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How to get more clients with SEO for veterinarians
[Important note: this article has been automatically translated from the original Italian language.]
We have already talked about how to increase the visibility of your website, today we focus on how to put into practice the activities SEO to get more customers.
In fact, while it is true that it is important to bring traffic to one’s website to be authoritative and improve one’s brand awareness, it is also true that the ultimate goal is to turn visits to the site into contacts (conversions) that can generate revenue.
So a key topic is the “quality of traffic” vs. the “quantity of traffic.”
What good is SEO if you are a veterinarian?
The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consists of those activities that make a website highly valued by the search engines and therefore “suggested” as the best result, ranking high in the list that is obtained from the search.
As a result, people doing online searches will be more likely to click on the first results shown by Google rather than those placed at the bottom of the list or even on the second page (or not appearing at all!).
Thanks to SEO you can:
- Increase your authority and credibility online as a veterinarian and as a clinic;
- Strengthen your reputation and build customer loyalty;
- Increase quality traffic to your website;
- Acquire new customers.
Let’s see then How to get more customers through SEO on your website.
Analyze the search (Keyword or keywords)
There are millions of pet owners who use the Internet daily to search for information about their animals and on the veterinary services available (in their area, but sometimes also in wider geographic areas), your goal is to intercept among them your potential customers and bring them to your website.
This is step 1, the most important: bringing quality traffic to your website, and to do that you need effective analytics.
For example, frequent searches are:
- “vet near me”
- “cat care” o “dog diseases”
- “dog feeding” o “cat supplements”
- Start by studying those topics related to the services you offer: do you have a nutritionist In your facility? you have a pet-corner for the sale of Pet Health and Wellness Products (PSBA)?
Then move to a tool for analyzing keyword search volumes (Ubersuggest, Seozoom, Semrush o GoogleAds Keyword Planner).
2. Then begin collecting data on the search volume and search intent you need to respond to in order to rank:
3. Now select a handful of your favorite keywords and link them to a specific goal on your website and for your clinic:
Here are some examples:
-
- “cat adoption”: people are looking for information. It creates blog articles in which you talk about health requirements and necessary checks related to the adoption process (whether microchip is present, whether vaccination record is missing) to let people know about your services (vaccination, first visit, etc.).
- “dog insurance”: people are looking for insurance, you don’t sell insurance but (maybe) health plans, so you can write an article to answer questions about insurance coverage and encourage people to buy a health plan by explaining its preventive and economic benefits.
- “cat dermatologist”: people are looking for a service, so they need to contact someone. In this case you can use this keyword to increase the visibility of your dermatology-related services page.
- “cat ear cleaning”: people want to learn how to carry it out correctly on their own. You can write an article to explain to them what to do and what not to do, warn of certain risks, and list a number of alarm bells to watch out for. In that case, he recommends consulting a veterinarian (and since you have shown yourself to be so knowledgeable, who do you think the pet-owner would want to talk to should he find himself at that juncture?). Not only that, if you have a pet-corner, consider suggesting certain tools because you think they are particularly good for ear hygiene (saying they are available at your facility).
- “Milan veterinarian”: is a local search, so the user wants to “find out” or “go” to a veterinary facility. It is very important that you appear with your Google Business Profile tab and with some reviews.
Optimize the structure of your website
The structure of the navigation menu Is often underestimated or handled “by feel.” In fact, this one has great impact on the SEO of your website.
A good menu must:
- Be simple and intuitive for your visitors (avoid too many labels)
- present the main headings at the top or left: Home, Services, About Us, Contact Us.
- have submenus: for example, the Services heading could contain the list of specific pages (General Medicine, Surgery, Physiotherapy, Vaccinations, etc.)
- show the Contact page
- present the voice Blog or News (if there is this section on the website)
- submit the Reserved Area item (if provided)
- Submit the Reservations item (if this online service is available)
Optimize website content
By content I mean: pages, images, resources.
In practice:
- Make sure your content is well written and of quality, in short they must be useful for your readers. The contact page should have your contact information on it. On the eye surgery services page, you need to explain what conditions you treat, with what instruments, how to contact you, and answer frequently asked questions about this topic.
- Include the keywords you have identified in the page title and main text, in a natural way and using synonyms.
- Insert the links within your pages, either to other pages on your website or to external authoritative sources.
- It uses some original images and optimize them for SEO by giving them a meaningful name (not “img-015687” but “waiting-room-cat-friendly”)
- Don’t get stuck on a single keyword-the same concept can be searched in many different ways, so vary your vocabulary.
- Focused on the services offered: If possible, create a specific page for each service offered and optimize it as mentioned.
Create an ideal path for your users
Often referred to as the funnel, this is the path you would like your users to take from the moment of first interaction (they discover your existence), to the moment of conversion (they contact you). This is phase 2: Turning traffic into contacts.
Let me give you some examples:
- If a reader enters the site to read a generic blog article, I would like them to subscribe to the newsletter and leave me his contact information to send him future communications. So on the article page I will put a button “sign up for the newsletter.”
- If a reader reads an article about adopting a cat or on the microchip, I would like you to read the one on vaccinations, so I will put a link. Finally, if the client also reads the article on vaccination I would like him to read my services page and contact me.
- If a reader reads the service page on soft palate surgery, I would like you to book a specialist visit to make the correct diagnosis. So I’m going to put a link or a button to entice him to take the action.
- If the reader reads an article that talks about the dog nutrition, I would like you to contact the nutritionist at my veterinary clinic. Again, I will put a link here to make an appointment (perhaps an initial consultation in telemedicine for services that make it possible).
- If the reader reads a page about how much it costs to maintain a purebred dog, I might refer them to breeders who have a partnership with my clinic (strengthening my network outside the Web as well) or suggest that they consider a health plan.
In short, the final step is to turn traffic to the website into paying customers.
Claudia Ustione
Consulente SEO specializzata per strutture e cliniche veterinarie.
Porta visibilità ai siti web a professionisti, aziende e cliniche veterinarie attraverso i motori di ricerca.
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