The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK veterinary practices has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK veterinary practices perform across the digital space .
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK veterinary practices has just been published. It covers the largest 12 UK veterinary practices, including Big Motoring World, Cargiant, CarSupermarket.com, Motorpoint, Carcraft, cinch, Perrys Motor Sales, heycar, MOTORS, FOW, Invicta Motors, and Available Car
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online and quantifies the gaps, risks, and missed opportunities for other veterinary practices to win brand exposure locally, secure online views, and ultimately drive the pet owner to make an appointment. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
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Q2 2026 winners leader board
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 12 UK veterinary practices, check out our quick-look table below:
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK veterinary practices or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70 pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing, & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will under-perform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q2 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK veterinary practices was £27,354 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £10. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape.
Relative to their spend, Medivet & Partners reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £5, and Goddard Veterinary Group reported the highest at £33.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance.
In this report, VetPartners has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £6,750, and Blue Cross has the highest at £1,340,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Veterinary practices will want to avoid directing their customers to dead ends, as this can increase bounce rates and potentially lead them to resort to competitors instead.
In our previous audit, Linnaeus reported the most 404 errors (1,467). This quarter, Linnaeus has made improvements to reduce their total to 466. Though they’re still the brand to watch, and progress is a sign a brand is considering the negative effect these errors can have on their audience. A website with fewer broken links generally offers a smoother browsing experience. Users can access information quickly without unexpected interruptions, which encourages them to stay longer.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Consumers today expect instant access to information, especially when browsing on mobile devices. With shorter attention spans and constant access to alternatives, users are unlikely to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load.
In our previous audit, IVC Evidensia UK reported the slowest mobile site speed (19). This quarter, IVC Evidensia UK has increased their score to 28 — demonstrating progress. Currently, the mobile site speed ranged between 55 and 25, with Goddard Veterinary Group. Mobile website speed can increase the likelihood of users sharing content. If a page loads quickly and provides a positive experience, visitors may be more inclined to recommend it to others.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that is not gained through sponsored ads. Domain authority is a comparative metric developed to estimate how likely a website is to rank in search engine results. It’s not used directly by search engines but instead aggregates multiple SEO signals into a single score, typically on a scale from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the stronger the perceived ability of the domain to perform well in search rankings.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60.
In our previous audit, the brand with the lowest DA score was White Cross Vegs (31). This quarter, White Cross Vets remains at the bottom of the leaderboard, and they’ve since decreased their DA score to 29. A strong domain authority can help new pages gain visibility more quickly. When a trusted website publishes fresh content, search engines may be more likely to crawl and index those pages efficiently.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Mobile and desktop organic traffic can vary, as desktop users typically have more time compared to mobile users who are on the go, meaning the level of detail and layout they’re looking for can have different goals.
Four brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Goddard Veterinary Group seeing the biggest loss (-29%). On mobile, four brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with White Cross Vets seeing the biggest loss (-65%). Brands may notice differences between organic traffic on desktop and mobile because users often search with different intentions depending on the device they're using. Mobile users may look for quick answers while desktop users are more likely to carry out detailed research.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For veterinary practices, they'll want to ensure they're appearing for ‘local pack’ and ‘people also ask’ results.
PDSA continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (37,347). The majority of their appearances came from ‘AI overview’ (21,900).
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often consider high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand-new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Longtail keywords are generally less competitive than shorter, generic terms. This makes it easier for smaller or newer websites to rank in search engine results, helping them gain visibility without needing the same level of authority as larger, established competitors.
PDSA continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (14,324) — a decrease from 14,934 previously. PDSA also continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (16,335) — a decrease from 17,397 previously. Longtail keywords make it easier to reach audiences at different stages of the customer journey. Informational phrases can attract users researching a topic, while more specific buying-related keywords can appeal to those who are closer to making a decision. .
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. Facebook ads are an opportunity to build brand visibility and recognition as well as update their current customers in their latest services and announcements.
We’ve included screenshots of PDSA’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK veterinary practice used their brand’s colour throughout their images to help with branding, so people will recognise their brand easily, helping to make them memorable.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google, too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Veterinary practices should utilise a content strategy that isn’t solely on selling their services but also centered about building a strong relationship with their current customer base.
Blue Cross secured the most Facebook Likes (387,100) and the most Instagram followers (97,600).
Website Readability & Accessibility
Around 20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Brands will want to ensure that their websites have as few accessibility alerts and contrast errors as possible to help with readability.
In our previous audit, Linnaeus reported the most accessibility alerts (57). This quarter, Linnaeus remains the brand to watch, and they’ve since increased their total to 62. Poor accessibility can create feelings of exclusion for some users. When people struggle to use a website, they're less likely to return or recommend it to others.
Get the full 70-page Q2 2026 report
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.