How to Make Certain What’s Obvious to you is also Obvious to your Website Visitors.

My wife brought home from the supermarket one of those raw crunchy kale snacks (I’m starting to love kale).

And surprisingly, inside I saw one of those silica gel packs apparently there to keep it fresh.

You may have typically seen these gel packs in things like beef jerkey, vitamin bottles, and boxes of new shoes.

And no matter where you find them including this kale treat, it has the words printed on the gel pack: Do Not Eat.

Each time I see those words I chuckle as I think who in the world would eat this? Isn’t it obvious…?

Take Nothing For Granted

Apparently, the powers that be know to take nothing for granted and to always state the obvious.

We as pet sitting business owners can learn plenty from this same approach.

You have no doubt put countless hours into your website design and text on the page that after a while you can become “blind” to what’s actually working anymore.

Here are 3 things on your website that may be obvious to you but to nobody else.

1 – The area you serve.

I can’t tell you how many pet sitter websites I visit where I can’t tell where exactly on the map you serve. And if I do find something listed, I am not sure if the city or town listed is in Ohio, Seattle, Georgia, or New Jersey.

Sure, you know the city, state, area, town, or neighborhood you serve but you need to spell it out in a few places.

For example, do you service Springfield in Nebraska, Michigan, or Florida (there is one in each state). Becoming specific in your geographic region will not only help orient your users but will also help Google understand your location.

Place your city/state in your header, in your footer, on your contact page, or about page. Somewhere.

2 – Funny or clever buttons.

Your menu button titles need to quickly and clearly spell out what your user can expect to find on the page before committing to the click.

About Us, Services, and Reviews are obvious and make sense.

But if I see a button labeled furry neighbors or happy creatures, I get confused and probably would not click. Say what’s on the page in clear easy to understand language.

3 – What does a pet sitter do, exactly.

Now this one is a bit double sided. While many visitors may have a general idea of what a pet sitter does (or can do) you will do yourself an incredible favor by getting into the habit of spelling everything out.

You want to spell everything out and assume that every single visitor to your website has absolutely no idea what we do or how we do it.

Why? Well, for one thing, it helps your website visitors educate themselves on what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

You can also take that opportunity to create content (ie. blog). When I hear pet sitters say that they do not know what to blog about, this is always the first thing I tell them.

Start writing everything down that you find yourself going over and over with different potential clients.

Here’s a short list off the top of my head on what you can begin writing about:

• What happens exactly on the meet and greet?
• What can they expect?
• What should they prepare or have ready?
• Why is the meet and greet necessary or important?
• Why do you need my keys?
• How do you keep them safe?
• Who will be entering their house?
• Walk me through the time spent with my pet?
• How do you interview or screen your staff?
• Interview one of your favorite clients.
• How did your best client first discover you?
• Did they have any reservations before coming on board?
• What if something breaks in their home?
• What if their pet runs out the front door?

Since these detailed pieces of content are designed to educate and inform your ideal client, Google will reward that by placing you higher in the search results.

Here’s the “secret” – it’s not Google that determines where you rank for a given search term. It’s the user.

If your content and website pages are valuable to your clients first, only then will Google take notice and begin to place you higher for certain key phrases.

Over To You

We began this article by pointing out that what’s obvious to you may not be obvious to others.

I then listed 3 things you should focus on to hit your visitors over the head with relevant needed information.

Finally, I gave you a short list of topics you should write about to educate and inform your users.

Are there specific things on your own website that you take for granted? Are there specific things you know you want to improve, or things you want to enhance? Tell us in the comments below.