Google has held the monopoly in the world of internet search for a very long time.
Most people looking for a vet today ask ‘Google’ to find their local practice or specialist and trust the search giant to guide them to the best clinics.
So, for the majority of veterinary practices, investing in a great website that ranks on Google and making sure you have good Google reviews are the no-brainer marketing actions that deliver the best return on time and dollar investment.
But is all that about to change?
As people start to adapt their searching behaviour using ChatGPT for complex searches, will the investment in your own website and Google be a waste of cash?
In this article, we discuss the changing search landscape, what it means for your vet practice, and explain how to stay the driver’s seat with your hands firmly on the wheel.
Old habits die hard.
Most pet owners looking for veterinary services will turn to Google this year, next year, and probably for the next 5 years.
Change, especially amongst older and less tech-savvy clients, will take time.
Also, Google has a massive monopoly, which is not going to go away overnight.
And you can be sure Google will not give up any market share without a fight.
The global giant is investing heavily to counter the threat, and new search results powered by AI and similar to ChatGPTs listings are starting to appear at the top of the first search screen.
Any vet in primary or referral practice would be crazy to stop investing in their Google ranking and reputation.
So what’s the answer?
Should we all be dancing around figuring out how to rank our websites on ChatGPT or Bing, as well as Google?
Should we turn to social media instead?
Do we just give up and bury our heads in the sand like ostriches and decide it’s all too hard?
Or do we smile?
Why on earth would we smile, you might ask.
Because in business hard is good.
Hard means lots of people will drop out of the race. They won’t rise to the challenge. They won’t go the extra mile.
Or they’ll fall for the easy option, ‘looks impressive but fails to deliver social media myth’.
And for me, I’m smiling because there will be less traffic on the extra mile for our clients to contend with.
Happy Days.
So what is the answer?
The answer is to stay in control by owning, not renting, your share of the digital pie.
The only thing you own and have total control of in the digital landscape is your own website.
Facebook, Instagram and all the rest make it easy (and addictive) for you to put your content on their platforms so they can make money on the back of your work.
Put your great content on your own website and you continue to own it, and it will pay you back today, tomorrow and for years to come.
But what about making your website rank on ChatGPT, Google and Bing? Isn’t that hard?
I’ve worked with all the search engines consistently since 1998.
Through Specialist Vet marketing and our sister company, Brilliant Digital, we rank many hundreds of websites at the top of the search engines for thousands of search terms and deliver millions of visitors and dollars to our clients every year.
Our websites rank equally well for Google, Bing and, yes, ChatGPT.
But we don’t dance around chasing every search engine change. That would be exhausting and a waste of time and money.
We do what works.
This is what we do for our clients day in and day out.
We build a good quality website structured correctly for the search engines.
We focus on a niche (for example, small animal practice or specialist feline medicine).
We regularly add new and interesting content that is optimised for search and appeals to and adds value to the target market of the vet practice.
We measure the results and tailor the content plan accordingly.
Most importantly, we make sure our clients stay in control and retain ownership of their marketing assets.
Deb Croucher is the founder of SVMG, a strategic growth partner for veterinary businesses. A former veterinarian and practice owner, Deb combines industry fluency, commercial strategy, and structured marketing systems to help clinics, specialists, suppliers, and industry partners become clearer, more trusted, and better positioned for growth.
Find answers to common questions about our clinic and your pet’s visits below.
A veterinary growth system brings structure to the parts of marketing that often operate separately: positioning, content, search, campaigns and reporting. SVMG operates that system end-to-end, so activity is not just happening, it is connected, measurable and aligned with how the veterinary market actually makes decisions.
Most agencies deliver services in separate pieces: a website, campaign, content plan or ads. SVMG works at the system level, taking ownership of how those pieces connect, perform and support long-term visibility, positioning and growth.
Yes. Veterinary practices and industry partners operate differently, so the system needs to reflect the audience, decision process and commercial reality of each business. For clinics, that may mean attracting better-fit clients and protecting position; for industry partners, it may mean improving visibility, sales support and market response.
In most cases, disjointed marketing is not caused by a lack of effort. It happens when activity is spread across channels without a clear structure behind it. That’s where bringing everything into one connected system changes how the business is understood and how it performs.
Search is shifting from broad keywords to more specific, question-led queries across Google and AI tools. SVMG builds search and content into the system, so veterinary businesses are easier to find, easier to understand and better positioned when the right clients, clinics or decision-makers are actively looking.
Yes, especially if the activity is there but the direction is unclear. What typically happens is marketing exists across websites, content, social, email or ads, but no one is owning how it all works together. SVMG steps in where structure, accountability and stronger market alignment are needed.
