683 – Own Your Digital Property with an Optimized Website
Own Your Digital Property with an Optimized Website
Matt Stelter from Better Breeder Institute with one of his collie puppies.
Matt Stelter from Better Breeder Institute joins host Laura Reeves for a LIVE@5 live podcast about SEO and how to optimize your website.
“Somewhere along the line, conservation dog breeders took on the mindset that they should not be marketing themselves, apparently because it’s just something that for profit or commercial breeders do,” Stelter said. “However, nothing could be further from the truth. It is a limiting belief that harms our conservation breeder community. And puts us at a disadvantage.
“Conservation breeders have failed to make themselves visible. They failed to plant their flag in the ground and they failed to market themselves. Sharing the tremendous value and the story that our purebred dogs possess. We have hid our light under a barrel and given the antis and the doodle mania a free pass to indoctrinate the general public.
“Ask yourself, would you rather rent or own an asset, be it a home, real estate or even a vehicle? When you spend money on paid online advertising or social media, you are investing good money and effort as well on rented digital property and renting is generally a poor long term financial decision.
“If and when you stop paying for it, the traffic stops instantly. My recommendation is that you never spend money on rented digital real estate. Puppy marketplaces, paid online breeder directories, and social media are all rented real estate that you unfortunately. Will never control. The number one strategy to get more and better puppy buyers is an optimized website. A website is owned real estate that appreciates in value and performance over time.
“Facebook has changed dramatically over the past 15 years, and it no longer works the way it used to. All the while, the power of an optimized website has continued to increase. An important fact to realize is that while ideas and inspiration may start on social media, most purchases begin on Google.
“When a prospective puppy buyer starts looking for a breeder, just like with any other important purchase, the grand majority are going to start with a Google search. There’s a famous quote from Jimmy Wales who is the founder of Wikipedia and he said if you are not on Google you don’t exist. And it really is true when it comes to selling puppies.
“It is Google’s world and to be successful, we need to be playing in it. And I can tell you what puppy buyers won’t find at the top of Google your Facebook page. An optimized website is simply the strongest digital asset a breeder can have. It is owned digital real estate that is yours, and its value and performance are going to appreciate over time if managed properly.”
589 – 5 Simple Strategies for Improved Websites
5 Simple Strategies for Improved Websites
Jo Stern, ecommerce and technology specialist
Ecommerce and technology specialist Jo Stern joins host Laura Reeves with five simple strategies to improve your website, reach potential new homes and make the first page on Google.
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is essentially what you are building into your website to make you more findable on the Internet when you are talking about thousands upon thousands of people searching for you as a breeder or your puppies,” Stern said.
“Or they’re just looking into information about breeds. You want to make sure that your website is easy to find, especially if you’ve got litters on the ground and you’re trying to sell puppies, or you’re trying to advertise your studs, or you know you want to connect with other people in the same breed. You want to get your name out there.
“It’s your ability to make yourself appear on the first page of Google. That’s the end goal is when somebody searches your name, your breed, your state, you show up first, and that’s the end goal of what you’re doing.
“(There’s) a little bit of reluctance because technology is scary. But I think it’s also not exactly their fault because it’s very difficult. It’s very convoluted. Google makes it difficult on purpose because they don’t want people to game the system.
“There are different pieces of this puzzle that is SEO. It seems a lot of breeders are missing pieces of the puzzle because that technology is so hard and that education just really isn’t out there. There’s not a lot of layman’s terms education on how to build your website effectively. How you get your name out there. So there’s a lot of guesswork. But I think there’s a lot of things, a lot of strategies that breeders can employ.
“The first thing, is they need to Google themselves. They just need to pull their kennel name. Just go search yourself and see where you show up on Google. See how hard it is to find yourself in Google. If you can’t type in your kennel name, your breed or your state and find yourself, that’s a problem.
“If you’ve got a website that you’ve built and you have not maintained, you haven’t gotten any up-to-date content or you haven’t made any changes, how people can find you? Google likes addresses, they like locations.
“As a pet buyer, I’m not talking about show buyers and people who are very savvy, they’re going to be searching their town, they’re going to be searching their state, they’re going to be searching literally “golden retrievers near me,” as that’s a search function of Google.
LINKS:
Listen to the full episode for more of Jo’s great suggestions. Or contact her at Joannahstern@gmail.com for consultation.