If you’re a fellow dog owner looking to share your doggie knowledge with the world, then it just might be time for you to start your very own dog blog.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start!
We’ve consulted with some experts on the topic to help get you pup-pared to start your very own dog blog.
How To Get Started
First things first – you need a name for your blog and you need to register that as a domain name somewhere like Namecheap.
Now, before you go register a domain, keep in mind that you’re also going to need to pay for web hosting and plenty of web hosts offer you a FREE domain with a hosting plan purchase.
Namecheap also offers dirt cheap hosting that is perfect for beginners. This is a great place to start your new dog blog.
Once you get your web hosting and domain squared away, you’ll need to install WordPress and get ready to start publishing content.
Growing Your Dog Blog
Below are some tips from our contributors on growing your dog blog.
First, find an exciting sub-niche in the dog general niche and, if non-conventional, even the best, like, for example, puppies, senior dogs, pregnant dogs, dog apparel, specific breeds, specific dog foods, specialized dog treats or toys, senior dog havens, and many others with possible low competition.
Your profile: Ideally, you will have some relationship with the dog niche (veterinarian, veterinary technician, dog groomer, trainer, walker) or own dogs yourself. If you are out of the professional dog sphere, don’t get discouraged, as you can always hire writers with experience with dogs. But, at least you should be comfortable with the dog niche.
Concentrate not only on your content but schedule monetization ahead of time. Plan your content around the monetization methods, such as advertising, affiliate marketing, or selling products. This part should not be neglected and should come first before starting to create your dog content. Excellent dog brands are potentially willing to advertise on your site, and there are fantastic dog affiliate programs to explore.
Create every post based on your monetization plan (without compromising quality). Concentrate on high-quality dog content. All content should add value to the dog community and will attract backlinks organically (I thought this was impossible but had gotten great backlinks from authoritative sites without asking for them). Anyways, when you do backlink campaigns, people considering granting you backlinks will check your website to see how good your content is.
Get the site indexed by registering your website at Google Search Console (https://search.google.com/search-console/about) so that Google robots and algorithms can start considering your page to appear in the Google searches.
A piece of more general advice: Do a thorough planning process and start setting up and making your dog website go live as soon as possible.
Step into the shoes of a pet owner, try to write with what they’d like to know for pet parenting. Try to imbibe your personal experiences instead of textbook stuff. Please see if you can carve out content buckets like – pet care, Puppy 101, senior dogs, dog food, travel etc. This would not only help you draw inspiration for new posts but would keep a steady flow of content calendar that you can adhere to for SEO and posting frequency.
Create engaging and readable paragraphs. As you jump in and begin writing your first blog, one very important tip is keeping things digestible for the reader. A page full of small text all gathered together into one large paragraph is going to drive your readers away. The best way to keep your audience engaged is to make the article as simple as possible. Short sentences, smaller paragraphs with proper headings and subheadings will improve the reader’s ability to navigate and enjoy the content you’re creating without becoming overwhelmed. Proofread your article upon completion to see if any changes can be made to correct mistakes or just improve the text.
As early as possible, opt for newsletter signups so that the latest blog posts etc. can be shared and also to have a repository of your reader base, in case down the line you launch a book/product.
Register your blog’s social media handles.. A community approach to pet blogs really goes the distance and brings in new readers.
Another way you can gain readers for your dog blog is to reach out to other dog blogs and ask if they would like you to write a guest post for them. Post content about dog breeds, training or law regarding animals
Try opting for a podcast version for your blog as well as pet parents typically like to listen while on the walk with your pets or while commuting. This would also give you an additional avenue to reach a new audience.
Learn as much as you can about SEO. The primary source of traffic for most dog blogs is Google. Once you know how to build a blog and create new posts, learn as much as you can about SEO before you start writing a lot of new blog posts. Start with free resources such as podcasts from The Blogging Millionaire or Authority Hackers, or YouTube beginner SEO videos from AHREFS or MOZ. I recommend you invest a minimum of 20 hours to learn about SEO before you start writing new content for your blog. It’s better to learn first and get things right from the start.
The most fundamental advice is to be sureyou are enthusiastic about dogs. Knowledgeable helps, but enthusiasm is the rocket fuel which will enableany dog blog to take off.
This take-off is not going to happen straightaway and is going to take a lot of energy and hard-work before things begin toshift in an upwards direction.
The first part is having thecommitment to write between 10 to 50 information blogs that could potentiallydraw readers to your site. If you arewriting a general site about dogs expect to be towards the upper end of thisscale. If you are thinking about nichingdown to, for example, dog food or dog training, you will need to spend timedoing some keyword research to ensure that this niche has enough potential keywords and affiliate marketing to succeed in the long term. For this use keyword research tools such asAhrefs, Semrush or Ubersuggest to ensure there are keywords for which a newsite could potentially rank. Also makesure that there are at least 3 newer sites with lower authority (this ismeasured against how many other sites link to them).
Whether you are going generaldogs or a niche, try to plan ahead so that these blogs are ‘linked’rather than just writing randomly. Thisis called ‘channelling’ and means your blogs will all contribute to a reader’sunderstanding of one area of dog interest. For example if your first blog focused on ‘Howto train a puppy to heel’, your second blog might explain ‘How to train a puppyto sit’. This makes things easier foryou in that your research for each blog will add a depth to your understandingin this channel. It also makes it morelikely that readers will click from one blog to another ensuring internettraffic flows around your site (this is known as ‘link-juice’). Additionally, one of the metrics Google usesis how long users remain on your pages and site generally, so this will helpwith your initial rankings.
Once you have written yourinformation blogs, the engine may have begun to fire, but you will have a longwait until your website gets off the ground. This is when you are stuck in something called the Google Sandbox. This means at the early stages you will needto gradually build up traffic and encourage people to link to your society tobuild the ‘authority’ you will need to rank in Google searches.
This is where your enthusiasm will be needed to sustain your interest and dedication as it will take some months before your traffic appears and begins to grow. Without any immediate results you will need the determination to keep writing and expanding the content on your blog. This is the point where many give up, don’t let that be you. In short, be like a proverbial dog with a bone.
Join dog communities and groups on sites like Facebook, Reddit, and Quora, and engage or answer some questions people have. People will seek out your blog because they’re blown away by your insightful conversation – you’ve proven your experience and value, so they’ll likely want to naturally visit your website. Of course, if you’re careful you can also include links to your content when appropriate and allowed (never spam a group!)
Find what makes you unique. Basic dog blogs are a dime a dozen, so focus on ways you can stand out. Do you have a specific breed of dog you raise? Is there a certain dog sports you’re focused on? Are you raising a specific type of therapy dog? Finding your niche within the dog blog community will allow you to better stand out from the pack!
Our contributors:
- Abhishek Joshi, Dog With Blog
- Hafiz Muhammad Ali, Omnicore
- Pedro M. Aponte, DVM, Ph.D., Animal Hackers
- Rene Langer, Pick HVAC
- Skye Parker, Farm Country Goldens
- Jeff Webster, Clicks Marketing
- Nicolas Mottet, Senior Tail Waggers
- Mark Wilcox, Camping Forge
- Cindy Kelly, Regis Regal German Shepherds
- Jack Shepler, Ayokay
- Meg Marrs, K9 of Mine
- Alex Williams, The Website Flip
- Sam Campbell, reddiquette
- John Medina, John Medina Buys Houses