How vets get more clients from Google: hours, reviews and hard conversations

Make your hours impossible to misread

• Set regular hours, and holiday hours well before each bank holiday.
• If you offer emergency or out-of-hours care, say exactly how in your description and on your website: your own team, or a partner clinic, with its number.
• If you don't, say where owners should go, so a frightened owner isn't left guessing.
• Check your profile weekly for suggested edits to your hours or phone number. Google can publish an edit if you don't respond within 4 days of being notified.

Categories and services

• Primary category: the most specific that's true, such as veterinarian, or an emergency vet category if that's your main service.
• Add other genuine categories, such as pet groomer or animal hospital, only if they describe what you are.
• List services owners search for: vaccinations, neutering, dental care, microchipping, exotic pets.

Reviews from pet owners

1. Ask after routine visits that went well, such as vaccinations, check-ups and recovery appointments, with a text and a direct link.
2. Ask every client the same way, and never offer money off treatment for a review.
3. Owners love to name their pets. Thank them and their pet by name in your reply, if they named the pet themselves.

Replying when a pet has died

Some of the hardest reviews come from owners grieving a pet. Don't argue the clinical details in public, and keep the client's and pet's details out of your reply beyond what they wrote themselves. Lead with sympathy and offer a private conversation.