What the .vet domain could mean to your veterinary website

Now that the .vet domain is available, you may be wondering if you should you jump on board and register your pet or veterinary business website as a .vet version.

You may be asking yourself, “Should I buy the .vet domain to help with our SEO/search results or website traffic?”

I was wondering the same thing and I had a conversation with a few of my fellow online marketing professionals. Here’s the upshot of what we discussed.

Mike Linville, owner of Black Dog Studios, a “Responsible Design” web site developer and online marketer in the veterinary industry, said, “After the Google Panda update a few years ago — the search algorithm changed to put less emphasis on domain names (because any spammer could buy domains with $7). Instead, there’s more emphasis on quality content. So in terms of buying the .vet domain name – I don’t think you would see an SEO benefit. But, if you wanted it for branding sake … then I would definitely say yes.”

Heather Lloyd Martin, an SEO Copywriting pioneer and founder of the Successworks program in which I earned my Certified SEO Copywriter credentials, said, “Purchasing the .vet domain can’t hurt. Will it help your SEO efforts? Probably not. I don’t see a .vet domain out-positioning the .com. Having said that, it’s cheap insurance.”

What did they mean by these comments?

1. A domain name or extension doesn’t hold as much weight for your veterinary website as it once did in the world of search engine optimization. Quality content is the primary factor in appealing to search engines and people.

2. However, owning all forms of your website domain can protect your company against others from using it. This can be nice insurance/protection against another company (intentionally or unintentionally) confusing the market with a similar domain. In other words, you wouldn’t want someone else using your .com domain name but just registering it with a .vet domain. You want to own all relevant forms of your domain name.

3. In addition, online marketers, including me, are advocating that a .vet domain can give you excellent branding opportunities. A .vet domain can be very helpful in demonstrating that you’re a company serving veterinarians, other veterinary businesses or pet owners. This is especially true if your current company name or website domain doesn’t scream “veterinary company.”

For instance, if your company name is SuperInnovativeProducts.com and you happen to sell veterinary products — having a new .vet domain such as SuperInnovativeProducts.vet will give you a leg up. The .vet domain will say, “We serve veterinarians or veterinary businesses.”

Therefore, I decided to go ahead and purchase PetCopywriter.vet for my business because I wanted to protect my company name while reinforcing that our services are for veterinary companies as well as pet companies. Yes, PetCopywriter.com clearly is about pet marketing, but does it scream “veterinary marketing?” Maybe not. Having the .vet domain is a step closer, right? Why not? It’s a small investment.

You can use a .vet domain for insurance or for special landing pages or ad campaigns. Or you can simply buy it to protect your brand and redirect it to your current site. The .vet possibilities are infinite for companies in the veterinary market.

Until next time,
Here’s to a profitable veterinary website!

Pam Foster,
PetCopywriter.com