Template vs. Custom Veterinary Websites

A drawing of a man bringing his dog to the veterinarian.

Your veterinary website is often the first impression people get of your practice, your team, and your mission. If you do not have a website (or if your current website needs some serious updating), it is important to build one that truly represents you as a business. While template sites have some benefits, they do not compare to a fully custom website for your business. 

Template Websites

A template website is built from an already-existing template that uses the same basic structure with just a few small design and content changes. Using a template website is a lot like renting a space. Although you can make small cosmetic changes to make the space *feel* more like your own, it is never truly yours. If you want to make serious foundational changes (like adding a window or tearing down a wall), however, you can’t. You only have a limited amount of ways to make the website represent your business.

Additionally, it can be harder to do well with veterinary SEO on a template site because Google sees the templated structure faster than it sees any changes you’ve made. Even when you update photos, alt tags, or even bits of content, Google can tell the rest of the site is templated. When you have a templated site, it is important to remember:

Two dogs looking out the window of a car in similar plaid outfits.
  • Your site looks like everyone else’s: When compared side-by-side with another template, it will be easy to tell that the two sites are using the same foundation.
  • You don’t own the full site: If you stop working with your current website provider, you will have to recreate parts of your website that you cannot take with you when you go.
  • Duplicate content leads to poor SEO rankings: Some templated sites don’t have a big variation with content, which can negatively affect your SEO search rankings.
  • You might have problems keeping the site updated: Since you have a limited number of changes you can make to a templated site, there are not always a lot of meaningful changes you can make to help with your rankings. 
  • It will be difficult to add onto the site in the future: It can be very difficult to add new pages beyond the scope of the template.

Custom Websites

A cat looking over her owner's shoulder as she uses the computer.

On the flip side, custom websites are 100% yours. You have a say in every part of the creation process, and you are left with a final product that is a true reflection of your business. You choose everything from colors to photos and additional design elements. If you need to make any updates in the future, you can with ease. Your website will look like your practice and no one else’s. 

Custom websites are more likely to catch Google’s attention when it comes to SEO. This means by building a custom site, you will automatically perform better in search results before you even work on your veterinary marketing. No templates to mess with your rankings here.

When you use a custom site, you know you:

  • Completely own the site: You own the design and the content
  • You decide what it looks like: You have the power to cater the site to your business and its needs.
  • Have fully-optimized SEO controls: This includes content, meta information, technical code parameters, and more.
  • Can create custom content: Custom content helps you rank highly on Google.
  • Better search engine rankings: Your site will perform better in search results.
  • Have an up-to-date site: Template sites are often bogged down with outdated plugins, security concerns, or update risks.
  • Are using a responsive website: Websites built with responsive website design coding are smart—these intelligent websites know whether they are being viewed on a mobile device or a large screen TV, and they adjust accordingly.

You deserve the best for your veterinary website, and Beyond Indigo Pets can give you just that. Our custom sites are beautifully designed and SEO-optimized at launch to ensure you start out with a bang. To learn more about our sites and our other veterinarian marketing services, please call (877) 244-9322 or fill out our form.

5 Veterinary Marketing Ideas to Try Today

A dog in a veterinary marketing agency office looking at the camera.

Veterinary marketing helps you show the world what you do best—provide top tier veterinary care for pets in your area. Marketing is the ideal way to share information with people who are searching for it (and for the services you provide). Test out these veterinarian marketing ideas to be sure that users can find you when they need you:

Create a Custom Website

Your veterinary website serves as your business card, your digital waiting room, and your first impression for potential customers who might find you in a web search. Using a custom website (not a template) is one of the best ways to showcase your business and what makes it special. This means having a unique design that highlights your branding, but also creating custom content that expresses your voice as a practice. Don’t know where to get started on a new custom website? Don’t worry, we can help!

Expand Your Reach with Pay-Per-Click Ads

A cat using a laptop to check out a veterinary marketing company.

Veterinary SEO helps you optimize your website to entice new organic visitors to find you based on keywords, website speed, mobile responsiveness, and other technical factors. If you want to spread your reach even farther, though, you should put some focus on pay-per-click advertising. Putting advertising dollars behind your veterinary marketing efforts means that you can target specific audiences who are the most likely to become clients. You can also make sure your name and your brand reach even farther than they ever have before. 

Showcase Your Client’s Pets on Social Media

Working in a veterinary clinic gives you easy access to a hugely effective marketing tool: cute animal pictures. Sharing your client’s pet pictures on your social media platforms is a quick and simple way to get a lot of engagement from your followers. The more engagement you get, the more your content will be seen. You can also have photo contests to encourage people to share photos (and engage with your page). You might want to add a photo sharing consent line to your intake paperwork to ensure that you have permission to use these photos when you want to. 

Use a Blog to Educate Clients

Blogs are great tools for consistently adding new content to your website, and you can also use them to educate your clients and show your expertise in your field. Try to write at least one blog a month to help your SEO efforts. Think about questions you hear a lot in your practice, and write a blog post that answers the question. This allows you to educate current and new pet owners while making yourself their top source for pet health information. It’ll make you more likely to rank highly in web searches, too.

Introduce Your Team

A veterinary team (and a dog) stacking hands.

New and potential clients love to truly get to know who you are as a practice, and there’s no better way to do that than to feature the smiling faces of your hard-working team. Personal touches like this help you make the transition from being seen as a business to a partner in pet care. Here are a few ways you can showcase your team and add a personal feel to your veterinary marketing:

  • Social media posts
  • Staff bios on your website
  • Add a Meet the Doctor highlight to your home page (or make it a blog series)

Beyond Indigo Pets is a veterinary marketing agency with decades of experience in veterinary marketing, and we want to help you show the world what you do. Our veterinary marketing company also offers custom websites and blogging services to get you more clients. Call (877) 244-9322 or fill out our form to transform your marketing efforts.

What’s the Difference Between Google Analytics and GA4?

A woman looking at Google analytics on her tablet.

When it comes to veterinary SEO, you might be doing a lot of good things for your website, but do you know how to track the results you’re getting? Google’s analytics tracking program changes with the times, and understanding how to interpret the data can help you get the best results.

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Do You Know Where To Find Your Future Clients Online?

A cute dog using a computer.

With constant changes to platforms and algorithms, it can be difficult to stay on top of digital marketing even if you have the time to do it. Whether you are a person reminiscing about the days when marketing meant purchasing a Yellow Pages ad or trying to keep up with the latest Google updates, today’s digital world can seem completely out of control. Not only are there multiple platforms, but also multiple generations of users, and in order to market well, you have to understand your audience.

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AI-Generated Content: No Match for Real Writers with Veterinary Experience

A digital dog connected to AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is having a real moment. With uses that range from the medical field to self-driving cars, machine learning-enabled technology is making many facets of life easier. Some companies are even using it to create marketing content. While there are definitely important uses for the technology, when producing veterinary content, is AI really the way to go? 

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2023 Is Almost Here! Ideas To Get You to the End of the Year & Beyond

New Year's celebration.

Somehow, 2022 went POOF and 2023 is quickly sneaking up on us. December is a month packed with multiple holidays and end-of-year business needs. Not to mention, the  VMX convention occurs right at the beginning of the year. Before this year officially ends, you must start considering your marketing for 2023. 

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5 Veterinary Website Design Trends for 2023

A screenshot of Oroville Animal Health Center's veterinary website.

As hard as it might be to believe, we are quickly approaching 2023. As we officially transition into a new calendar year, now is the time to start thinking about how to get the best veterinary website design to make sure your practice is front-and-center. Beyond Indigo Pets is bringing you some of the top trends in website design for veterinary clinics in the new year:

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Google’s New Helpful Content Update: What You Need to Know

Google's new helpful content update.

While Google rolls out hundreds of minor tweaks to its algorithm each year, occasionally they release a major update to the platform that impacts nearly all websites across the internet.  Website owners should take particular notice of these major updates, especially since they often require changes to website behavior. As of Thursday, August 18th, 2022, Google has released a new major update called “Google’s Helpful Content Update,” and it’s packed full of important details for website owners regarding the content on their website. Our Beyond Indigo Pets team of certified Google experts is here to help explain Google’s Helpful Content Update, and share tips on how to improve and maintain your website’s SEO ranking under the new algorithm. 

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