Weekly Website Wednesday - Week #1
Don't wait
I’d like to start doing a weekly website post offering up tips for anybody considering starting their own kennel website. This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for a long while but never felt like I had the time to sit down and type out a weekly post. I still doubt I have the discipline or number of topics to stick with it more than a few weeks, but let’s see how it goes. To quote one of my favorite authors, J.R.R Tolkien, it’s the job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.
Week #1 Tip
If you’re considering starting your own kennel website because you have a litter of puppies on the ground … don’t, you’re much better off listing them on Gundog Central or some other established classified website. A website isn’t some magic bullet, it’s not going to instantly generate traffic, it takes time for people to find your website and create interest in your dogs. If you want to start your kennel website because you have a few puppies to sell, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. A website isn’t a short-term selling tool, it’s a long-term investment that when done right can generate interest in your kennel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I can generally deploy a new NetKennel website in a few minutes, that’s purchasing the domain name, allocating server space, and uploading my software to the server, but it still takes time to personalize those websites and make them yours. It can also take a while to get your new website listed in the most popular search engines, Google, Yahoo, Bing. From the time your puppies hit the ground to when they’re ready to go to their new home, there just isn’t enough time for your website to be created, get ranked, and start generating traffic.
The age of your website can also play a big role in where your site ranks in the search engines. Considering the majority of your traffic will come from the search engines, it pays to plan ahead and start your website ASAP. The longer you have it, the better off you are. There are exceptions to this rule. You can always advertise, buy keywords, run banner ads, and/or network on social media to boost traffic to your new site, all things I can help you with, but they cost money $$$ … search engine traffic is free and who doesn't like free advertising.
About Me
Some of my tips may come off sounding like a sales pitch, that’s not my intent. I want to offer sound advice to anyone considering starting a kennel website, either through me or someone else. I believe offering up this advice sets expectations while giving you a road map to success. Who am I offering up such advice? I’ve been building kennel websites for over 20 years, first through Gundog Central and now as NetKennel. In that time, I’ve built several hundred websites, currently hosting over 180 dog-related websites, mostly kennel related, and manage over 300 domain names. I have personally designed and programmed my own content management system for building kennel websites using the same proven technology as Facebook, Wordpress and Wikipedia.
