Your veterinary website is an essential tool when it comes to attracting new clients to your veterinary practice. How can you make sure you’re using it to its best potential?
Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Make sure it showcases your goals.
Your website should be built with business goals in mind, and it should reflect those goals in its content and design. For most veterinarians, the goal of a website is to attract new clients, and provide essential information to existing ones.
Your goals dictate what—and where—the content of your website should be. For example, your homepage is the first page visitors see on your website. Prioritizing your website’s business goals can help you decide which pieces of content, and which calls-to-action, to place in the most visible areas of your homepage.
Use your calls-to-action.
Your website needs to give your users actions they can take once they land on your website, and these should be driven by your business goals. For example, if your primary goal is to generate new clients, your first call-to-action (CTA) should be to book an appointment. Make sure that your primary action is prominent on your website’s homepage, and is visible without scrolling.
A CTA can take on many forms, such as a contact form to “book an appointment today,” a highly visible “call xxx-xxx-xxxx to book an appointment,” or a large button that asks the user to complete the action you desire.
Your homepage can also include secondary actions in less prominent spaces like the header or footer of your website, or another space further down on the homepage. Unlike primary goals, secondary actions typically aren’t immediate revenue drivers—they help you accomplish other business goals such as keeping in touch with clients and potential clients.
Examples of secondary actions include:
- Signing up for your newsletter
- Liking your practice on social media
- Sharing a blog post or article
Don’t forget to test it.
It’s one thing to get a website running smoothly, but it’s another to keep it running smoothly. Split-testing elements of your website, particularly your homepage, can help improve how well it meets your goals.
Split-testing is a way of measuring the effectiveness of certain elements on your website as they compare to new versions. For example, the headline on your appointment booking form might read “Fill out this form to book an appointment.” By testing it against another headline, like “We fill up quickly! Book your appointment today,” you can measure which one encourages more pet owners to complete the form.
Keep it simple.
When it comes to website homepages, less is often more. You generally only have a few seconds to tell a visitor what your website is about and that they’re in the right place, so it’s best to keep it clean and concise.
Your veterinary website is a great tool for attracting clients to your practice. Make sure your homepage shows off your primary CTA, and any essential information like contact details and your services. Avoid putting too much on the homepage. You want to encourage your visitor to take the action you desire, and that should be at the forefront when you decide what content to put on your homepage.
Need a new home for your veterinary website? Learn how a WebDVM website can help!
