Your veterinary website is often the first impression people get of your practice, your team, and your mission. If you do not have a website (or if your current website needs some serious updating), it is important to build one that truly represents you as a business. While template sites have some benefits, they do not compare to a fully custom website for your business.
Template Websites
A template website is built from an already-existing template that uses the same basic structure with just a few small design and content changes. Using a template website is a lot like renting a space. Although you can make small cosmetic changes to make the space *feel* more like your own, it is never truly yours. If you want to make serious foundational changes (like adding a window or tearing down a wall), however, you can’t. You only have a limited amount of ways to make the website represent your business.
Additionally, it can be harder to do well with veterinary SEO on a template site because Google sees the templated structure faster than it sees any changes you’ve made. Even when you update photos, alt tags, or even bits of content, Google can tell the rest of the site is templated. When you have a templated site, it is important to remember:
- Your site looks like everyone else’s: When compared side-by-side with another template, it will be easy to tell that the two sites are using the same foundation.
- You don’t own the full site: If you stop working with your current website provider, you will have to recreate parts of your website that you cannot take with you when you go.
- Duplicate content leads to poor SEO rankings: Some templated sites don’t have a big variation with content, which can negatively affect your SEO search rankings.
- You might have problems keeping the site updated: Since you have a limited number of changes you can make to a templated site, there are not always a lot of meaningful changes you can make to help with your rankings.
- It will be difficult to add onto the site in the future: It can be very difficult to add new pages beyond the scope of the template.
Custom Websites
On the flip side, custom websites are 100% yours. You have a say in every part of the creation process, and you are left with a final product that is a true reflection of your business. You choose everything from colors to photos and additional design elements. If you need to make any updates in the future, you can with ease. Your website will look like your practice and no one else’s.
Custom websites are more likely to catch Google’s attention when it comes to SEO. This means by building a custom site, you will automatically perform better in search results before you even work on your veterinary marketing. No templates to mess with your rankings here.
When you use a custom site, you know you:
- Completely own the site: You own the design and the content
- You decide what it looks like: You have the power to cater the site to your business and its needs.
- Have fully-optimized SEO controls: This includes content, meta information, technical code parameters, and more.
- Can create custom content: Custom content helps you rank highly on Google.
- Better search engine rankings: Your site will perform better in search results.
- Have an up-to-date site: Template sites are often bogged down with outdated plugins, security concerns, or update risks.
- Are using a responsive website: Websites built with responsive website design coding are smart—these intelligent websites know whether they are being viewed on a mobile device or a large screen TV, and they adjust accordingly.
You deserve the best for your veterinary website, and Beyond Indigo Pets can give you just that. Our custom sites are beautifully designed and SEO-optimized at launch to ensure you start out with a bang. To learn more about our sites and our other veterinarian marketing services, please call (877) 244-9322 or fill out our form.
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