Summer is often the busiest and most profitable season for pet businesses. With families traveling and kids out of school, there’s a greater need for dog walkers, pet sitters, and in-home pet care. While it’s easy to focus on managing schedules and hiring, your website is just as important for bringing in new clients during this busy time.
Your website is usually the first place potential clients learn about your business. If it loads quickly and has up-to-date information, pet owners will feel confident and valued, making them more likely to choose your services.
According to Pet Sitters International, pet ownership continues to rise across North America, increasing the demand for professional pet care services. At the same time, IBISWorld reports continued growth within the U.S. dog walking industry as more households rely on professional pet care to support their busy lifestyles. These trends make it more important than ever to ensure your website is working efficiently before seasonal demand reaches its peak.
Why April and May Are the Best Time to Prepare
Waiting until June or July to make website updates often means trying to fix problems while your calendar is already filling up. During your busiest months, you should be focused on caring for clients rather than troubleshooting broken forms or updating service pages.
Getting your website ready in the spring gives you time to spot problems, improve its performance, update key details, and test everything before bookings pick up. It also gives search engines a chance to notice your updates before summer search volume increases.
Treat your website like you would prepare your business for holiday travel. The sooner you get ready, the smoother things will go when demand rises.
Make Sure Your Website Loads Quickly
Speed is important. Pet owners today expect websites to load right away, especially on their phones. If your homepage takes too long to load, many people will leave before it even loads.
Large image files, outdated plugins, unnecessary scripts, and poor-quality hosting can all slow down your website. Every extra second a visitor spends waiting increases the likelihood they’ll leave before learning about your services.
Test your website’s speed in the spring so you have time to fix images, update software, remove extras, and make it load faster before things get busy. If you need help, consider hiring a professional to ensure your site is ready for summer.
A fast website gives visitors a better experience and can also help your site show up higher in search results.
Review Your Booking Process
Setting up a simple, reliable booking process now helps you feel ready and confident to deliver a smooth experience for clients when they want to book.
Try looking at your website as if you’re visiting for the first time. Can you find the booking form quickly? Is the contact button easy to spot on every page? Do the forms only ask for what’s needed, or do they ask for too much before someone can request your services?
Extra steps make things harder for clients. Aim to make it as easy as possible for people to reach out when they’re ready to book.
By testing your forms now, you can ensure you receive notifications every time someone submits an inquiry.
Update Your Service Area Pages
Many pet care businesses gradually expand into new cities, neighborhoods, or communities but never update their websites to reflect those changes.
Service area pages are key for local SEO because they show visitors and search engines where you work. If these pages are out of date, you could miss out on showing up in local searches.
Check each location page to make sure city names, neighborhoods, postal codes, and service details are current. If you’ve added new areas, now’s a great time to make pages for them.
Having accurate service area info helps avoid confusion and cuts down on questions from people outside your coverage area.
Refresh Your Summer Availability
Summer schedules can be very different from the rest of the year. Some businesses add extra services, while others get fully booked weeks or months ahead.
Your website should reflect seasonal changes.
If you have limited spots during long weekends, special holiday hours, or blackout dates, make sure that info is easy to find. If you’ve hired more staff or can take more bookings, let visitors know too.
Providing current availability helps set realistic expectations and encourages clients to reserve their dates before your calendar fills up.
Double-Check Your Contact Information
Outdated contact information is one of the simplest website problems to fix, yet it remains surprisingly common.
Take time to verify every phone number, email address, contact form, business hour, and social media link on your website. Then compare that information with your Google Business Profile and other online listings to make sure everything matches.
If you receive a Premium monthly report from Pet Biz Reports, you can check it quickly and easily. Their Citation Tracker pulls in citation information from across the web, putting it right at your fingertips so you can find, fix, and track local citations.
Local SEO citations are important for establishing domain authority. Keeping your info consistent across all online channels builds trust with clients and improves your local search rankings.
It’s a good idea to send yourself a test message through your contact form to make sure inquiries are going to the right place.
Add Seasonal Content
Fresh content tells both visitors and search engines that your website is active and well-maintained.
Spring is a great time to post articles that answer common summer questions from pet owners. Topics like vacation pet care, hot-weather safety, getting pets ready for boarding, midday dog walks, and heatstroke prevention are especially helpful now.
Seasonal blog posts also help you show up for important search terms and show clients you’re a trusted local expert.
Updating older articles with new information can also help them perform better before summer traffic picks up.
Review Every Call to Action
After someone reads a page on your site, it should be clear what they should do next.
Every key page on your website should encourage visitors to take action, such as requesting a consultation, booking a meet-and-greet, contacting you, or booking services.
If visitors have to look for what to do next, they’re more likely to leave without reaching out to you.
Clear calls to action help guide visitors through your website and make it more likely they’ll become clients.
Experience Your Website Like a New Client
A great way to spot problems is to look at your website as if you’re seeing it for the first time.
Try opening your site on your phone and pretend you’ve never seen it before. Is it clear what services you offer? Can you easily find your prices or service area? Is the navigation simple? How long does it take to ask for more info?
Business owners often miss small frustrations because they know their websites so well. Seeing your site from a client’s point of view can help you find ways to improve and get more bookings.
Don’t Forget Ongoing Website Maintenance
Getting your website ready before summer is important, but keeping it updated during the season matters just as much.
Regularly updating software, checking security, making backups, maintaining plugins, and testing performance can help you avoid problems during your busiest months.
When you’re busy with appointments, the last thing you need is a broken website, a contact form that doesn’t work, or a security problem that takes your site down.
A good maintenance plan keeps your website running smoothly so you can focus on caring for pets and helping your clients.
Be Ready Before the Summer Rush Arrives
Summer brings great opportunities for pet businesses, but your website needs to be ready for the extra demand. Fast-loading, up-to-date service area pages, accurate contact info, current availability, and an easy booking process all help provide clients with a better experience.
Instead of rushing to make changes when you’re already booked, use April and May to finish your website’s summer checklist. A little effort now can mean more inquiries, more bookings, and a smoother summer for you and your clients.
If maintaining your website feels like one more task on an already busy schedule, Barketing Solutions can help. Our Monthly Webmaster Plans keep your website secure, up to date, and performing at its best year-round.
If your site is due for a refresh, our Website Design Packages are designed specifically for pet businesses looking to attract more clients and convert more visitors.
You can also learn why dependable hosting matters by reading our guide, “Why Pet Businesses Need Professional Website Hosting,” and discover how the right foundation helps your website perform at its best when your business needs it most.
Erika Godwin is the President of Barketing Solutions and the Co-Founder and CMO of ProPet Software, an industry-leading kennel management software. Erika has over 8 years of experience with WordPress and graduated from Elmira College in 2009 with a BS, Business Administration- Marketing and Management. View Erika’s Full Bio.
