When it comes to digital marketing, the word algorithm goes hand-in-hand with search engine optimization (SEO). While the idea of appeasing this mysterious digital overlord is not a new concept, it is an ever-changing feature that requires constant tweaking to your strategy to ensure your veterinary website remains at the top of a search engine results page (SERP). New changes in AI results, search behavior, and social search are morphing the way the algorithm prioritizes search results in real time. Keeping up to date with these changes helps you ensure that pet owners in your area can always find your veterinary hospital. 

AI Summaries and AI Agent Results

One of the biggest changes currently happening across Google and social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Meta is the use of AI-generated results to common search questions. When someone types a question into a search engine, AI will crawl a variety of sites to find the answer, then it creates an AI Overview at the top of the SERP. This means that pet owners can find the answers they’re looking for without having to click through any websites. If your content is not set up in a way that makes it easy for AI to find these answers, it might negatively affect your ranking. ChatGPT is officially already the second most popular search engine, and it is most likely here to stay. Now is the time to shift your marketing strategy to account for these new methods of searching. Try to focus on creating website and social media content that is easy for AI to crawl and extract the necessary information. You can do this by:

• Making sure your website schema is up to date with your current contact information.
• Creating an FAQ page on your website that clearly lists the answers to some of your most common questions. Be sure to update it regularly to keep your content fresh.
• Creating blog posts that go into more detail about some of these FAQs.
• Keeping website content clear and concise. Think short paragraphs and use of bulleted lists (just like this one!). 

AI Price Shopping

AI price shopping is another feature that is drastically changing the way search algorithms find businesses for users. Search engines like Google are currently rolling out features that allow users to price shop using AI. With the simple click of a button, AI will call a few local businesses to give the user a price comparison. If your veterinary hospital is not equipped to handle these AI pricing calls, you could be missing out on potential clients. In order to appease the algorithm and ensure pet owners can find you through this feature, be sure to:

• Advise your staff not to hang up if Google calls asking for pricing.
• Avoid committing to a certain price (especially when the estimate might change after an exam) by quoting a “starting at” price.
• Try to keep a few appointments available each week for pet owner leads that come from AI price shopping queries. 

The Future of AI Search Ads

AI ads are expected to grow exponentially in the upcoming years. As a brand new method of paid advertising, it is expected to make changes in the following ways:

• Move away from click-through rates as a prime metric of ad performance. 
• Require more conversational ads with a focus on multiple modalities.
• Use complex queries and image-based searches to anticipate the advertising needs of a website user.
• Integrate directly into an AI overview instead of showing up as separate advertisements.
• Adapt advertising strategy to ensure ads show up in these AI overviews instead of creating content designed to click through to a website.

Social Search

Your social media profiles are gaining even more priority when it comes to helping local pet owners find your hospital. The algorithm prioritization changes occurring across social platforms like TikTok and Instagram mean that metrics are constantly changing when it comes to what pet owners are seeing. This is also changing targeting options for paid social media advertising. Some of the biggest AI trends in social search include:

• AI features that do a better job of understanding a user’s queries based on their use history and location to provide the most relevant responses to search queries.
• Better AI recommendations for local products and businesses based on trending hashtags, influencer content, and personal search history for an individual user.
• Predictions on popular products and services. Creating a big social media following with posts and videos that are shared regularly can help you with this.
• The need to optimize social content and videos so they are shown to larger audiences.

Multi-Modal Content Strategy

In order to keep up with these new algorithm requirements, you will need to implement a multi-modal veterinary marketing strategy that utilizes every aspect of your digital marketing. Instead of thinking of each part of your digital marketing as its own separate entity, you need to consider how your SEO efforts, your social media strategy, your paid ads, and your content strategy come together to create a well-rounded brand that caters to the needs of AI search queries across the board. 

At Beyond Indigo Pets, we stay on top of all of the latest algorithm changes to ensure our clients are always at the forefront of search results. It’s our job to make sure local pet owners can find you. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you build an effective digital marketing strategy.