster. When you optimize your mobile web pages with smaller file sizes, Google will rank your pages higher than others.

Remember, faster loading of pages leads to happier clients and greater Google visibility.

Keyword Strategy:

Select the keywords that represent what you want to be known for, and make sure to use them consistently throughout all your content. This includes not just text but also the descriptions of your images—every element matters. Incorporate these keywords into your veterinary website, blog posts, overall content, page titles, URLs, and meta descriptions. Essentially, you want to think about using keywords anywhere a potential client might search for information.

When strategizing, ensure you incorporate keywords such as "veterinarian," your city's name, "veterinary hospital," or any unique services your clinic offers. Think of it as aligning your keyword strategy with what your clients are searching for. For further insights into popular search queries and additional veterinary marketing ideas, consider visiting Google Trends.

Diversify Your Keywords:

Remember, keywords aren’t a single word but multiple words and phrases. Craft your content to target multiple specific keyword stretches, such as “Veterinary Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware.“

You can use your GSC data to see where your landing pages appear in searches and which pages match the search queries.

Did You Know Google Owns YouTube?

Being active on YouTube will also help your search results! Use YouTube to host your videos and embed them into your website for a boost!

This is why YouTube videos will pop up when you search for something!

Services Pages:

Ensure you have pages describing your services (utilize your unique keywords). Include rich media-like videos from your YouTube channel and place them on the services page.

Keywords pit your content against others vying for similar attention. Remember that Google favors good, locally relevant content. Stay on top of your game by consistently delivering new, engaging content. Having your service pages rank high in these keywords will have you above the competition.

Blog:

Start a blog! Blogs have two extremely versatile purposes for your website:

1. It gives you a place to continue pumping out keywords

2. Google values the freshness of content. Blogs are a great way to keep your content new.

Anchor Text:

Link text on your web pages to other pages on your website. Web crawlers love this, and it keeps people browsing your site. Longer site visits also help your rankings and conversions.

Conversion Actions:

Make sure your homepage has actionable buttons and instructions for visitors. Low engagement rates can and will hurt your domain authority. (Domain Authority is how trustworthy search engines view your website - a higher domain authority makes your website higher on Google’s search ranking. )

Understanding what a potential client wants will help you develop your marketing plan and save you time in the long run.

Mobile Optimized:

You should design your website files that are sized as small as possible and use a “mobile first” approach. This will improve your engagement rates, time-on-site, and patient conversions.

Backlinks:

Get other organizations to link to your website (like local shelters and other companies in your community that you have a relationship with). Providing a guest blog post to a partner company is a great way to provide value to your partner and get a backlink to your website. The more backlinks (from good websites) you have, the better your domain authority will be.

Great Blogs To Write for Your Area:

"10 Tips for Keeping Your Pet Healthy Year-Round: Advice from Our Veterinarians"

"The Ultimate Guide to Preventative Care for Your Furry Friend: A Vet's Perspective"

"Unveiling Common Pet Health Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction"

"Emergency Preparedness for Pet Owners: What Every Family Should Know"

"Understanding Your Pet's Behavior: Insights from Veterinary Experts"

If you’re having trouble coming up with blog ideas, have a brainstorming session with an AI large language learning model like ChatGPT!

Everything you need to know about backlinks

A “follow” link from a high-authority site can significantly boost your domain authority. Follow backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours, indicating that your content is reliable and trustworthy. Follow backlinks can help increase your domain authority, compared to “nofollow” backlinks, which are backlinks from organizations that link to your site but do not contribute to your site’s reputation.

High-authority sites are often from organizations such as local news channels that have high traffic volume. If you’ve recently added a new service or treated a high-profile case, a backlink from a local news outlet could have a major impact on your website.

How long visitors stay on your site and how engaged they are play large roles in deciding your domain authority ranking on Google. Essentially, Google is looking to determine whether the person who went to the site got what they needed.

One effective way to drive traffic to your website is by posting valuable content on your blog and using your email and social media marketing efforts to drive traffic to your blog articles.

Consider implementing a Google review form to invite your customers to share their reviews. Google assesses your reviews when establishing your domain authority.

Social Strategy to Boost Web Presence:

Social media can help your veterinary clinic's website rank better, even though it doesn't directly change search engine rankings.

Content Distribution:

Share your content on social media. This will improve traffic to your website and support positive search engine rankings.

Share-Worthy:

Create social media content that people will want to share. This will help your brand be more visible, drive more traffic to your website, and make it easier for people to find your content.

Here are a few strong veterinary clinic marketing ideas for you to start using in your social media strategies:

Pet of the week: Start a weekly or bi-weekly feature where you showcase a beloved pet that visited your clinic. Share their story, a cute photo, and perhaps a short video clip of them enjoying life post-visit. This builds a sense of community involvement.

Pet Health Tips and Trivia: Share informative and engaging content related to pet health and wellness. Post tips on how to keep pets healthy, seasonal safety reminders, and interesting pet health trivia. Encourage your followers to ask questions or share their own tips and experiences in the comments.

Client Success Stories: Share stories and recommendations from satisfied clients whose pets received excellent care at your clinic. The stories show your clinic's know-how and give your audience a sense of your ability.

If the endorsement is good, you can ask them to place it in your Google reviews.

Use social media (via your Pixel) to retarget visitors to your website. This can bring them back and help with site traffic.

Pro Tip: You can also expand your marketing reach with lookalike audiences!

Market Research:

Use social media to see what kinds of content people are reacting to most, then create that kind of content!

Backlink Support:

Posting quality content on social media allows influencers to find and link to it, which can give your site a huge traffic boost. Social media campaigns should help in your lead-generation strategy.

Influencers:

Reach out to relevant influencers to get exposure for your content. Make sure the content is on your website and have the influencer link to those pages. From there, you will be able to see all the results through Google Analytics.

Start getting more leads through your websites today! 

Red Brick Partners is a marketing agency with 14 years of experience specializing in B2B and B2C veterinary marketing. Whether you're looking to generate leads, automate sales and marketing processes, drive traffic, or increase awareness, we can help. We design our services to help our clients become more successful. Contact us to learn more about how we can assist you.

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