SEO Does Matter Inc.

Welcome to Westchester K-9 Dog Training. Your one-stop doggie disaster solution.

Westchester K-9 Dog Training | Westchester, NY | (914) 393 2346 | info@westchesterk-9.com

The Well-Mannered Dog^®, home of the most popular dog and puppy trainers in Connecticut and New York!

http://wellmannereddog.com/

Remember, the top of the website should convey; I know your problem, I can fix your problem, Contact me. Be sure you do your best to convey those thoughts.

You can do this with a combo of graphics and words. 

A dog trainer’s primary job is to fix a problem. In order to fix a problem, you need a person. So try to use pics of PEOPLE on your site. You are trying to convey you are a dog trainer, you can do that with a picture of a person interacting with a dog. Not just a dog and not just a person. A side view of a person and a dog in a sit or down gives the visitor the idea that you can do things with dogs they (the visitor) can’t. Most pet owners can’t get their dog to pay attention to them and that’s a big deal to them, right? Having a dog focused on a person conveys exactly what the visitor wants. 

If you are a Dog Trainer looking for SEO help, Contact me!

Relate to your visitors, phrases like; does your dog not listen? does your dog jump? want your dog to listen?  They should be YES answers to be positive and move the visitor into an action you want them to take.

Use a call to action, people need to be told what to do. You already have this using the contact us button. You can do more with phrases like; tell us about your dog, schedule your free consult now, take the first step, we can help contact us. WE can test different phrases after the site is live if you want.

In the navigation, try to use; home, about, puppy training, dog training, success stories, contact us. That way when it is read across, it says “dog training success stories” right in the top of the page. Don’t use the word testimonials. It doesn’t convey a good message like the word success. Plus, you can put any story in success stories, it doesn’t even have to be from a client. It could be a success you’ve experienced with a dog.

Use Dog Training, Puppy Training, not just the word Training. Initially people skim and you don’t want to miss out on conveying as much valuable info as possible, make sense? Its funny how many sites I see and the person doesn’t use DOG that much. Like they are a personal or firearms trainer…

The new built in block editor in wordpress allows for columns in the desktop version if you like. I like them b/c you can display packages as small/med/large   When giving 3 choices and the right layout, people usually pick the middle or medium. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive.. In the mobile view EVERYthing is one column so its not that great an idea any more, but the idea is still can work. 

Now here is the hard part, when you do a google search, you’ll only see the home page of a website displayed about 50% of the time. That means when someone searches for one of your services, they might NOT land on the home page. If they search for puppy training, they might land on the puppy training page. Right now If they search for board and train Seattle, they land on seattlek9command.com/board-and-train, NOT your home page. SO most ALL of the pages on the site (definitely the service pages) need to have the same above the fold design concepts.

Remember to use as few plugins as possible. The testimonials (success stories) can all be in a category like it is in seattlek9command.com and doesn’t need a separate plugin. Plugins are a weak link for wordpress security.

In reference to the county or city? Lets use all ways people around you reference their locations. If they say South Florida, then use that. If they use Southern California, use that. Maybe they say Twin Cities, or Capital District. Whatever they use in that area in Google, is what you want to mention on your website.

All we need to do is have a success story, or an articles mentioning both or one. Another article, story or FAQ can mention the other locations. The goal is to have many locations mentioned on the site in a way that makes sense. So if a random person read random articles/success stories they would have an idea of WHERE you worked. Because you talked about all the different places around you.

Look at it this way. In 6 months if you have 20 success stories or articles on the site some can mention the same places (maybe most of your clients come from the same place) but others can mention OTHER places. So if we made a list of all the LOCATIONS mentioned on the website, we would have a good idea of WHERE you work. That is what Google does. It look at all the locations on your site and understand WHERE you work.

To help in google we want to add as much written content​ to your site as we can. To help make that easier, I recommend using the testimonial idea but calling it Success Stories. That allows you to add to the testimonial sent from a client (or you can write it based only on your experience with a dog and not use a testimonial). Keep in mind, we want to make sure each success story (or article) includes; a location around you, dog breeds, dog behavior issues and a picture. My thought is that writing what you did, is easier then writing dog training articles.

Here is an example with explanations:

The Title should be catchy and show you fixed a problem. There is no SEO benefit to it being the dog’s or person’s name. Here is an example:

“Now Fido Doesn’t Jump” or “Now Fido Listens!” or “We Can Walk Down The Street Again”.

The first pp explains where the dog came from (location), mentioning breeds (gsd) and the problems (pulls on leash, doesn’t listen, etc)

Recently a client from Denver brought his 3 yr old German shepherd to us because it pulled on the leash, barked at other dogs and didn’t seem to listen at all.

The second pp is about what you do to fix the problem. This is where you basically recall and explain what you did, like a diary. This is where you can talk about your methods and tools… Expound on what you use or don’t use and why.

We placed the German Shepherd in our 2 month board and train where we used whatever method we normally do to fix problems. (This is where you try to expound on the magic of what you do.

The next pp can be the testimonial that the client sent. The great part of using success stories is that you dont really need a testimonial from a client .You can just write all you want about your experiences.

This is what the client had to say after bringing his dog to us; I brought my dog to us and they corrected all my dogs problems and I learn a lot at the same time. I highly recommend them.
– Mr. Client
Richmond, VA.

​Then you can add a closing pp which repeats some of the important words

Now Mr. Client can go back to Denver and enjoy walking his dog and not have to worry about it not listening (you can add more of the benefits here).

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​So this is what it could look like put together:

​Recently a client from Richmond brought his 3 yr old German Shepherd to us because it pulled on the leash, barked at other dogs and didn’t seem to listen at all.

We placed the German shepherd in our 2 month board and train​ ​class. Like most of our board and train clients we used a remote collar because we feel it is the best way to communicate to a dog. All our remote collars are set to the very minimum to get the dogs attention, they are not ever used to punish or hurt the dogs. Using the remote collar we can get the dogs attention and help him learn to focus on his owner and not be distracted by anything else going on…​

This is what the client had to say after bringing his dog to us; I brought my dog to us and they corrected all my dogs problems and I learned a lot at the same time. I highly recommend them.
– Mr. Client
Denver, CO

​Now Mr. Client can go back to Richmond and enjoy walking his dog and not have to worry about it not listening.

Meta tags used to be much more important to SEO but you can still help your site if you make some simple changes to them. The Meta Title Tag is the most important.

Recently I was asked about changing them because of a location change….  Well here are some basic tips you want to understand in regards to Meta Tags. Btw, different website builders might call them different names so be aware.

Before I go on about the meta tags, we need to have a basic understanding of keywords, or keyword phrases for Dog Training. We are talking about what people put into Google to find a business or service. For a Dog Trainer, the most common terms people search for are (in order of searches); Dog Training, Puppy Training, Obedience Training and then using popular breeds or slang terms like pit bull training, German Shepherd Training, and so on….  Btw, Dog Trainer is not nearly as popular as Dog Training….

These phrases are normally together with a location. For example; Dog Training Denver, or German Shepherd Training Fort Lauderdale. You should mention different locations around your area. You are not trying to use Dog Training Denver over and over. You want to mention the suburbs and areas AROUND Denver…..

If you are looking for SEO for Dog Training I CAN HELP! (954) 800 5012

Here is where you want to have your keyword phrases:

• File name of new pictures (not sure its worth it to remove existing picture and replace them)
• ALT tags on pictures
• Meta DESCRIPTION Tag on each page or post
• Meta TITLE Tag on each page or post (most important)

It is more important than ever to mention (in a normal way) all the surrounding areas AROUND where you want to rank for on your website, primarily in your content but in the Meta Tags also. So if you are in Denver or Dallas, you need to mention throughout your website all the different suburbs, sections, counties or slang terms of either Denver or Dallas. Do NOT only mention Denver or Dallas.

Here is an example of a Meta Title Tag for the Home page of a Dog Trainer’s website in the Denver area.

Dog & Puppy Training Serving Denver, Lakewood, Aurora & Littleton Colorado.      (commas are optional)  65 characters or less

An example of a picture file name and ALT tag would be very similar and certainly no longer AND based on the picture. If it is a puppy pic on the home page, just use; “Puppy Training Denver“

If it is a picture of a dog, use; “Dog Training Denver“

Don’t use the same kw phrase over and over.  Other pictures on the home page could be;

Dog Training Lakewood CO

An example of the Meta Description for the same home page would be similar but grammatically more correct, since it will most likely be seen in the Google results;

Looking for Dog & Puppy Training near Denver, Lakewood, Aurora or Littleton Colorado? Contact us now, WE CAN HELP! (555) 122-5555

There are a few ways to rebuild a wordpress site;

You can go into the existing site and install a new theme and make the adjustments live. Depending on the changes needed to the new theme this can be a good idea. You can use a site under construction plugin or the changes can be made late at night or earlier in the am to avoid your visitors seeing anything odd… If you don’t use a visual editor, you only make a few changes and you can go between themes all day with no problem. You can work on the new design and go back to the previous theme until the new design is ready. If you use a visual editor, it adds code to the actual page text/code which shows up if you go back to your theme without a visual editor. I am not a fan of visual editors because of this.

You can build a wordpress site like you have done in a separate website with the exception of the content and then move the new theme files into your existing domain once it is done. This can be done with an ftp program or plugin. This should be is less down time of the site…

You can install wp into a new directory (folder) and build THAT wordpress install the way you want it. Once done, you have to make a couple changes to the system so the site looks at the NEW wordpress install with the new look, not the original one. Use can use a plugin, or the export / import feature to move the content from the original db to the new db during any part of the process. IF YOU USE A VISUAL EDITOR ON THE OLD SITE AND NOT ON THE NEW, OR A DIFFERENT VE ON THE NEW, YOU HAVE TO GO INTO SOME OR ALL OF THE PAGES TO REMOVE THE ORIGINAL CODE. Again, another reason why i am not a big fan of the visual editors.

Anytime a theme files are modified, a child theme should be used.

UPDATE: 7/3/2020 – WordPress has changed to their new block editor as the default editor. This was an option last year. I like it and find it much more flexible than the previous editor. Because of this I have even less use of any visual editors. I know some like Beaver Builder and Divi are popular and good products, but I think they just add unnecessary code and complication to the editor. They also require updates.

The term blog can describe what we are talking about in general (adding material to your site) but I want to be a little more specific so I use either “Dog Training Articles”, “News and Articles” or “Success Stories”. They are all blogging, but we break them down to 2 or 3 categories.

• Success stories can be a testimonial from a client or your experience with a dog OR both together on one page.
• Dog Training articles can be more specifically training articles….
• News and articles could be news about your business, new trainers, new location, what tools you like or don’t like… (this seems like the least used)

The bottom line is to

• Add UNIQUE content to your site so that Google sees you as an authority online
• Include words that people are searching for (basic dog behavior issues)
• Mention locations (since you are a local business)

In regards to the layout and design (Website Conversion Design), the most important thing is a layout that will convert well and look good on all devices. That takes a simple design and good correctly sized quality pictures, not stock photos​. To convert well the top of the site should convey;

• I know your problem (ash tree concern)
• I can fix your problem (I treat ash trees in your area)
• Call me! (people need to be told what to do)

When someone who needs help looks at a site, they ​make an immediate decision whether or not they can be helped. That means they don’t read, they only scan. You as a business owner have only seconds to catch their attention. The most important thing they should see first is that they can be helped. So only pictures and bullet points should be at the top of the site, they are easy to scan. The bullet points can be on the pictures.. The top has to immediately offer what the company does as a service and where. Much of this is subliminal. They have to feel that you can HELP them. This is often better done with a minimalist layout. Large text and bullet points. We are still at the point where we are trying to CATCH the visitor within the first 10 seconds of them on the site.

I picture is worth a thousand words..The correct picture can convey so much.

Bullet points should be fashioned to promote positive answers, subconsciously we want the visitor to feel and think POSITIVE, so their experience on your site is positive.

The visitor should immediate recognize a person will help them, not an entity or corporation. People expect people to help them, so a person has to be clearly positioned on the top. This makes it personal. That is why we have Walmart Greeters.

After you got their attention and they feel you can help them, they might look around to learn more about you. We don’t want that. We don’t want them to go to your social media page to see what you look like or what others say about you. WE WANT THEM TO CONTACT You…

Since you can’t be sure of what page google might serve in its results, all the main service pages should adhere to this design.

After these basics are covered, the details are less important. For example colors (blue is a trustworthy color) can be more personal. The bottoms of the pages should be lots of text. Each page ideally should have 300 or more words. Keep in mind, most of the text is for google. You should write it for people, but most of your clients don’t want to read all about what you do. The ones who do read it all have no intention of paying you, they want to learn from you and do it themselves. The people who want to pay you, DO NOT want to read you content. They want to contact YOU and have you fix the problem. Don’t ever feel like you are loosing money from placing too much info online. If they read it, they weren’t going to give you money anyway…

I hope this helps… and if you have examples of what you like I can copy it…​I just want to encourage you to follow these concepts.