Published: July 24, 2025 | For Veterinary Practice Owners
In our previous article, The Zero-Click Search: How Pet Owners Find Veterinary Care Without Visiting Your Website, we discussed the zero-click search. A zero-click search occurs when pet owners get the information they need directly from Google’s AIO (AI Overview) search results page without clicking through to any veterinary website. Google extracts and displays answers prominently, answering pet owners’ questions before they ever visit your practice’s website.
Real-World Impact on Veterinary Practices
The shift to zero-click search has created measurable impacts across veterinary digital marketing (please see our Google AI statistics page for more information):
- General practitioners are experiencing varying impacts—some lose traffic while others gain local visibility. But the transformation is being felt in some way by all veterinary practices.
- Emergency animal hospitals optimized for zero-click results see 50% more emergency calls over non-optimized locations.
- Specialty practices appearing in featured snippets report increased appointment requests for specific conditions.
- Veterinary educational websites report 25–40% organic traffic decline year-over-year.
The Future of Veterinary Search: Embrace Both SEO and GEO
Making Zero-Click Search Work for Your Practice
Zero-click search represents a fundamental shift in how pet owners find veterinary information, but it’s not necessarily bad news for your practice. The key is understanding that success in a zero-click world isn’t just about driving traffic to your website—it’s about being present when pet owners need you most.
Smart veterinary practices will:
- View zero-click results as another form of marketing presence.
- Optimize their website and digital content for both SEO and GEO.
- Focus on building trust and authority through helpful information.
- Optimize for local searches that drive phone calls and appointments.
- Create content that establishes expertise even without clicks.
- Use zero-click visibility to build brand recognition in their community.
- Adopt both SEO and GEO ASAP so that they:
- Continue to rank high in keyword search, local listings, and Google search results. Remember that the Google search results are now lower on the page because of the AI Overview and other AI-generated information Google shows for a search request.
- Appear in the Google AI Overview and other AI-generated search results and summaries.
- Reach customers who use conversational search platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Bing Copilot).
- Stay ahead of competitors by adapting early to this search revolution.
- Protect and expand digital visibility as consumer habits shift.
The Emergency Advantage
Veterinary practices have a unique advantage in the zero-click era: many pet health searches are urgent. Even when pet owners get initial information from featured snippets, they often still need professional veterinary care. Your goal is to be the practice they think of when that featured snippet says “contact your veterinarian immediately.”
Building Trust Through Visibility
When your practice’s content appears in featured snippets answering pet health questions, you’re building trust and positioning yourself as a local expert. Pet owners who see your practice name associated with helpful, accurate information are more likely to choose you when they need veterinary services.
The Bottom Line for Veterinary Practices
Zero-click search is reshaping how pet owners find veterinary information, but it also creates new opportunities for practices willing to adapt. Rather than viewing it as lost website traffic, consider it another channel for building relationships with pet owners in your community.
The most successful veterinary practices will be those that embrace zero-click search as part of a comprehensive digital strategy—providing immediate value to pet owners while positioning themselves as the go-to local veterinary experts.
Pet owners will always need professional veterinary care, no matter how much information Google provides. Your job is to ensure that when they’re ready to make that appointment or facing a pet emergency, your practice is the first one they think to call.
The search landscape is evolving, and veterinary practices that evolve with it will build stronger connections with pet owners and grow their client base. The question isn’t whether zero-click search will continue to impact veterinary marketing—it’s whether your practice will be ready to turn that visibility into new client relationships.