The most valuable purpose of your website is to bring as many clients to your veterinary clinic as possible. This is commonly referred to as a “conversion-oriented website.” The website is structured to influence the visitor to “convert” to some action (such as an appointment request or a phone call).

conversion graphic

This is a high stakes game- if you’re phenomenal at doing this, you’ll help many more pets. If you’re mediocre or bad at doing this, your website will generate minimal returns.

To be effective you must clearly understand what makes people convert. Action requires motivation. And there is nothing that motivates us like strong emotions do.

Humans process images about 60,000 times faster than they process text- it’s just the world we were built for. Use our natural psychology to your advantage: To move people emotionally, focus on large photographic backgrounds and minimal but meaningful text.

Calls to action should never be far from a visitor’s experience and they should be designed to subtly draw attention. Buttons should be strategically placed where impactful sections of your website are. For example, let’s say your home page has a large photographic background of you helping a pet: put a “request appointment” button right in the middle of it.

Many, many animal hospitals have been tempted to decorate their websites with ornaments, flashy effects and distracting animations. Don’t do this. Simplicity is beautiful, and it’s effective. Don’t distract your users- guide their attention to your story and make it very simple for them to take action. Simplicity of use is one of the most powerful features a website can have.

A few simple ideas, meticulously executed throughout the website, can have a truly remarkable effect on your business.