The symptom
The site gets visitors from Google and Instagram. The phone still rings with "how much for a cockapoo" and "do you have space next week", and the online booking count is low. Owners who visit the site are not booking from it. On pet business sites we review, the cause is on this list, usually several at once. Check them in order.
1. Prices do not answer the owner's actual question
Owners want to know what it costs for their dog: breed, size, coat. A single "from £X" or "prices on request" sends them to the phone or to the groomer whose site has a table.
Fix: prices by size and coat as a matrix on each service page, matching your platform's pricing, with a note on what moves it (matting, behaviour, add-ons). Editable by you.
2. Book is not one tap away on a phone
Owners search from the park. If the Book button is in a menu, or opens a contact form, or goes to a platform page where they must find you again, most have gone.
Fix: a Book button in the header on every page, deep-linked to your platform's booking with the service pre-selected, and a tappable phone number beside it.
3. The site takes four seconds
Photo-heavy pet sites on cheap hosting. Count on mobile data, private window.
Fix: images sized and compressed, the hero prioritised, gallery lazy-loaded, sliders removed, decent hosting.
4. There are no photos of your actual premises
Owners are handing over a family member. Stock photos of golden retrievers tell them nothing about your kennels, your play yard, your grooming table, your van, your people. Without a tour they phone to ask, or they choose the daycare that showed them.
Fix: a premises page with real photos of every space an animal will be in, the team with their own pets, and the routine of a day. A photographer for a morning, or a good phone in daylight.
5. Vaccination and consent are handled after booking, by phone
An owner books, then gets a call asking for vaccination records and a signed consent form, or arrives to fill in paperwork. It feels disorganised and it delays the first visit.
Fix: the platform's intake flow captures pet profile, vaccination uploads and consent at booking, and a "what we need before your first visit" page tells owners in advance.
6. There are no service pages
"Dog groomer [town]", "puppy daycare", "cat boarding", "dog walker [area]" are separate searches. One Services page with a list ranks for none and tells the owner nothing about how you groom a nervous dog or what a daycare day looks like.
Fix: a page per service: what it involves, who it suits, the price matrix, how long, what to bring, photos, FAQs, Book pre-selecting it.
7. Nervous owners are not reassured
First-time daycare and boarding owners worry: will my dog be safe, will they be with aggressive dogs, who is there overnight, what if they are ill. A site that does not answer sends them elsewhere.
Fix: a first-visit page: assessments and trial days, group sizes and matching, supervision ratios, overnight arrangements, vet relationships, how you handle illness, updates and photos during the stay. Honest and specific.
8. Nobody knows what the site produces
Without booking clicks, calls and enquiries by page, you cannot tell which of the seven is the problem.
Fix: events for booking clicks, call taps and form submissions by page and service; the platform's new-client source report; a monthly look.
The order
Items 1, 2 and 3 are the path from an owner's phone to a booking. Items 4, 5 and 7 are trust. Item 6 is how strangers find you. Item 8 is how you know.
Where this sits
This is the conversion checklist every pet business website we build is tested against and the first half of a diagnosis on an existing one. Most pet sites fail at least four; the price matrix and the premises tour are the two fixes that change the phone calls fastest.