For years, veterinary clinics have worked hard to improve their visibility on Google.
If someone searches “vet near me”, “vet [suburb]” or “emergency vet [location]”, appearing prominently can put your clinic in front of a pet owner at exactly the right moment.
So, if your clinic already performs well on Google, it’s reasonable to assume you’ll also be well placed when pet owners start searching with AI.
But does ranking well on Google mean AI will recommend your clinic too?
Not necessarily.
Google visibility remains incredibly important, particularly when a pet owner is ready to find a clinic, make an enquiry or book an appointment. AI introduces something different to the search journey, though, because people can ask much more detailed questions and expect a much more specific answer.
That changes what a search platform may need to understand about your clinic.
What happens when the search becomes more specific?
Think about the difference between these two searches:
“Vet in Geelong”
and
“Can you recommend a vet in Geelong that’s good with anxious dogs?”
The first is largely about finding veterinary clinics in a particular location.
The second asks for considerably more context.
The pet owner isn’t simply asking where the clinic is. They want AI to understand something about the experience they might have there.
Now consider:
“Where can I get my dog desexed in Adelaide?”
versus:
“Can you recommend a vet in Adelaide for desexing my nervous rescue dog?”
Again, the location matters, but it’s only part of the question.
As pet owners become more comfortable using conversational AI, we expect searches like these to become increasingly natural. Rather than reducing their thoughts to a few keywords, people can describe what they actually need.
For veterinary clinics, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge.
If you’re number one on Google, aren’t you the obvious recommendation?
This is where the distinction becomes important.
Traditional search results and AI-generated recommendations aren’t the same thing. A clinic performing strongly in Google Search may have excellent local visibility, a well-optimised website and a strong Google Business Profile, all of which remain valuable.
An AI system answering a detailed question, however, may need more information before it can confidently connect that clinic with what the person has asked.
If the question is about dental care, can it clearly understand that you provide dentistry?
If someone is looking for a cat-friendly experience, is there information available that supports that?
If a pet owner asks about a particular suburb, is your connection to that location clear?
If they’re looking for a clinic trusted by other local pet owners, what do your reviews say?
There isn’t one piece of information that determines the answer, nor can a clinic guarantee it will be recommended for a particular AI prompt. The important point is that the more specific the question becomes, the more context may be required to answer it well.
Does this mean Google rankings matter less?
No. Pet owners don’t follow one neat path from research to booking. Someone might start by asking ChatGPT a question about their dog’s teeth, move to Google to compare nearby clinics and eventually visit a clinic’s website before deciding whether to book.
Another person might go directly to Google and search for a vet nearby.
AI adds another way for people to discover and research veterinary care; it doesn’t remove the channels they already use.
That’s why we’d be cautious about treating “AI optimisation” as something completely separate from the rest of your clinic’s online presence. A strong website, useful service information, local relevance, reviews and an active Google Business Profile aren’t suddenly old-fashioned because AI has arrived.
They help create the wider digital picture of your clinic.
The difference is that the questions being asked of that information are becoming much more sophisticated.
What does AI need to understand about your clinic?
This is probably the more useful question for veterinary clinics to be asking.
Imagine a new pet owner moved into your area tomorrow. If they spent half an hour researching your clinic online, what would they learn?
Would they clearly understand the services you provide? Could they find detailed information about those services rather than simply seeing them listed? Would they know which areas you serve, what your clients think about you and what might make your clinic particularly suitable for their pet?
AI is obviously not a person spending half an hour browsing your business in this way, but the exercise highlights an important point.
If useful information about your clinic doesn’t exist online, it becomes much harder for any search technology to use that information when answering a question.
A service might be something your team is exceptionally good at, but if your website barely mentions it and your wider online presence provides little supporting context, there’s less available information connecting your clinic with that particular need.
Being good at something and being understood online for it aren’t always the same thing.
Could reviews and local content become more important?
They can certainly provide useful context.
A review saying “great vet” is positive, but a client describing how the team helped their anxious dog through a dental procedure communicates something much more specific about their experience.
Likewise, local content can do more than demonstrate community involvement. Mentioning the areas you serve, discussing relevant local issues and creating useful information for pet owners in your community can provide clearer context about where your clinic fits.
That doesn’t mean clinics should start forcing suburb names into every article or asking clients to write reviews for AI. The goal should still be to create useful, authentic information for pet owners.
The added benefit is that richer information can also make your clinic easier for search technology to understand.
What does AI need to understand about your clinic?
It’s a fantastic foundation, but we wouldn’t assume the two are interchangeable.
A clinic can be highly visible for a broad Google search while providing very little information about the more specific reasons a pet owner might choose it. As AI allows people to ask increasingly detailed questions, those gaps may become more noticeable.
The opportunity isn’t to abandon what has worked and chase a completely new AI strategy. It’s to build on it.
Keep strengthening your Google visibility, but also think about the picture your entire online presence paints. Make your services easy to understand, answer the questions pet owners genuinely ask, build detailed and authentic reviews, demonstrate your connection to your local area and give search technology useful context about what your clinic does particularly well.
Because the question is no longer always:
“Which vets are near me?”
Increasingly, it could be:
“Which vet near me is right for my pet?”
And that’s a much more interesting question to be ready for.