If you’re happy to see more information and tips on pet store SEO, then keep reading! If you’re finding it a bit tough to get through, but you want to improve on your pet store’s search engine results, then keep reading! You got this! If you hate it but know it’s good for you, then you should definitely reach out to us so we can tackle this problem for your pet store, together, like the true marketing partner that we are.

Today we’ll follow up on our Freesource post on AnswerThePublic and our Insider post on why SEO is necessary for pet stores with some tips that you can start using today if you want to embark on your own SEO campaign for your pet business. We’re here to help, even if it’s for free! Join our free community for pet store owners to get the most of out what we do at Pet Engine Marketing without paying a dime.

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SEO Tips for Pet Stores

Since we are primarily a pet store marketing agency for brick-and-mortar retailers, we’re going to dig into some tips that are primarily meant for that type of business. Nonetheless, what we give out here can be appropriated and adapted to other pet businesses, whether it’s for exotic birds, livestock and feed, or fish and aquariums, this will help.

SEO Keyword research for a jewelry store.

1. Relevant Keywords

Successful SEO campaigns begin with keyword research. Think about the language that your pet store owners are using when they go to sites like Google. Hint: Check out AnswerThePublic. Pet parents aren’t typing in “dogs” or “cats” — they’re searching for “dog food near me” and “cat supplies.”

In addition to AnswerThePublic, you can also use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest and Keyword Tool to help you discover the keywords and phrases people search online to find the products you sell. We just prefer how AnswerThePublic aggregates with visualization and related keywords.

Most retail searches are specific, so your website should be littered with keywords. If you’re selling products online, then those product descriptions should be specific, too. Incorporate relevant keywords into product copy, page URLs, blog posts, imagery, page descriptors, and other information your potential customers might use as search criteria.

2. Create Content Consistently

Websites with more pages tend to rank higher than those with fewer pages. As a pet store, this means that you can utilize your blog to continually build content pages. These pages should be long-worded (500-1000 words) that are utilizing the keywords that have been deemed relevant to your audience via your research.

Blogs, testimonials, and other interesting content can help round out your site. You can also incorporate your store’s reviews to boost SEO rankings and keyword usage. Keeping your site updated with fresh information can boost your SEO efforts and help ensure that your pages rank higher in search engine results. However, don’t just add pages for the sake of adding them—when it comes to SEO, quality still trumps quantity.

3. Image SEO

Keywords don’t just belong in text—they should go into photo descriptions and titles as well. When optimizing your pet store’s site, don’t forget about the images. Here’s the thing, they are (and should be) everywhere, so this is quite a task to re-do. Best to start now.

Include keywords in the file name and alt text of each photo on your site, even non-product photos. This helps search engines determine what is being shown in your photos, and can play a role in improving your rankings. It can also help your images rank in image searches for relevant keywords, thus getting people to click to where they’re hosted - your pet store’s website!

4. Easy-Share Content

While social media does not directly affect rankings, having your content shared across various platforms can help drive traffic to your site. Because of this, you should make it as easy to share your content as possible. Readers are more likely to share if it’s one or two clicks away rather than an entire. Take a look at the bottom of this article for the sharing links for an example.

Add widgets for your social profiles, and “Share” buttons on each page on your site. Your visitors will then have the option to share products or articles with their friends, and if those people find the content interesting as well, you’ve just attracted potential customers to your pet store with very little effort. This is especially important for pages with interesting photos, since visual content is great on social media.

5. Optimized Website

Mobile now accounts for more than half of all online traffic, and it exceeds desktop as the top source of Google searches. Since more internet users are browsing from mobile devices, you need to ensure that your pet store’s website is optimized for mobile. If it’s not, we can help build you a custom website that’s mobile- and SEO-optimized! Reach out to us for a discount.

Conclusion

Hopefully you found these 5 SEO tips for pet stores to be relatively simple takeaways to improve your SEO efforts, and therefore improve your pet store’s ranking on Google!

The first five results of a Google search get 68% of the clicks from searchers (Source: MarketingLand). Pet parents don’t want to spend their time scrolling past the first few options, and if your pet store’s website isn’t among them, there’s little chance of attracting attention.

If you don’t want to engage in your own SEO campaign for your pet store, give us a call! It wouldn’t be our first rodeo!