Your website acts as the digital front door to your veterinary practice. It’s your first opportunity to make a strong impression, and with only seconds to engage visitors, it needs to count.
Whether you’re building a brand-new site or revitalising an outdated one, selecting the right CMS (Content Management System) is a critical step in the process.
With so many platforms to choose from, how do you know which one is the best fit for your practice?
Let’s explore the pros and cons and the key features to look for when deciding on the right platform.
Why your CMS matters
A good CMS should make it easy for your team to:
- Keep the site updated with fresh content (think: news, blogs, pet health plans)
- Showcase your services and team beautifully
- Optimise for local SEO to appear in pet owners’ searches
- Offer a seamless experience for mobile and desktop users
- Make quick changes without needing to call a developer every time
Now, let’s look at some of the most popular CMS options:
1. WordPress – it’s popular for a reason
WordPress is a versatile and user-friendly content management system (CMS) that has been around since 2003, enabling users to easily create and manage websites without technical expertise.
The pros:
Empowers customisation to fit your practice’s needs
WordPress powers over 40% of websites worldwide because of its unmatched flexibility, making it a perfect choice for veterinary practices.
With thousands of themes and plugins available, you can fully customise your site to match your clinic’s brand and specific needs — whether that’s adding online appointment booking, creating a blog to share pet care tips, showcasing client testimonials, or even integrating a shop for pet products.
You’re not limited to preset designs or features; you can adapt and expand your site as your practice grows. This level of customisation ensures your website works exactly how you need it to, helping you offer a better experience for your clients and stand out from local competitors.
SEO-friendly features to boost your online visibility
With the right plugins, WordPress becomes a powerful tool for enhancing your online visibility. It makes it easier to optimise your website for search engines, focusing on local SEO to ensure your clinic ranks for location-specific searches.
WordPress also offers user-friendly content management, mobile-friendly designs, fast load times, and seamless integration with Google Analytics.
It supports secure, responsive sites that enhance user experience and meet SEO best practices to attract more local clients and maintain an effective online presence.
Provides complete control and ownership
When you use WordPress and host your site yourself, you have complete ownership and control over your website and all its content — a major advantage for veterinary practices.
Unlike website builders that can limit your control or even restrict access if you stop paying for their service, a self-hosted WordPress site belongs entirely to you.
This means you control your site’s design, functionality, branding, and future growth without being tied to a third-party platform’s rules or fees. You can move hosts, make custom updates, and keep all your content, client information, and SEO work intact, giving your practice long-term security, flexibility, and independence online.
The cons:
You’ll need to go on a steep learning curve
WordPress has its learning curve, especially if you’re new to building or managing websites. While it’s a powerful platform, the sheer number of options — from themes and plugins to settings and updates — can feel overwhelming at first.
Without proper setup and ongoing maintenance, a WordPress site can become messy, slow, or even vulnerable to security issues. For veterinary practices without in-house tech support, this means you might need to invest time in learning the basics or hire a professional to set everything up correctly and keep it running smoothly.
Maintenance is always ongoing
To keep your site secure and running smoothly, you’ll need to regularly update your plugins, themes, and the WordPress core itself. Ignoring updates can leave your site vulnerable to security risks or cause features to break.
For busy veterinary practices, this can be a challenge, especially without dedicated tech support. It’s important to either set aside time to manage updates yourself or hire someone to handle maintenance, ensuring your site stays secure, fast, and fully functional for your clients.
Best for: Veterinary practices that want full control, strong SEO, and room to grow. It’s ideal for clinics that plan to expand their services, locations, or online offerings over time. WordPress is also a great choice for practices that want the freedom to fully customise their site’s design, features, and functionality without being locked into a specific platform.
2. Webflow – design-led and modern
Webflow is a visual web design platform that allows you to build responsive, custom websites without writing code, combining the ease of a drag‑and‑drop editor with the power of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript under the hood.
It has been around since 2013, evolving into a full CMS and hosting solution trusted by designers and businesses worldwide.
The pros:
There’s no need for lots of heavy coding
Webflow is fantastic for creating stunning, modern websites without heavy coding. If you can dream it, 9 times out of 10, it can be made!
It allows the boundaries of design to be pushed and, in return, allows teams to create some really beautiful digital experiences that set them apart from others.
Work with built-in SEO tools
The platform offers clean code and strong SEO settings right out of the box. Unlike WordPress, Webflow doesn’t rely on plugins to handle essential SEO settings, which reduces the risk of plugin clashes and slower site speed.
Content management made easy
It’s easy to make updates and manage content once your site is built. Webflow is making waves in the world of CMS’, it has recently been recognised as a ‘Strong Performer’ in The Forrester Wave Content Management Systems, Q1 2025.
Cons:
You’ll need time to get the initial setup just right
While Webflow offers powerful design flexibility, it comes with a steeper learning curve compared to more traditional website builders.
If you want to heavily customise your site (such as tailoring appointment forms, or creating unique page layouts), it can take significant time to learn the platform’s design tools, CMS (content management system), and interactions.
Without previous experience, the process can feel technical and overwhelming, especially for a busy veterinary team.
Veterinary practices that want a fully customised site may need to invest extra time in training or hire a Webflow expert to get the site set up properly and ensure it functions exactly as they envision.
The platform is on the pricey side
Webflow’s hosting and CMS plans tend to be more expensive compared to WordPress, especially when you factor in the need for additional features or higher traffic limits.
While the platform offers a sleek, all-in-one solution, you’re paying a premium for that convenience and design flexibility. For a small or growing veterinary practice, these ongoing costs can add up quickly, particularly when compared to WordPress, where you have more control over hosting providers and pricing options.
This makes Webflow a bigger investment upfront and over time, which might not fit every clinic’s budget.
Best for: Veterinary practices that want a sleek, fast, custom-designed site and don’t mind paying a little extra for standout design and easier SEO setup. It’s also ideal for practices that want to use one of the up-and-coming, industry-leading and recognised CMS’ that allow them to stay ahead of the curve.
3. Google Sites – free but very basic
Google Sites is a simple, user-friendly website builder integrated with the Google Workspace ecosystem, enabling anyone to create basic responsive sites using drag-and-drop templates and Google’s suite of apps.
It was first launched in 2008 and redesigned as the new Google Sites in 2016 to offer improved layouts and collaboration features.
The pros:
Designed to be beginner-friendly
A major advantage of Google Sites for veterinary practices is its ease of use. The platform is designed to be extremely simple and beginner-friendly, making it easy for anyone to build a basic website without any coding skills or technical knowledge.
You can quickly create and organise pages using a straightforward drag-and-drop editor, and there are no complicated settings or confusing tools to worry about. This makes Google Sites a great option for busy veterinary teams who need to get a professional-looking site up and running quickly without dedicating a lot of time or resources.
Whether you’re showcasing services, sharing clinic updates, or posting contact information, Google Sites lets you publish and update your content effortlessly.
A completely free, cost-effective solution
There are no hosting fees, subscription costs, or hidden charges, making it an extremely budget-friendly option, especially for small or new clinics that want a professional online presence without adding extra expenses.
You get free access to secure hosting, basic templates, and easy integration with other Google tools like Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Forms.
This makes it simple to manage appointments, share clinic updates, and help pet owners find your practice, all without spending a dime on web development or ongoing maintenance costs.
Get up and running quickly
If you need a fast, simple online presence, whether for a new clinic, a pop-up event, or a temporary location, Google Sites are ideal.
You can build and publish a fully functional website in just a few hours, without getting bogged down by technical setup, hosting decisions, or complicated design work.
It’s a perfect solution for practices that want to get important information like services, contact details, and hours online quickly, without the need for a long development process or hiring a web designer.
The cons:
There are limited design options
While the platform is easy to use, the templates and customisation options are quite basic, which may not allow you to create a unique or polished look that reflects the professional nature of your veterinary clinic.
The design options are fairly constrained, meaning you may end up with a site that feels more generic and doesn’t stand out compared to competitors with more custom or visually appealing websites.
For veterinary practices that want to establish a strong brand identity and offer a visually engaging online experience for potential clients, this lack of design customisation could be a drawback.
Your online visibility may be limited due to poor SEO capabilities
Customising SEO settings on Google Sites is extremely limited compared to more robust platforms like WordPress.
You have minimal control over key SEO elements, such as metadata, header tags, and URL structures, which can hinder your ability to optimise the site effectively for search engines.
As a result, Google Sites may not rank as well as other platforms, making it harder for your clinic to appear in local search results when potential clients are searching for veterinary services.
This lack of SEO customisation can be a significant barrier for practices looking to grow their online presence and attract more visitors through search engines.
Best for: Very small veterinary practices with limited budgets, especially those that don’t have the resources to invest in more complex website platforms or marketing efforts. If you’re just starting out and need a simple site to provide basic information like contact details, services, and operating hours, Google Sites is a great solution. It’s perfect for creating internal use sites, such as intranets for staff communication or resource sharing within the practice. In these cases, it provides a fast, easy way to set up a functional site without the need for ongoing maintenance or design work.
Considerations when choosing a CMS
When choosing the right CMS for your practice, ask yourself:
- How often will you update the site? (News, offers, blogs)
- Who will be making updates? (In-house team, external agency?)
- How important is SEO to you? (Hint: it should be very important)
- What’s your budget for design, hosting, and maintenance?
- Do you want full ownership of your content?
Choosing the wrong CMS can make your life harder or limit how well you can reach local pet owners online.
What do we recommend?
For many veterinary practices, WordPress delivers an excellent mix of affordability, flexibility, and SEO performance — especially when built by a professional team.
Webflow is an outstanding choice when design, speed, and easy content editing are top priorities.
Google Sites can work well for a temporary placeholder page, but it’s not ideal for building and scaling a strong veterinary brand.
Ultimately, the best platform depends on your goals — whether you prioritise flexibility, design, or speed, we can help you choose the right solution for your practice.
Need help building a website that works as hard as you do?
At The Word Agency, we specialise in creating beautiful, SEO-focused websites for veterinary practices that don’t just look good — they get found.
Get in touch to chat about your project!