Think about the main goal of your dog training business website before you build it 

As you are a dog trainer, your primary focus will be getting more clients. So it makes sense to have this as your primary goal for your website.

If you like to have prospects book a call with you, then this needs to be what your website pages need to direct people to. 

For example – you could have a button at the top right corner of your website (header section) that says ‘Book a call’.

Do some market research

You don’t need a social media audience to do this. This could be chatting to past clients and asking them what would be helpful to see on your website.

Ask them to join you for 30 minutes maybe in return for an incentive like a coffee voucher in return for their time. Market research always gives me surprises and little amazing insights that I never predicted and I think it’s essential at all stages of your business. 

Some possible questions to ask: 

• If you were looking for a dog trainer where would you go to do that? 

• What do you do to get dog training help? Do you consume content online? If so what? 

• What would you like to be able to do on my website? 

• Are there any amazing trainer websites you’ve seen? Why did you like it so much? (share this question with them in advance and then you can discuss their suggestions on the call)

• Was my booking process easy? What was good? How do you think I could improve it? 

Develop clarity around your ideal client 

This is so important for any business. Your ideal client determines what text you use, what images you use, and how your website looks. 

I find it helpful to ask myself questions around my ideal client. I also journaled on it too and created a long description based on the answer to my questions. 

My answers were based on people I’d enjoyed working with in the past, or been inspired by, so think about what brought you the most joy and satisfaction. 

For you, the dog and the owner will be the ideal client, but you will need to think about what the owner is like, as you will be creating the messaging for them. 

So for example, if you want to work with fearful dogs with reactivity on the leash, your ideal client would be the anxious dog. 

Describe the dog. 

Then think about what the owner is like. What they do. Challenges they face when they take their dog on a walk. Where does your ideal client live? In the town? Countryside? 

What do they do for a living? Does this impact on their time? 

You could model this on a real person, or a mixture of a few people. 

Often the ideal client comes out as very similar to us, so don’t be surprised if this happens! 

We tend to attract similar people anyway. 

If you have the budget, get brand design done by a professional brand designer 

The way your website looks can tell people things about your dog training business’s values, philosophy, and how you do things. 

Do you want it to look bold and modern? 

Or do you prefer a luxury look? 

Related post – 10 Best Dog Trainer Websites in 2024

Each look communicates a slightly different thing and a great brand designer will take what you want to communicate and bring it to life via colours, fonts, imagery and how they all interact with other across your website, social media, and any communication you send out like emails. 

If you are hiring a website designer, the brand designer will have a quick meet with your designer to go over the key points before the designer builds the site. 

Brand designers can cost between £1000 and £5000 depending on their experience. 

One superb brand designer I recommend and have worked with is Alison Boote, especially if you want a luxury look for your dog trainer website. 

Click here to find out more about Alison and her brand design services 

What to do about brand design if you have a tiny budget for your dog trainer website

If you don’t have the budget yet for a brand designer yet, Sarah Masci has a mini-course for only $27 that will help you create your brand logo and then build out your brand too. 

Click here for more details 

If you have the budget, get the text for each page (copywriting) done by a professional copywriter

Having been an email copywriter in the past, I’m very familiar with the copywriting process.

One of the things a website copywriter will do is to dig deeply into your ideal client. Some will even take time to interview them, so the text on your dog trainer website attracts your ideal client and gets them to take action. 

I have two recommendations for you on this – 

Debs from the Copy Sprite, specialises in UX copywriting, which means that she’s always looking at how to get people to take the easiest path to book with you on your website. 

She creates clear and compelling copy and I highly recommend her services. 

Find out more about Debs here 

Recommendation two is Ami Bolt, who is another absolute dream to work with. She brings magic to the words and loves working on websites like this. 

Find out more about Ami here 

What to do if you have a tiny budget for the text on your dog training business website

There are two ways to handle this. Firstly, when you are looking for a designer, ask them whether the price for building your website includes help documents for writing your website text. It could be they do, and this will just mean you need to write the words yourself and ensure they are ready for an agreed date with your website designer. 

If the designer doesn’t offer this kind of resource, another resource that I recommend has been created by highly successful website copywriters Maha Copy. It contains so many prompts, which will make it easier to write your 4 main website pages. (Home, About, Services and Contact page)

Find out more about the Write Your Site workbook (affiliate link) 

Design specific tip – Ensure your designer includes calls to action all the way down your pages

This is when your designer has created the first draft of your website for approval. Go through each page and take a look at whether there are enough opportunities for people to click through to what you want them to do. 

Review your main website goal. Here’s an example. 

Was your website goal to book more free consult calls?

Look at each page with this in mind and see if there are easy opportunities for people to do this. 

Buttons are great because they stand out. 

Are there enough buttons in your opinion? If not, it’s your website, so be specific and ask for more included. 

Do they stand out? Is there enough space around them that people will see them? 

Final thoughts 

I’ll leave you with one thought. Don’t rush over the work about your ideal client. It’s the most important part in my opinion. 

With everything you do towards your website, it’s important to have your ideal client in mind, so you can look at each part you need to create and build it to intentional serve them in the best way possible.