Why the process is different here
Most website processes assume the client sits at a desk. Equine clients do not. You are on a yard at seven, driving between four more, and the only reliable slot is after evening stables. So the build is designed around short, scheduled conversations, decisions made in writing, and content gathered in ways that survive a working week.
Here is what the stages actually look like.
Stage 1: the first conversation
Half an hour on the phone or a call, usually in the evening. We are trying to learn six things: what you do and what you refuse, which areas you cover on which days, what runs your diary and your invoices today, whether you serve yards, individual owners or both, how emergencies and out-of-hours cover work, and what is going wrong with the site you have.
The single most useful answer is the out-of-hours one, because it shapes the most important part of the site. If it is not written down anywhere yet, write it down.
Stage 2: the plan
We come back with a page list, a structure and a route through the site for each visitor: the owner researching a symptom, the owner ready to book, the yard manager, and the person with a horse in trouble right now. It names the services that get their own pages, whether there is a yard page, which software the booking will feed, and what we need from you.
You approve or change it in writing. This is the cheapest moment to move anything.
Stage 3: content, gathered in the way that works
The part that stalls most builds. So it is split into small pieces with a person on our side chasing each one.
Fees. Your visit fee by area, route-day rate, routine procedures, out-of-hours charging, yard terms. Usually pulled from your practice software rather than typed fresh.
Services. For each of vaccinations, dentistry, lameness, pre-purchase work, shoeing and trimming: what happens on the visit, how long, what the owner must prepare. Often collected as a fifteen minute recorded call rather than a document, and written up for your review.
Registration and credentials. Veterinary registration, farrier registration where it applies, memberships and qualifications, with the links to the registers.
Route days and areas. The list of areas and the days you are usually in them.
Photographs. The single highest value item and the one people put off. Real work on a real yard: a foot being prepared, a dental in progress, the van open, the team. A photographer for half a day on a route day, or a phone in good light with a shot list from us.
Stage 4: design and build
You see the home page, one service page and the booking page first, on a phone screen, before anything else is built. Approve the pattern and the rest follows quickly, because the service pages are generated from records rather than designed one at a time.
Underneath, the fee records, the service records and the area records go in, so that from launch day you can edit a price or a route day without ringing anyone.
Stage 5: booking, wired to your real software
The booking page is connected to whatever runs your work: ServiceM8 or Jobber for farriers and mobile therapists, Provet Cloud or ezyVet for practices holding clinical records. Services, durations and questions are set to match the site. Then a real test booking goes through from a phone, and lands as a job with a notification on the phone that will actually be carrying it.
The emergency route is built at the same time and sits above the booking everywhere.
Stage 6: review
You get the whole site on a link, with a list of what to check: fees against your invoices, service descriptions against what you actually do, out-of-hours wording, registration numbers, area lists. Two rounds of changes. Comments go in one place rather than across texts and voice notes.
A vet in the practice signs off the clinical wording and the emergency guidance. That is not a formality, and it is worth building the time in.
Stage 7: launch
Domain and hosting moved or pointed, old URLs redirected so existing rankings and any printed links survive, analytics and call tracking on, and the site submitted for indexing. Google Business Profile checked against the site so hours, areas and the phone number match, since a good share of your calls come from there rather than the site.
Then a recorded walkthrough of how to edit a fee, add a service and change a route day, kept for whoever takes over the admin.
What causes delay
Photographs, out-of-hours wording that has never been written down, and fee lists nobody has agreed internally. All three can be started before the build does.
Where this sits
This is how we build an equine vet and farrier website from first call to live, and the same staged process runs across our pet business websites. What the packages include is on pricing. The site is not the hard part. Getting your route, your fees and your emergency cover written down clearly is, and that is most of what these stages are for.