According to IBIS World, there are over 48,480 veterinary businesses in the US. How does your clinic stand apart from the rest? Without a compelling, eye-catching website, you may lose the chance to gain new patients. 

Before that happens, use these seven tips to optimize your veterinary website design. With these strategies, you can boost veterinary conversions to grow your practice. Read on to upgrade your website today!

1. Simplify the Navigation

Before applying the rest of these website design tips, audit your website and note any challenges you face as a visitor. For example, you may recognize the site is difficult to navigate. Visitors may leave your veterinary clinic’s website if they can’t explore your content with ease.

Each time someone leaves your website, your bounce rate will increase. A high bounce rate indicates you’re offering users a poor experience. Google may drop your organic search engine rankings.

The lower you rank on Google search engine result pages, the less online visibility you’ll generate. You’ll generate less brand visibility, website traffic, and conversions as rankings drop.

Encourage visitors to explore your website by simplifying the top navigation bar. Display essential pages including the:

• Home page
• About Us page
• Services page
• Blog
• Contact Us page

Make sure the logo in the top left corner directs visitors back to the homepage. Meeting each visitor’s expectations can lead to a smoother user experience and more conversions.

While auditing your website, search for broken links. Redirect these links to the appropriate pages or your homepage. Excessive broken links can hurt your organic rankings and increase your bounce rate.

2. Maintain Brand Consistency

Generating brand trust can encourage new pet owners to choose your clinic over another. About four in five consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying from it (Exploding Topics, a data analytics company that identifies trends). Over half of brand first impressions are visual.

To make a strong first impression, establish your brand guidelines before updating your website. Your brand includes your:

• Brand values
• Mission statement
• Vision statement
• Logo
• Voice 
• Tone
• Personality
• Color palette
• Font styles

Maintaining brand consistency across your website can increase revenue by 10 to 20%. However, 15% of companies don’t have brand guidelines. People may confuse your veterinary clinic for another if your branding isn’t unique or consistent.

Use the same colors, fonts, and other visual elements on each webpage. If the branding differs between two pages, visitors may leave, increasing your bounce rate.

3. Improve User Experience

A positive user experience will encourage visitors to explore your veterinary clinic’s website. To offer a positive experience, prioritize:

• Mobile optimization
• White space
• Readability (short sentences, paragraphs, lists, etc.)
• Mobile optimization
• Navigation
• Usability

Offering a positive user experience can boost veterinary conversions. Good user experience design can increase a website’s conversion rate by up to 200% (Finances Online). 

Work with a website design and development agency that follows Google’s Core Web Vitals. They can enhance your website to improve the user experience. Following Google’s Core Web Vitals can improve your search engine rankings. 

Optimize Site Speed

A slow website can deter visitors from learning more about your veterinary clinic. According to Google, the probability of a visitor leaving increases by 32% as a page’s load time increases from one second to three. Improving load times can produce:

• A robust user engagement
• Higher conversion rates
• An increase in organic traffic
• Mobile-friendliness

You can improve load times by compressing photos, using browser HTTP caching, and limiting redirects.

Integrate White Space

White space gives page elements room to breathe. Otherwise, a cluttered website may overwhelm visitors. Increasing white space can improve the user experience and encourage visitors to explore. 

Make It Mobile

Run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to confirm it’s optimized for mobile devices. Your site should offer a consistent experience across all devices. Mobile optimization can improve the user experience.  

Mobile visitors are five times more likely to abandon tasks if a website isn’t optimized for mobile devices (TrueList, a business analytics company). Over 80% think a seamless user experience across all devices is vital.

4. Apply Veterinary SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your veterinary website rank higher on search engines like Google. Higher rankings can lead to increased:

• Brand awareness and recognition
• Brand trust and loyalty
• Website traffic
• Conversions

Gather keyword research before optimizing your website for searches. Give each page a unique target keyword. The keyword should appear in the SEO title, description, image file name and alt text, and body text.

5. Boost Veterinary Conversions

Make sure it’s easy for visitors to reach out. Add conversion buttons to the top of the navigation bar and bottom of each page. Offering more than one opportunity for conversions will help you increase leads.

Use contrasting colors between the buttons, button text color, and page background. Write using compelling language and urgency to generate more conversions. 

6. Share Engaging Content

Sharing engaging content on your website’s blog will help you attract new visitors. Create a content creation strategy featuring different types of content. These include:

• Blog posts
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Videos
• Polls
• Quizzes

End each post with a compelling call to action (for example, “Book your furry friend’s next appointment today!”). Don’t forget to optimize each post with a unique keyword to boost your organic rankings. Share your posts using social media and email marketing to generate more traffic.

7. Keep Up With Trends

An outdated website design can deter visitors. Instead, keep up with the latest design trends. These include:

• Scrolling animations
• Smart videos
• Text-only hero images
• Dynamic cursors
• Micro-animations/micro-interactions
• Custom illustrations
• Full-page headers
• Art deco
• Claymorphism
• Isometric design and illustration
• Gamified design
• Interactive 3D models and content
• Data visualization
• Dark mode
• Chatbots
• Voice-activated interface
• Virtual reality

Consult an experienced website design and development agency. They’ll ensure your veterinary website never falls behind. Keeping up with design trends will help your clinic appear credible and ahead of the curve.

Update Your Veterinary Website Design Today

Updating your veterinary website design will help you attract and engage pet owners. You can gain new clients to start growing your clinic. Apply these website design tips to generate more conversions today!

Trust Burnt Bacon Web Design for custom web design. We’ll use the latest techniques and trends to optimize your website for leads and business growth. Contact us now for a free video audit.