About the Client
Rover Veterinary Care provides in-home pet euthanasia, cremation, and quality-of-life consultations. Founded in 2020 by Dr. Katie Matzke, the practice serves two markets more than two thousand miles apart: Jupiter, Florida and the Reno, Nevada area. Families find them at the hardest moment of a pet's life, usually on a phone, usually the same day. That shapes everything about how the site has to work.
Quick Facts
| Client | Rover Veterinary Care |
| Industry | In-home veterinary and end-of-life care |
| Markets | Jupiter, FL and Reno, NV |
| Services | Web design, local SEO, Google Ads |
| Data tracked since | October 2024 |
The Challenge
Dr. Matzke described the problem plainly in her review: the website did not match her style, and the content needed a refresh. Underneath that sat three harder problems.
The site had to carry the tone of the service. Families reaching this page are about to say goodbye to an animal they have had for fifteen years. A generic veterinary template does not survive that moment.
It had to rank in two unrelated local markets. Google treats Jupiter and Reno as entirely separate, which means two Google Business Profiles, two sets of location pages, and two review bases to build. Nothing carries over.
And the paid side was leaking. Google Ads were running without reliable conversion tracking, so nobody could tell which clicks turned into calls and which were wasted.
The Solution
A Rebuild Around Tone and Speed
REK built a custom-coded site with a warmer, mobile-first design, on the reasoning that most of these visits happen on a phone during a distressing afternoon. Core Web Vitals pass on real user data today, with largest contentful paint at 1.6 seconds and cumulative layout shift at zero.
Two Markets, Built Separately
Each market got its own local SEO foundation: a dedicated Google Business Profile, location-specific service pages, and content written for that area rather than duplicated with a city name swapped in. Both listings now sit at a 5.0 average, with 190 reviews in Nevada and 144 in Florida.
Content for the Questions Families Actually Ask
The content program targeted what people search before they are ready to call: how to tell whether a dog is suffering, what the signs of decline look like, what happens during the visit. This built the topical authority that helped the service pages rank.
Fixing the Paid Side
Conversion tracking was rebuilt so calls and form submissions actually register, and negative keyword lists cut spend on searches that were never going to book. The client reports top keywords now running at Quality Scores of 9 to 10.
The Results
Rover entered tracking in October 2024 at an average position of 42.4 with 30 clicks. Within a year the site was averaging page-one positions, peaking at 124,680 monthly impressions in January 2026 at an average position of 10.9. Across the whole period the site has earned 13,897 organic clicks from 1.46 million impressions.
Conversion tracking went live in the first quarter of 2026. Tracked conversions have climbed every quarter since.
Tracked Conversions by Quarter, 2026
Conversion tracking was implemented in Q1 2026, so earlier quarters have no comparable figure.
What the AI Search Shift Actually Did
Between the first and third quarters of 2026, Rover's total organic clicks fell from 2,125 to 1,134. Read on its own that looks like a campaign going backwards. Split the pages apart and it is a different story.
| Page type | Q1 2026 clicks | Q3 2026 clicks | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blog posts (informational) | 1,658 | 701 | -58% |
| Service and location pages | 467 | 433 | -7% |
The losses are concentrated almost entirely in informational content. Posts answering questions like whether to let a dog pass naturally, or what the signs of decline look like, lost hundreds of clicks each. Those are precisely the questions Google now answers inside AI Overviews, where the reader never needs to click.
The pages that book appointments barely moved. Searches like in home pet euthanasia near me, at home euthanasia reno, and mobile vet reno still send traffic, because someone typing those is not researching. They are ready to call.
The clearest evidence is what happened to rankings over the same stretch. Comparing April through September year over year, clicks fell from 4,360 to 2,172 while average position improved from 29.8 to 16.4. Ranking better and receiving fewer clicks is the signature of AI absorbing informational search. Tracked conversions rose from 38 to 177 per quarter while it was happening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did organic clicks drop while search rankings improved?
Because AI Overviews now answer most informational questions directly. Rover's blog posts about senior dog symptoms lost 58 percent of their clicks between the first and third quarters of 2026, while average search position improved from 29.8 to 16.4 year over year. Ranking better and getting fewer clicks is the clearest signature of AI absorbing informational traffic. The pages that book appointments held steady, down only 7 percent over the same period.
Does SEO still work for in-home veterinary and end-of-life care?
Yes, but the value has shifted toward transactional searches. Queries like in home pet euthanasia near me and at home euthanasia reno still send traffic and still convert, because someone typing those is ready to call rather than researching. Informational content is worth less in clicks than it was two years ago, though it still builds the topical authority that helps service pages rank.
How do you run local SEO for one business in two different states?
Each market needs its own Google Business Profile, its own location pages, and its own content. Rover operates in Jupiter, Florida and the Reno, Nevada area, and Google treats those as entirely separate local markets. Shared service pages will not rank in both. The profiles also accumulate reviews separately, which is why Rover holds 190 reviews in Nevada and 144 in Florida.
How long did it take to see results?
Rover started at an average position of 42.4 with 30 clicks in the first tracked month. Meaningful movement took about six months, and page-one average position arrived around month twelve. End-of-life veterinary care is a trust-heavy category, and Google is slower to rank new sites for it than for lower-stakes services.
Key Takeaway
Rover Veterinary Care is a useful case study precisely because the headline traffic number went down. Informational content is worth fewer clicks than it was two years ago, and any agency claiming otherwise is not looking closely. What still works is ranking for the searches people make when they are ready to act, and being fast and trustworthy enough to earn the call when they land. Rover's blog lost more than half its clicks to AI Overviews in nine months. Its bookings kept climbing. That is the distinction worth measuring.