The Internet is still very much in its infancy as a method of communication with clients, but there is little doubt that usage of the internet by consumers is set to explode in the coming years. Why? Well, until recently, the only option for most people was a standard telephone connection. With these, it takes ages to log on and for pages to download, and as often as not the line drops before they have. Furthermore, the method of accessing the Internet has been through a computer, usually relegated to the spare bedroom or office.

All that is changing fast. 'Always on' broadband connections are changing the way that people use the Internet. Perhaps more importantly, we are now beginning to see the first pieces of hardware that bring the Internet into people's living rooms - so called 'media centres' that download music and pipe it straight to your hifi, and send films, webpages and e-mail straight to your TV.

This all means that the Internet will increasingly become THE source of information that consumers use to find out about local services, including their vets. And although it will be some time before the Internet is in every sitting room, there are already enough users, and it has become so cheap and easy to set up a practice website, that there is almost no reason not to have one.

Benefits
The main benefits of a practice website are:

• Interactivity
  The internet allows you to interact with your clients in a way that an advert, a letter or a brochure never can.
   
• Cost effectiveness
  Although websites can cost many thousands of pounds, a basic site can now be put online for a year for about £100. It is then available for anyone with a computer to see, whenever they want.
   
• Flexibility
  Websites offer the ultimate in flexibility as regards the information you display. Special offers and promotions can be uploaded at the touch of a button, and at no extra cost.
   
• Measurability
  You'll be able to measure how many people have visited your site, and which sections they have spent most time in. So you can see what is working and what isn't.

Who should have a website? 
Usage of the Internet can vary widely from area to area. People that live and work in urban areas are more likely to have high speed Internet connection, and are therefore more likely to use the Internet regularly, than people living in rural reas. For this reason, it's probable that practices with clients that live in an urban area, or clients that come from all over the country (they are a 'must have' for specialists), will stand to benefit most from a website. Having said that, it is now so cheap to have a basic presence on the Internet, that really every practice should have one.

Building a website.
There are three main ways to build and deploy a practice website:

• Commission a website company to do the job for you. Prices can vary enormously, so make sure you get a number of quotes.
   
• Do it yourself. The end result probably won't be as polished as one built by a professional programmer, but provided you follow our basic design guidelines, you should be able to give yourself a tidy presence on the Internet after four or five evenings spent reading up on website design software. And as you learn more, you can improve and enhance your website. Macromedia's Dreamweaver is the best tool for the job.
   
• Use an online website building tool. Novartis offers one specifically for veterinary practices, see Support Initiatives at www.vetnova.com

Design guidelines
The finer points of design are beyond the scope of this training module. However, there are some golden rules that need to be observed when building a practice website, whether you do it yourself, or get an agency to do it for you:

• Whatever else you do, make sure that the following key pieces of information are displayed immediately, and obviously, when a visitor arrives at your web page:
  
  Who you are 
  Where you are
  When you are open
  How to contact you
  
  It's amazing how many websites 'bury' this vital information. Fact is, if you did nothing but display your address, opening times and contact details on an otherwise white webpage, it would still be more effective that the most highly-designed site where this information is not immediately available.
   
• Don't over-design; keep it clear and simple. Don't clutter with endless animated images of wagging dogs and the like. They will usually only distract readers from your point.
   
• Avoid the temptation to over-inform. All information should stimulate interest in visiting the practice. In other words, don't offer so much petcare advice online that clients feel they have no need to visit the practice! Never publish information just 'because you have it'. Always think how it can be leveraged to encourage a visit to the practice.
   
• Be succinct. A computer screen is not the ideal format for reading.

Get yourself seen
Many people don't realise that building a website and sticking it online is only half the job. Unless the most popular search engines have registered your presence, the chances of a potential client finding your website are probably in excess of about a billion to one. There are four steps for getting yourself seen on the Internet:

• The first step is to make sure your site is Internet search engine friendly, that's to say that it contains text and code that will help search engines index it correctly. If you are having your website built by website company, make sure that they cover this aspect (many don't). If you are doing it yourself, further information on this subject is available at: http://www.bravenet.com/
   
• Next, you need to submit your website to the major search engines to make sure that they know you exist. In this regard, pay no attention to spam email which invites you to use a service that will submit your website to search engines on your behalf. Not worth it. You can do it yourself very easily, at no cost, and probably have equally good results. Just visit each major search engine and submit your site to the ones that allow you to do so for free. Google and DMOZ should be the priorities. Make sure you are listed onhttp://www.any-uk-vet.co.uk. They always seem to be high on the Google rankings.
   
• You should also identify which existing websites might be prepared to link to you, and ask them to do so. For instance, the website for a local pet store, newspaper or local listing page. This should drive traffic directly to your site, and it may also push you further up the search engine rankings (some search engines will judge how important a website is by the number of other websites that link to it).
   
• Finally, promote your website address offline. Put it on your letterhead, business cards, brochures and all other marketing materials.

Measure
Nearly all site hosts offer statistical analysis packages which will show you how many visitors you've had, when they came, where they came from, which pages they looked at, and whether they brushed their teeth that morning. OK, perhaps not the latter. Point is that websites are a very measurable form of marketing. You can see which pages people find most interesting, and which sites or search engines are giving you the most referrals. You can then tweak your site accordingly. It can be very rewarding, watching how your audience grows.

E-mail addresses
For the majority of practices that will have a long term relationship with their clients (years), 'e-mail harvesting' is a must. It's a great way of communicating at a cost of 5/10ths of nothing, and it's a real investment in the future. However, management of e-mail addresses really requires a database-driven website, which will almost certainly require building by a professional programmer. For the moment, there is still the problem that many clients only check e-mail sporadically (it comes in on that steam-driven computer in the study upstairs). Successful e-mail management is therefore something we'll cover in further depth in the future.