Web-SEO Content & Consulting For Pet Industry Marketers
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Wildly Profitable Marketing for the Pet Industry
Finally — a how-to Marketing Success Guide for all pet and veterinary businesses. Co-written by PetCopywriter.com's Pam Foster.
PetCopywriter.com owner
Pam Foster is a SuccessWorks
Certified SEO Copywriter
Original content ideas for marketing to pet owners
October 20, 2011
Today I was on a conference call with Heather Lloyd Martin, SEO Copywriting pioneer, mentor and friend of mine. She was talking about some of the things that are critical to web success today and I immediately thought of how these tips can be applied to your pet marketing strategies or pet SEO success (of course!). So I’ll address each one in my upcoming blog posts, starting with this one:
First of all, original web content is an absolute MUST these days for marketing to pet owners –whether you’re marketing pet products, pet services or both.
Here are a couple of examples of what I mean.
1. If you manage a pet ecommerce website and you’re using the manufacturer’s content for each product you carry… I’m afraid your online store’s content might be invisible to search engines. You’re missing out on oodles of traffic from potential customers.
That’s because Google’s Panda update has clamped down on “copycat” websites that have the same content as others. Their latest search algorithms are focused on finding original, fresh content for people searching online for answers… and Google rewards websites that offer something unique and highly relevant.
What you can do right now.
Find ways to offer original content on your website so you can attract more pet-friendly customers via SEO. This means revising each of the manufacturers’ product descriptions with your own spin.
For example, if your online store includes a particular line of pet products because they’re eco-friendly and they reflect your commitment to green products – say so! Tell your visitors why the products are favored by you and treasured by your customers. Make a point to add your own brand voice to the copy. No-one has the same brand voice as you, so this will help make your content unique. Customer reviews can also help, but if you’re just starting to offer those, start revising the product descriptions ASAP.
2. You need to find a way to add fresh, original and highly relevant content to your site each week.
You’ll be delighted and amazed at the search-engine traffic power of writing helpful blog posts, for example. I just started helping a client add blog posts each week, and suddenly after 6 posts or so, the client’s site is turning up on top of Google’s page one for the keywords we targeted. These blog posts are getting attention and driving site visits — all with just a few posts for starters. Great stuff, right?
What you can do right now.
Map out an Editorial Calendar for blog posts or new articles that you commit to adding at least once a week. You could start with a “how-to,” “best-of” or “seasonal tips” blog series that drives people to check out the products on your site.
This can work in the following way. Let’s say you write a blog post about Daylight Savings Time and the importance of pet safety. You could mention that the arrival of shorter days/darker commutes can spell trouble for pets being walked at dinnertime. You might list the top 5 reflective dog products that can help pet owners solve this problem… and link to the reflective leashes, collars and vests you offer in your store. See how cool that could be? And then, when someone types “reflective dog collars” in Google – voila! Your blog post could be smiling right at them on page one of Google. It’s certainly worth a shot.
If you’re marketing pet services such as dog walking, you could have the same type of blog post about Daylight Savings Time except discuss the ways you pledge to keep dogs safe during their walks. Then link to your services page where you feature your dog-walking options. Be sure to include a mention of the towns you serve so your local prospects find you.
Are you stumped about adding original content to your pet website? Or do you have a tip to share? Please let us know. I promise to respond.
Until next time,
Here’s to a profitable website!
Cheers,
Pam Foster
PetCopywriter.com
Help local customers find your pet business website
September 16, 2011
If you’re in charge of marketing a local pet business or veterinary hospital that serves a specific community, I have a question for you.
How often do people say they found you online?
The shocking truth is, sometimes when a locally-based pet business asks me to help optimize their website and boost traffic, I discover that I can’t tell where the business is physically located.
For example, you’d be amazed at how many veterinary practices, dog grooming businesses and doggy day cares don’t list the following basic information on their websites (except maybe on the About Us page, buried at the bottom):
- The physical address
- The towns or region they serve
- Driving directions and a map
If this sounds like you – we can fix this problem immediately! 
Here are 3 quick and simple ways to significantly improve your pet business’s search engine results and drive more people to your door. (more…)
How do your pet business prospects find your site?
August 3, 2011
Are people looking for your dog bowls… or do they call them dog dishes?
Are pet owners searching for a great pet throw, or do they call it a blanket or car seat cover?
And are pet parents searching for a local veterinary hospital, clinic or practice? Or perhaps it’s an animal hospital or clinic… or veterinarian hospital, clinic, etc.)
When you write your pet business web content to attract the people who seek your products or services, be sure to focus on the key phrases THEY use.
This is critical for two reasons, whether you’re marketing to pet owners, veterinarians or other pet businesses. (more…)
Get seasonal with your pet business marketing
June 16, 2011
Ah, summer. Hot sunny days. Warm balmy nights. Fun for everyone, including pet business owners and marketers.
Why?
Because pet owners have seasonal needs that you can solve! Summer brings a mix of joyful outdoor activities with their pets… and also some dangers. For example, seasonal allergies, vacation travel and hot outdoor settings can be tricky for pets.
This means it’s an ideal time for you to market your business with a seasonal slant that meets your customers’ needs.
Let’s look at some examples of seasonal pet business marketing ideas. (more…)
What is pet seo and why is it important for online success?
September 3, 2010
Recently I was asked to explain the difference between SEO (search engine optimization) in general and SEO Copywriting for the pet industry… and why it matters so much.
There are a number of things that SEO means for any web site, including pet web sites, and copywriting is just one of them. I’ll try to explain concisely:
SEO is anything related to helping websites achieve decent rankings and traffic via organic search (not paid search results). If your pet web site is not being found in search engines, you’re missing huge opportunities for sales. Any of the following factors could be the problem: (more…)
Grant your prospect’s wishes on your pet website and reap the rewards!
December 27, 2009
Sometimes when you’re looking for something online, you have a wish in the back of your mind, right?
For example, about a month ago when I was planning a trip across the country with my dog, I searched online with this wish in my head: “I hope I can find an airline-approved dog carrier that’s easy to use and comfortable for my dog.” I typed in the keyphrase: “airline-approved dog carrier.”
Luckily, a few smart companies anticipated my wish, and I found just what I needed on a website called radiofence.com.
So how did this company happen to know about my wish? Well, the company may have done online research to see which keywords or keyphrases are popular regarding dog travel … and then used those keyphrases in their content.
And, they might have conducted some formal or informal customer research to see what people need related to pet travel. And again, they used those defined needs in their content.
Whatever they did, it worked. They followed a core pet-SEO strategy. I found what I needed, and they got my business.
So what do we learn from this? If you know what your prospects are wishing for, and you use relevant keyphrases in your content, you’ll have a better chance of pleasing those prospects and earning their business.
Here are 2 easy ways to find out what your prospects are wishing for.
- Ask them! Do an informal survey via email or create a more formal survey online at myemma.com, surveymonkey.com or another online survey provider.
- Research the most relevant keyphrases. It’s easy when you use the free Google Analytics Keyword Tool or any of the fee-based keyword programs.
These simple yet powerful steps may help you come out on top every time people are looking for the solutions you provide. I did this type of research for a dog joint pain supplement web site and wrote the following specific keyphrase-rich content as a result:
Think dog joint pain is unavoidable? Not any more. Relief is possible with Osspet’s 100% natural calcium-protein formula.
So my quick tip of the day is this:
Find out what your prospects are looking for — and then use the most relevant keyphrases possible (in solution-oriented content) to show prospects you can grant their wishes.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
PetCopywriter.com
Use active words to generate more action on your pet website
October 5, 2009
Did you know that you can instantly improve your online sales results by replacing passive words on your website with clear active words?
It’s true, and I’ll give you 3 reasons why.
1. Active words propel your prospects toward the steps you want them to take.
Consider how the active phrase “Read this information now to add 3 years to your cat’s life” tells prospects exactly what to do and why. It’s very direct and urgent, and likely to prompt action if the right prospect is reading it. A passive version, such as “Cat’s lives can be extended by 3 years as a result of reading this information” just sits there, hoping the prospect will possibly decide to read the information at some point.
2. Active words tend to be more personal and engaging than passive words.
When your content uses personal language to solve the prospect’s needs, it can be very powerful. For example, this active message may appear on an asthma products website: “Finally you and your pets can breathe easier in your home — download this free report, 7 Tips for House-Healthy Air.” The passive version, and not as personal, would be: “This free report, 7 Tips for House-Healthy Air, offers ways for people and pets to breathe easier at home and can be downloaded at anytime.” With this passive language, there’s not much of a personal connection between you and your prospect.
3. Active words paint pictures of how your solution helps the prospect.
The right words will help your prospects envision themselves enjoying your product benefits or solving a pesky problem … and wanting to buy that solution from you. For example, “Eliminate hairballs forever with Advanced BlockaHairball.” See how active words could lead to a more confident purchase and more sales for you?
So my quick PetCopywriter Web-SEO tip of the day is this:
Use clear and active words to move your prospects toward buying the solutions they seek from you.
This approach can be used with headlines, bullets, links, sign-up boxes, calls-to-action, product ordering buttons, and other web content elements. To see it in action … visit my ContentClear Marketing Training/Speaking page, which uses an “active voice” approach throughout the content.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
Optimize the content on your pet website money pages
September 26, 2009
Here are two important questions: Do you ever review your website’s analytics, especially the “$ Index” numbers? Or do you optimize your website based on those numbers?
If you answered NO to either question, here’s a reason to sit up and take notice.
The $ Index is an indicator of your website’s “top money pages…” and optimizing them for search engines can mean big bucks for you.
A quick little story illustrates this. Last week, I was reviewing a web client’s Google Analytics with an awesome techy colleague who showed me the light.
Together we discovered that some of the top money-making pages (those with the highest “$ Index” numbers in Google Analytics), were not fully optimized with competitive keywords. This means our client is leaving money on the table.
If more people find our client’s money pages via SEO (search engine optimization) or even paid search ads, it’s likely that sales will pick up significantly.
Therefore, I immediately put together a plan to revise those profit-packing pages by adding keywords in an ethical and powerful way that attracts more buyers.
Here’s what my plan included:
1. Research the best long-tail keywords for those money pages.
Let’s use one of my favorite hypothetical examples: reflective dog collars. If most of the people landing on my reflective dog collar page buy these collars, that shows up as a money page in analytics.
Now at first glance, “reflective dog collars” and other related keywords may not have a high demand in my keyword research, but the people who search with those words are highly motivated buyers. This means they’re “long-tail” prospects who buy. Better than having bigger demand numbers of people who don’t buy, right?
2. Weave the long-tail keywords into conversion-focused content on the money pages.
I could talk about this one all day long, but to keep this email short, visit my ContentClear Marketing Tips to find lots of insights on how to weave keywords into conversion-focused content.
Once you revise the content for SEO, your money pages should start showing up higher in organic search results fairly soon (depending on how competitive those keywords are).
3. Consider buying Adwords campaigns for those long-tail keywords.
This is a great “companion strategy” for driving buyers to your money pages immediately while the organic search process chugs along. You can buy instant traffic fairly inexpensively if the competition is low for those long-tail keywords. In many cases, paid search pays for itself because it sends more likely buyers to your site.
So my PetCopywriter Web-SEO tip of the day is this: Know your money pages, optimize them with competitive keywords, and improve your sales results!
If you’re not sure which pages are your money pages, contact me and we’ll find them together. Then we can create a clever plan to optimize them and grow your pet website sales.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
Be careful with audio or video “autoplay” to avoid annoying your pet internet customers
July 24, 2009
Yesterday I was on a conference call with two copywriter colleagues, and we were discussing companies we’d like to work for. Together, we visited the website of one particular company, and suddenly a loud audio stream started playing with a woman’s voice chirping away regarding all the wonderful qualities of the company. It completely disrupted our conversation and was annoying, to say the least.
Even worse, I couldn’t find a way to quickly turn it off. And as seconds went by, seeming like hours, my eyes darted around the site looking for an OFF button. I finally resorted to my own MUTE option in my computer system while apologizing to my colleagues. This embarrassing and completely unnecessary episode is the springboard for today’s tip.
Online audio and video clips are extremely useful marketing tools when presented properly. The trouble is, many pet-industry internet marketers don’t offer site visitors the option to tune in or tune out. And this can be a disaster when it comes to turning prospects into buyers.
Here’s why. Quite often, the clips just start playing the instant you land on the site. They may be loud, hard-sell, or just plain inappropriate for the web visitor’s mission and setting.
What if the web visitor is already listening to a favorite song on iTunes and just wants to view some product information on the site? What if he or she is sitting in a cubicle at work, surrounded by colleagues trying to focus on their tasks? What if it’s a conference call with a potential client? It’s just bad form to start shouting at web visitors or bombarding them with a soundtrack the moment they land on a site.
So my quick pet web-seo tip of the day is this: Use audio and video marketing techniques WISELY for the best results.
Yes, they can be fantastic sales-drivers when it comes to demonstrating a product, providing a credible testimonial, showing someone how to do something useful, introducing yourself to customers, etc. I’m all for them!
Just be sure to make the audio or video clip an OPTION for visitors. Check out YouTube, where they load a video but keep it in “pause” until you actually click on the play button. This is the best practice to follow.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
Pam Foster
PetCopywriter.com
Speak a little geek to help ensure the best Pet SEO results
July 2, 2009
Even though I’m a seasoned pet marketing copywriter, I’m not the most technical person in the world. In fact, my highest and best skill is writing copy in plain English — speaking to the target audience in terms that clearly show how a pet-related product or service will benefit them.
However, I’ve learned to speak some “geek” language over the years so I can make sure my carefully crafted copy is going to work online.
For example, to generate the best possible results with search engines, it’s important to include optimized “meta” copy on any website. This is the code text that search engines read in addition to your on-page text. Quite often, search engines display the meta text in search results.
To make sure web programmers know exactly which meta text goes where, it should be provided in terms they know as technical experts who write code to build web pages. Here are a few of those terms that are extremely important to developing web content that truly works.
- Page title: This is known as the title tag to web programmers. For example, my home page title tag is Pet Copywriter Pam Foster: Pet SEO, Web Content, Pet Marketing Strategies
- Page description: This is known as the meta description to the programmer. This is your chance to include a sentence or two (150 maximum characters and spaces) describing what your site has to offer the target audience, using relevant keywords. For example, my website home page meta description is:
“Pet copywriter Pam Foster provides pet internet marketing, web content consulting and pet SEO copywriting services. Pet industry clients include LL Bean, IDEXX and Pet Health Network.”
- Keywords: Google doesn’t look at keywords anymore… but other search engines do, so why not include them?
- Alt tag: This is used to indicate optimized captions for any photos or graphic images that appear on your site. These tags can describe images on a given web page, since search-engines can’t “see” or read photos, etc. Every little bit helps!
If you can get used to using these terms, your web programmer will have a better idea of what you want for search engine optimized content in the meta content.
But it underscores my point that it’s very important to know a few key technical terms so you can ensure the best results for any website.
Until next time,
Here’s to a clear and prosperous site!
Pam
Pam Foster
www.PetCopywriter.com
Posted in Marketing pet products,Marketing to pet owners,Pet internet marketing,pet marketing,pet marketing strategies,Pet Website by PetCopywriter