Veterinary clinic website: emergencies first

Emergencies before everything else

Put a short emergency line at the top of every page, not only the homepage: what to do now, the number to call, and who answers outside opening hours. Many practices pass out-of-hours calls to a separate emergency provider; if so, name it, give its address and say that it's a different location, because an owner driving at night will go wherever the site tells them. Make the number a tappable link. Never route emergencies to a form or a booking calendar, and say so plainly: "If your pet needs urgent care, phone us. Don't use online booking."

What owners look for next

Species treated: Dogs and cats only, or rabbits, small mammals, birds, reptiles, horses or farm animals. Owners of exotic pets check this before anything else.
Services: Vaccinations, neutering, dental care, surgery, imaging, nurse clinics, behaviour, end-of-life care. Say which are done on site.
The team: Vets and nurses with their qualifications and special interests, photographed in the practice.
Fees and plans: Consultation fee guidance, how payment works and whether you offer a health plan. Detailed fee lists can live on their own page.
Practical details: Hours, parking, step-free access, separate waiting areas for cats and dogs if you have them.

Registering a new pet

A registration form lets a new client get on your books before the first appointment. Ask for what reception needs and no more: owner's name and contact details, the animal's name, species, breed, age, sex and neuter status, previous practice (so records can be requested) and any known conditions. Keep it on its own page linked from the homepage and the services pages.

The design engine's standard contact form has a name, an email and a message box, which works if the page lists those questions for owners to answer in the message. For a field per question, use a custom form tied to a site function (up to 30 plain-text fields) or ask for the registration form as an app build; either is sent through the same pipeline as the rest of the site's submissions.

Because a registration form collects personal data, Anticode won't publish the site until the account owner and the person publishing have two-factor sign-in turned on. Submissions are sealed at rest and can be emailed to the practice; a list of the last 200 reads, exports and deletes of form data is kept in the dashboard.

Appointments: requests, not clinical scheduling

Online booking helps for routine work: vaccinations, nurse clinics, check-ups and new-pet appointments. Anticode's booking calendar shows the coming days, refuses dates more than 120 days out and doesn't let two owners take the same slot. It doesn't know which vet is on, how long a procedure takes or which consulting room is free, so treat bookings as requests that reception confirms. Surgery admissions, euthanasia and anything needing triage should go through a phone call.

Pet health guides

Practices are often asked the same questions: what to do if a dog eats chocolate, when to vaccinate a kitten, how to prepare for an operation. Short guides answer those and give owners a reason to come back. Keep them in a CMS collection with fields for title, species, summary and body, edited from the dashboard. Each guide is served at its own address, and every guide should end by saying when to phone rather than read on.

Common mistakes on vet sites

Emergency details buried on a contact page, or shown only during opening hours.
Cartoon paw prints and stock photos of puppies instead of the real team and building.
Health advice with no date or author, which owners can't judge.
A booking button that suggests any problem can wait for the next free slot.

Building it with Anticode

Describe the practice, for example "a small-animal vet practice in Norwich with an out-of-hours partner, online appointment requests and pet health guides". Choose the booking calendar, contact form and FAQ as must-haves and ask for Services, Book and Contact pages. Organic (Figtree) and Editorial (Geist) suit a calm, clinical-but-warm practice; pick a single action colour such as teal or green and keep red for nothing but the emergency line if you use it at all. The site serves its own sitemap and robots file, and its Privacy Policy is drafted from what the forms actually collect, as a starting point to check.

Limits

No link to practice management software. Bookings and registrations don't flow into your clinical system; copy them across, or send them to a webhook your system can receive.
No reminders for vaccinations or appointments.
No client accounts to view records or pay bills on published sites.
No staff rotas or calendar sync in the booking calendar.

Questions people ask

Can pet owners book vet appointments on the website?

Yes, for routine appointments. Treat online bookings as requests reception confirms, and make it clear that urgent cases should phone.

Where should out-of-hours information go?

At the top of every page and in the footer, with the provider's name, address and number if out-of-hours care is at a different location.

Can the registration form send details to our practice system?

Not directly. Submissions can be emailed or sent to a webhook, Google Sheets or Airtable; whether your practice system can take them in depends on that system.