Mastering pet shop SEO (6 secrets for success)

When it comes to running a pet shop in the digital age, great pet shop SEO is essential, regardless of whether you’re a physical business or an online one. SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of tweaking your website to make it more attractive to search engines. This helps people find your business, and ultimately drives sales. In this article, we will reveal six actionable tips for mastering pet shop SEO, so your pet store can thrive.

How to tell if your pet shop SEO needs work

This is a trick headline, really – SEO is a process of continual improvement and is never perfect. And every website needs SEO – it’s part of your web toolkit. But let’s imagine a great online pet store, filled with unique products at great prices. You know you’ve got stuff people want and need, but it’s just not selling. Take a look at your Google Search Console results. If you look at the keywords that get you impressions, what’s your average position in the search results? If it’s less than 10, you need SEO. Now look at the keywords that people are finding you with – if it’s not for your best products, you need SEO. Even if you’re performing fairly well, you probably need SEO – it’s important to continually analyse and improve it to get the best results.

1. Conduct your keyword research

To lay a strong foundation for your pet shop’s SEO strategy, start by conducting thorough keyword research. Identify the keywords and phrases that potential customers are likely to use when searching for pet-related products or services. Utilize keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to uncover relevant keywords with a reasonable search volume and moderate competition. Next, take a look at your pages and posts on your website – try to incorporate these keywords strategically throughout your website’s content, assigning a primary keyword to each page where relevant, and making notes on keywords you still need to write posts for.

2. Optimise on-page elements

On-page optimization plays a crucial role in improving your pet shop’s SEO performance. Ensure that your website’s pages are properly optimized by including relevant keywords in the page titles, headings (H1, H2, etc.), and meta-descriptions. You should also look to your product listings, schema, URLs and image alt tags to ensure your keywords are used throughout. Programs like Yoast can help you find holes in your on-page SEO.

3. Create high-quality content

One of the secrets to unlocking great SEO performance is to regularly publish high-quality, informative, and engaging content. This is where vet-written articles shine. Veterinarians possess specialised knowledge and expertise that can provide valuable insights to pet owners. Vet-authored articles not only establish trust and credibility but also improve a website’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals, which are crucial ranking factors for search engines like Google. Consider offering informative blog posts, guides, and pet care tips written by veterinarians to attract and engage your target audience.

4. Optimise local SEO if you have a physical business

If your pet shop has a bricks-and-mortar building, optimizing for local SEO is essential. Include your business’s name, address, and phone number on every page of your website. Another tip is to ensure consistency across all online directories and listings – some you need to sign up for, while others may have scraped your data – make sure it’s up to date.

Create a Google My Business profile to improve your visibility in local search results. Don’t forget to keep this regularly updated – add photos, check the pin on the map, and change the hours to keep the information accurate.

5. Check your website speed and mobile responsiveness

Website speed and mobile optimization are critical factors in SEO success. Ensure that your pet shop’s website loads quickly to provide a seamless user experience. Compress images, enable browser caching, and minimize unnecessary scripts or plugins to improve loading times. Specialists can help you check your browser load time and help you to reduce it.

Because so many people use their mobile phones to access e-commerce, you should also think about optimising your website for mobile users. You can implement responsive design, optimize content for smaller screens, and ensure easy navigation for mobile users.

6. Build quality backlinks

Good backlinks to your pet shop’s website can significantly impact your SEO performance. One great way to get high-level backlinks is to respond to journalist requests through expert source websites like HARO. Some of these you’ll be able to respond to yourself, while others request that it’s only a vet that responds. If that’s the case, you can utilise our Media Enquiry Response service to get one of our vets to write the response on your behalf.

Conclusion

Great pet shop SEO is hard work, but by implementing these six secrets for success, you can attract more customers to your website. You’ll spend a lot of time planning and measuring your success with analytics, and you’ll find little time for creating pet content. That’s where we come in – you can pass us the results of your keyword research, and our vet writers will produce excellent content specifically for your website. SEO isn’t quick-win, and nor is content marketing. But if you stay committed to optimizing your website, creating high-quality content, and staying informed about SEO best practices, you can achieve long-term success in the competitive pet industry.