SEO Language For The Pet Industry – Word Choice Matters

Do you have a friend or relative who takes things literally?  They don’t understand the nuances of sarcasm and you have to always tell them that “I didn’t mean it that way”?

Or maybe you are a parent of a toddler (from personal experience I know they are extremely literal)!

That’s how you want to look at the Google Bots.  They are part of a computer system – of course they are literal!

Sure, if you ask Siri what she is wearing she’ll have a fun quip answer – but not because she understands the question, it’s because she was programmed that way.

When it comes to creating content, WORD CHOICE MATTERS.

As pet industry business owners, we know the “inside lingo”, we understand the subtleties, we get that a pet sitter can also cover dog walks and vice versa.  But do you think someone who is looking for someone to help them with their new puppy knows that?

Don’t count on it.

My company name has “pet sitting” in it and if I had a dollar for every time I was asked if we also walked dogs, I wouldn’t have to do any visits!

WORD CHOICE MATTERS 

If you have a cat, are you ever going to put “dog” into any search phrase?  No.  You don’t really care about the results for dog, or possibly even for general pets because you have a CAT!  You want the answer to your specific question for your specific needs.

(And “you” is the most important word on the Internet)

Cat sitting or cat sitter are going to yield more specific results than pet sitter.  Now some people don’t know that cat sitting is even a thing so they may put pet sitting for my cat into the search box, but cat is always going to be at the forefront.

WORD CHOICE MATTERS

I am going to point out a professional mistake that we are making.  On our web site, when we list our prices, we list our rates as “per visit”.

Do you think Fluffy McLabradoodle knows what a visit entails?  Sure, it’s part of my job to educate them but if they don’t understand what they are looking at in the first place, chances are pretty high that they are going to bounce to the next site.

A better way would be:

Dog Walks start at: $$
Cat Sitting Visits start at: $$

WORD CHOICE MATTERS

CHOOSE WORDS THAT YOUR AUDIENCE WILL UNDERSTAND AND RESPOND TO.

It doesn’t really matter if you understand your site, or if you ask other pet sitters to review your site and give you feedback – how does your audience view and understand your site?

Words to think about using:

• Dog Walker
• Dog Walks
• Dog Walking
• Walking Dogs

YES – those are all different terms.  Remember the literal Google Bots…

Make sure to use the town or towns that you service.

• Dog Groomer in Whoville
• Whoville Dog Grooming

If you service multiple towns, make sure to literally spell them out.

“Can I put the county that I service in?”

Sure, but if someone is looking for a pet sitter chances are higher that they are going to but in the name of their specific town vs the county. You can say something like: Servicing Horton County including Whoville, Seussville etc.

“What about including zip codes”

I see a lot of pet industry websites with the zip codes listed.  This may be helpful once people are on your site, but have you ever personally searched for anything using your zip code?  Most people will use the town first and look at the page to see if the company services their particular area of that town.

Using the zip will not necessarily help people find your site, but it will help them once they are on it.

Did you know that you can look at your Google Analytics to see exactly what words/phrases that visitors to your site are using to find you?

We can help you with that and with word choice!

What are your favorite words to use?

Share them with us in the comments!