Veterinary search splits cleanly in two, and the two halves need completely different treatment. There is the calm, considered search — someone new to the area choosing a practice to register with — and there is the panicked one, where a dog has eaten something and the owner is typing “emergency vet near me open now” with one hand.
The second is where new clients actually come from. A registration that begins as an emergency very often becomes a decade of routine work, two pets and a recommendation to a neighbour. It is also the search where nobody reads a website.
Out-of-hours is the whole ball game
When an owner searches at 9pm, Google filters on what it believes is open. If your listing shows standard hours and your out-of-hours provision sits behind a phone diversion, you are invisible at exactly the moment demand peaks — and a corporate group with a 24-hour hospital forty minutes away is not.
Practices handle this badly almost universally. If you provide your own out-of-hours, your hours must say so. If you refer to a provider, say who, where and what it costs, on a page that can be found at speed. An owner who finds that page at 9pm remembers you even when the referral goes elsewhere.
| What the owner needs | Where you win or lose it | |
|---|---|---|
| “emergency vet near me” | To be seen now, at any price | Opening hours and phone, not the website |
| “vets near me” | A practice to register with | Reviews, photos and distance |
| “how much does it cost to neuter a dog” | A number before they ring | A published price list |
| “vet that does exotics / rabbits” | A practice with the right skills | A species and services page |
| “puppy vaccinations [town]” | A start with a new animal | A new-pet page with the schedule |
Publishing prices is no longer optional
The Competition and Markets Authority’s market investigation into veterinary services put pricing transparency squarely at the centre of the sector, and owner expectations have already moved ahead of the regulation. “How much does it cost to neuter a dog” and its variants are among the most consistent searches in the category, and most practice websites answer none of them.
A clear price list for routine work — vaccinations, neutering, dental scale and polish, consultation fee — captures those searches and reduces the number of phone calls that exist only to ask. It also sits well with AI assistants, which increasingly field exactly this sort of question and can only answer from a page that contains figures.
Competing with the consolidators
Large groups now own a substantial share of UK practices, and they have marketing budgets and a hospital network no independent can match. What they do not have is a named vet the client recognises, a genuine tie to the town, or the freedom to write like a human.
That is the ground to fight on. Name your vets on the site with their qualifications and their interests. Write about the animals you actually see. A page about the practice’s approach to anxious dogs, written by the vet who handles them, is not something a group marketing department will produce, and it is what an owner choosing between three practices actually reads.
What RCVS rules allow
The RCVS Code of Professional Conduct requires that advertising be honest, not misleading and in keeping with the profession’s reputation. It does not stop you publishing prices, asking clients for reviews, explaining procedures or naming your team. Claims of superiority you cannot evidence are the thing to avoid — “the best vets in Dorset” is the phrasing that causes trouble, not the practice of marketing itself.
Where to start
Correct hours including out-of-hours, a real price list, named clinicians with credentials, and a steady flow of reviews. Reviews are unusually easy to collect in this sector because the emotional register is high — an owner whose cat you saved will write three paragraphs if asked at the right moment, which is a week later, not at the till.