How to Get More Customers as a Vet in Australia

Introduction

Most veterinary practices in Australia still rely on word of mouth to fill their appointment books. And fair enough — it worked brilliantly for decades.

But the landscape has shifted. In 2026, 97% of consumers search online before choosing a local service provider, including when their dog is limping or their cat stops eating. Pet owners pull out their phones, type "vet near me," and call whoever shows up first.

If that's not you, you're bleeding revenue to the clinic down the road.

The Australian veterinary industry is worth over $4 billion and growing. Pet ownership surged during COVID and hasn't slowed down. There are more potential customers than ever. But there's also more competition — corporate consolidators like Greencross and National Veterinary Care have marketing budgets that dwarf most independent clinics.

So how do you compete?

You don't need a massive budget. You need a systematic approach to showing up where pet owners are already looking: Google Search, Google Maps, review platforms, and increasingly, AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

This guide walks you through exactly how to get more customers as a vet in Australia, step by step. Whether you run a single-vet rural practice or a multi-location urban hospital, these strategies work. And they compound over time.

Let's get into it.

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TL;DR

• This is a step-by-step guide to getting more customers as a veterinary practice in Australia
• Covers Google Business Profile, local SEO, reviews, content marketing, AI search optimisation, and tracking
• The average vet job ranges from $100 for a consultation to $3,000+ for surgery — even a handful of new clients per month moves the needle significantly
• You can start with DIY, but a specialist agency will get results faster and more consistently

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Step 1: Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile

If you do one thing after reading this article, make it this.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most powerful free marketing tool available to veterinary practices. It's the listing that appears in the "Map Pack" — those three businesses that show up with a map when someone searches "vet near me" or "emergency vet [suburb]."

Practices that rank in the Map Pack get the majority of calls. Everyone else fights over scraps.

Here's how to set yours up properly:

Claim your profile at business.google.com. If you haven't already, Google will verify your ownership via postcard, phone, or email. Do this today — it takes five minutes.

Complete every single field. Business name (use your real registered name — no keyword stuffing), address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and business category. Your primary category should be "Veterinarian." Add secondary categories like "Animal Hospital," "Emergency Veterinarian," or "Pet Boarding Service" if they apply.

Write a compelling business description. You've got 750 characters. Use them. Mention your location, the services you offer, your experience, and what makes you different. Work in natural phrases like "veterinary clinic in [suburb]" without sounding robotic.

Upload high-quality photos. Practices with 20+ photos get significantly more clicks than those with fewer. Include your building exterior (so people recognise it on arrival), reception area, consulting rooms, surgical facilities, your team with animals, and your equipment. Update these quarterly.

Add your services. Google lets you list individual services with descriptions. Add everything: vaccinations, desexing, dental cleaning, emergency care, microchipping, geriatric care, orthopaedic surgery, and so on. Each service listing is another opportunity to match a search query.

Post regularly. Google Business Profile has a "Posts" feature that most vets ignore entirely. Share updates weekly: tick season warnings, new staff introductions, special offers, after-hours availability reminders. This signals to Google that your profile is active and current.

Keep your NAP consistent. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone number. These details must be identical — character for character — across your website, GBP, social media, and every directory listing. Inconsistencies confuse Google and hurt your rankings.

This single step, done properly, can increase your inbound calls within weeks. We've seen veterinary clients double their Map Pack visibility in 60 days just by fully optimising their profile.

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Step 2: Get Your Website Ranking for Local Keywords

Your Google Business Profile gets you into the Map Pack. Your website gets you into the organic search results below it. You want to own both.

The key to ranking as a vet is local keyword targeting. Pet owners don't search "veterinarian" in the abstract. They search things like:

• "vet in Ringwood"
• "cat desexing cost Melbourne"
• "after hours vet Brisbane northside"
• "best vet near Bondi"

Your website needs dedicated pages that match these searches.

Create service pages for every major offering. Don't lump everything onto one "Services" page. Build individual pages for vaccinations, desexing, dental care, emergency services, surgery, puppy health checks, senior pet care, and anything else you provide. Each page should be 500–800 words, include your location naturally, explain the process, mention pricing ranges if possible, and have a clear call to action (phone number, booking link).

Build suburb/location pages if you serve multiple areas. If your practice in Heidelberg also draws clients from Ivanhoe, Eaglemont, and Rosanna, create pages targeting each of those suburbs. These aren't thin doorway pages — they should include genuinely useful local information: directions from that suburb, parking details, and how your practice serves that community.

Nail your technical SEO basics. Your site needs to load fast (under three seconds on mobile), be fully mobile-responsive, use HTTPS, have proper title tags and meta descriptions on every page, and include schema markup for local businesses. If those terms sound foreign, that's a sign you might need professional help — more on that later.

Your homepage matters most. Make sure it clearly states what you do, where you're located, and how to contact you, all above the fold. Include your phone number as a clickable link for mobile users. Embed a Google Map. List your core services with links to their individual pages.

For a deeper dive on this, check out our full guide on SEO for vets — it covers technical setup, on-page optimisation, and link building strategies specific to veterinary practices.

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Step 3: Build a Review Generation System

Reviews are the digital version of word of mouth. They're also a direct ranking factor for Google Maps.

Here's the reality: happy clients don't leave reviews unless you ask them. Unhappy clients leave reviews without being asked. If you don't have a system, your online reputation will skew negative over time.

When to ask: Immediately after a positive interaction. The best moment is right after a successful treatment, when the pet owner is relieved and grateful. Don't wait days — the emotional window closes fast.

How to ask: Keep it simple and direct. Train your reception staff to say something like:

"We're really glad [pet name] is doing well. If you have a moment, we'd love it if you could leave us a Google review — it genuinely helps other pet owners find us."

Then make it effortless. Send a follow-up SMS or email within two hours with a direct link to your Google review page. You can generate this link from your Google Business Profile dashboard.

A simple template that works:

Subject: How was [pet name]'s visit today?

Hi [client name], thanks for bringing [pet name] in today. We hope everything went smoothly. If you have 30 seconds, a quick Google review would mean the world to our team. [DIRECT LINK]. Thanks so much — The [Practice Name] Team.

Responding to reviews matters too. Reply to every review, positive and negative. Thank people for positive feedback. For negative reviews, respond professionally, acknowledge their concern, and offer to resolve it offline. Never get defensive. Prospective clients read your responses as much as the reviews themselves.

Aim for volume and consistency. A practice with 150 reviews averaging 4.7 stars will outrank one with 30 reviews at 5.0 stars. Google values a steady stream of recent reviews over a perfect score. Set a target: five new reviews per week is achievable for a busy practice.

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Step 4: Create Content That Attracts Customers

Content marketing for vets isn't about going viral on social media. It's about answering the questions your prospective clients are already typing into Google.

Blog posts and guides are the backbone. Think about what pet owners search for before they book with a vet:

• "How much does it cost to desex a dog in Australia?"
• "Signs my cat needs to see a vet"
• "Is chocolate really toxic for dogs?"
• "What vaccinations does my puppy need in Victoria?"

Every one of those queries is an opportunity. Write a helpful, accurate article answering the question, and link it naturally to your relevant service page. The person reading "signs my cat needs to see a vet" is a warm lead — they're already worried about their pet.

FAQ pages are underrated. Create a comprehensive FAQ section organised by topic. These are brilliant for SEO because they match the conversational way people search, especially via voice search. They also reduce phone calls for basic enquiries, freeing up your staff for revenue-generating work.

Video content adds trust. You don't need a production team. A 60-second iPhone video of your vet explaining how to check for ticks or what to expect during a dental clean builds credibility fast. Upload it to YouTube (Google owns YouTube — great for rankings) and embed it on the relevant service page.

Update your content regularly. A blog post from 2019 about vaccination schedules that references outdated guidelines hurts your credibility. Audit your content every six months and refresh anything that's stale.

Content is a long game. But it compounds. One well-written article can drive dozens of new clients every month for years.

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Step 5: Optimise for AI Search (GEO)

This is where things are heading, and most vets haven't even thought about it yet.

Millions of Australians now use AI tools — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews — to find and compare local services. When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the best vet in Sydney's Inner West?", it pulls from web content, reviews, directories, and structured data to generate a recommendation.

If your practice isn't showing up in those answers, you're invisible to a fast-growing segment of potential clients.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the discipline of getting your business recommended by AI. The fundamentals:

• Be cited across authoritative sources. AI pulls from multiple data points. Get your practice listed on TrueLocal, Yellow Pages, Yelp, HotDoc, PetPages, and industry directories. Consistency matters.
• Produce expert-level content. AI systems prioritise content that demonstrates genuine expertise. Include author bios with qualifications, cite veterinary research, and cover topics in depth.
• Earn mentions and backlinks. Get featured in local media, pet industry publications, and community organisations. Every credible mention increases your chance of being referenced by AI.

We go deep on this in our dedicated guide on GEO for vets. It's the frontier of digital marketing, and early movers have a massive advantage.

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Step 6: Track Your Results

Marketing without measurement is just spending money. Here's what to track monthly:

Phone calls. Use call tracking software (CallRail, WildJar, or even a dedicated tracking number) to attribute calls to their source. How many came from Google Maps? From organic search? From a specific landing page?

Form submissions and online bookings. Set up Google Analytics 4 goal tracking on your booking and contact forms. Know exactly how many enquiries your website generates.

Google Business Profile insights. GBP provides data on how many people viewed your profile, clicked for directions, visited your website, and called you directly. Check this monthly and track trends over time.

Keyword rankings. Track where you rank for your target keywords — "vet [suburb]," "emergency vet [city]," and your key service terms. Tools like BrightLocal or SEMrush make this straightforward.

Revenue attribution. This is the one most practices miss. Ask new clients how they found you. Track average job value from online-sourced clients. If your average new client brings in $500 per year and you're acquiring 20 new clients per month from search, that's $120,000 in annualised revenue.

When you can tie marketing spend directly to revenue, budget decisions become simple.

For more detail on local search tracking specific to veterinary practices, see our guide on local SEO for vets.

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When to Hire a Professional

Everything above is technically doable yourself. But realistically? Most practice owners and managers are already stretched thin between clinical work, staff management, and running a business.

DIY works if you have the time, technical comfort, and discipline to execute consistently over months. Most don't — and half-done SEO delivers half-zero results.

Consider hiring a specialist when:

• You've been trying to rank locally for months with no progress
• Your Google Business Profile isn't showing up in the Map Pack
• You're getting fewer calls than competitors with weaker clinical reputations
• You don't have time to write content, manage reviews, and monitor analytics

At MoneyNearMe, we work exclusively with Australian service businesses. We've built specific playbooks for veterinary practices that cover everything in this guide — and more. Our packages run from $500 to $2,000 per month depending on your market competitiveness and goals.

We handle your Google Business Profile, local SEO, content, review strategy, GEO, and reporting so you can focus on treating animals. Get in touch for a free audit of your current online presence.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can vets get more customers online? Optimise your Google Business Profile, rank your website for local keywords, generate consistent reviews, and publish helpful content targeting what pet owners search for.

What's the fastest way to get more calls as a vet? Fully optimise your Google Business Profile. It's free, takes a few hours, and can increase calls within weeks — faster than any other single tactic.

How much should I spend on marketing as a vet? Most successful practices spend 3–6% of revenue on marketing. For a practice earning $1M annually, that's $30,000–$60,000 per year across all channels.

Is Google Ads or SEO better for vets? Google Ads delivers immediate results but stops the moment you stop paying. SEO builds compounding long-term value. The best strategy uses both — Ads for quick wins, SEO for sustainable growth.

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Ready to stop losing clients to the clinic down the road? Talk to our team about a tailored strategy for your veterinary practice.