A Step-by-Step SEO Audit Framework Built for Veterinary Practice Websites

An SEO audit for a veterinary practice is not the same as a generic website audit. The issues that suppress a vet clinic's rankings are specific to the industry: service page structure, species-level content gaps, appointment booking functionality, and local search signals that Google uses to rank practices in the Map Pack.

A complete veterinary SEO audit covers three distinct layers:

• Technical SEO: Crawlability, indexation, page speed, mobile usability, Core Web Vitals, schema markup, and HTTPS status
• Content SEO: Service page completeness, species-specific landing pages, thin or duplicate content, keyword targeting gaps, and internal linking structure
• Local SEO: Google Business Profile accuracy and completeness, NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across directories, review profile health, and local citation coverage

Each layer affects the others. A technically sound site with thin content won't rank. A well-written site with an incomplete Google Business Profile will lose Map Pack visibility to clinics that invest in local signals. This is why audits are structured as passes, not a single checklist.

One category that's often overlooked in veterinary audits: appointment booking schema. Google can surface booking actions directly in search results for practices that implement structured data correctly. In our experience reviewing veterinary websites, this schema is present on a small minority of clinic sites — which means it's a straightforward differentiation opportunity for practices willing to implement it.

This guide walks through each audit layer with specific diagnostic questions and red flags to look for at each stage.

Technical issues are the foundation. If Google can't crawl and index your site efficiently, content and local signals can't compensate. Start here before touching anything else.

Crawlability and Indexation

Use Google Search Console (it's free) to check your coverage report. Look for pages marked as 'Excluded,' 'Noindexed,' or 'Crawl Anomaly.' A common issue on veterinary websites built on template platforms: important service pages accidentally set to noindex during a site migration or redesign. Verify your robots.txt file isn't blocking key directories.

Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google's Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, Interaction to Next Paint) are ranking signals. Veterinary websites tend to carry large image files — photos of the clinic, staff, and patients — without compression. Run your homepage and top service pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. A score below 50 on mobile is a red flag worth prioritizing.

Mobile Usability

Pet owners search for veterinary care primarily on mobile, often in urgent situations. Check your site in Google Search Console's Mobile Usability report. Common failures include text too small to read, clickable elements too close together, and content wider than the screen — all of which increase bounce rate and suppress rankings.

Schema Markup

Most veterinary websites are missing structured data entirely. At minimum, implement:

• LocalBusiness schema (or VeterinaryCare subtype) with accurate NAP, hours, and service area
• MedicalBusiness schema where applicable
• Appointment booking schema linked to your online booking system
• FAQ schema on high-traffic service pages

Use Google's Rich Results Test to verify what's currently implemented and what's missing. Schema won't make a weak page rank, but it can improve click-through rates and eligibility for enhanced search features.

Content gaps are the most common reason veterinary practices rank for their own name but not for the services that drive new patient revenue. The audit goal here is to map what you have against what pet owners in your area are actually searching for.

Service Page Completeness

Start by listing every service your clinic offers. Then check whether each service has a dedicated, indexable page on your website. Many practices consolidate services into a single page with short bullet descriptions. Google doesn't rank a bullet point — it ranks pages. Every core service (wellness exams, dental cleaning, surgery, vaccinations, emergency care) should have its own URL with substantive content.

Species-Specific Pages

This is where most veterinary content strategies leave significant search demand on the table. If your practice sees cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, or exotic animals, each species represents a distinct audience with distinct search behavior. Searches like 'cat-only vet near me,' 'avian vet [city],' or 'rabbit veterinarian [neighborhood]' are high-intent and often low-competition. Generic service pages don't capture this demand — species-specific landing pages do.

Thin and Duplicate Content

Thin content (pages with fewer than 300 words of meaningful copy) is a common audit finding on veterinary sites built from agency templates. Check your service pages for boilerplate text that appears across multiple pages with minimal variation. Google's Helpful Content guidance specifically targets pages that exist for crawlers rather than for the people making healthcare decisions for their pets.

Internal Linking Structure

Run a crawl using a tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and look at internal link counts per page. Orphaned pages — pages with no internal links pointing to them — are effectively invisible to both users and search engines. Your highest-value service pages should be linked from the homepage, from related service pages, and from any relevant blog or resource content.

Document every gap you find. The output of this pass should be a content gap list you can prioritize by search volume and patient revenue potential.

For most veterinary practices, local SEO is the highest-ROI audit category. Pet owners searching for a vet are searching with local intent — they want someone within a reasonable drive. Google surfaces results in the Map Pack for these queries, and Map Pack visibility is determined almost entirely by local SEO signals, not by your organic rankings.

Google Business Profile Audit

Pull up your Google Business Profile and audit it against this checklist:

• Business name matches your legal/operating name exactly (no keyword stuffing)
• Primary category set to 'Veterinarian' (not a generic health category)
• All relevant secondary categories added (e.g., 'Animal Hospital,' 'Pet Boarding')
• Address, phone number, and website URL are accurate and match your website
• Hours are current and include holiday hours where applicable
• Services section populated with every service you offer
• Photos updated in the last 90 days (clinic exterior, interior, staff, equipment)
• Posts section used at least monthly
• Q&A section monitored and answered

NAP Consistency

Your Name, Address, and Phone number must be identical across every directory where your clinic appears — Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Healthgrades, and any veterinary-specific directories. Even minor inconsistencies (Suite vs. Ste., different phone formats) can dilute local authority. Use a tool like BrightLocal or Moz Local to run a citation audit and identify mismatches.

Review Profile Health

Google uses review signals — volume, velocity, and recency — as local ranking factors. Audit your current review count and the date of your most recent review. In our experience working with healthcare practices, a steady cadence of new reviews consistently outperforms a large but stale review count. If your last review is more than 60 days old, your review generation process needs attention.

Also check that you're responding to reviews — both positive and negative. Google's own guidance indicates that responding to reviews signals engagement and builds trust with prospective patients searching your clinic.

Once you've completed all three passes, you'll have a list of issues that ranges from quick fixes (a missing alt tag) to multi-month projects (building out twelve species-specific landing pages). Prioritization determines whether your audit translates into results or sits in a document forever.

Score each issue across two dimensions:

• Impact: How significantly will fixing this improve rankings, traffic, or conversions? Issues that affect crawlability or Google Business Profile completeness are high impact. Fixing a single image's alt tag is low impact.
• Effort: How long will this take to fix? Missing schema on a single page is low effort. Rewriting thin service pages across the entire site is high effort.

Prioritize in this order:

1. High impact, low effort: Fix immediately. Examples: GBP category corrections, adding missing schema, fixing broken internal links, updating NAP inconsistencies.
2. High impact, high effort: Schedule and resource properly. Examples: Building species-specific landing pages, rewriting thin service content, implementing site-wide page speed improvements.
3. Low impact, low effort: Batch these into maintenance cycles.
4. Low impact, high effort: Deprioritize or remove from scope entirely.

Set a 90-day audit window for your first pass. Most practices that complete a structured audit and address the top ten findings see measurable improvements in local visibility and organic traffic within that window — though timelines vary by market competition, domain age, and how aggressively fixes are implemented.

Document your baseline before making changes. Pull your current Google Search Console performance data, your Map Pack ranking positions for core queries, and your Google Business Profile insights. You need a before state to measure against.

If the audit scope exceeds what your team can realistically execute, that's a legitimate signal to consider outside help. See the section on when to hire below.

This audit can be completed in-house by a practice owner or office manager with access to Google Search Console and willingness to learn basic crawl tools. The question isn't capability — it's whether the time investment makes sense given your team's bandwidth and the complexity of your site.

Signs You Can Handle the Audit In-House

• Your site is relatively small (under 50 pages)
• You have someone on staff comfortable with Google Search Console and basic website editing
• Your primary concern is local SEO and GBP optimization (the most accessible layer)
• You want to understand the landscape before engaging an agency

Signs You Need Professional Help

• Your crawl report shows hundreds of errors and you're not sure which matter
• A previous agency made site changes you don't fully understand
• You've had a traffic drop you can't explain
• Your site has gone through a migration or redesign in the last 12 months
• You're running a multi-location practice with location page complexity
• You've done DIY fixes for over six months without measurable improvement

A professional audit from a specialist who works with veterinary practices will go deeper than this guide — including competitive gap analysis, keyword mapping against patient revenue potential, and a prioritized fix roadmap with implementation support. If that's where you are, request a professional SEO audit for your veterinary practice and we'll identify exactly where your site is losing ground.

This guide covers general SEO audit methodology. It is not a substitute for professional advice specific to your practice's technical setup, competitive market, or regulatory environment. For compliance-specific questions related to veterinary advertising and online presence, consult your state veterinary practice act and AVMA guidelines.