What the site is actually being paid to do
A dog walking website has an unusual job. It has to persuade a stranger to give you a key to their house and a member of their family, before they have met you. Then it has to state a price per walk, confirm that you cover their street, and book the meet-and-greet that starts the relationship. The bands below are what the market charges to do that properly.
Band 1: a social profile and a link in bio
A Facebook page, an Instagram grid of muddy spaniels, and a WhatsApp number.
Cost: nothing.
You get: enquiries from people who know someone who knows you.
You do not get: a domain that ranks for dog walking plus your town, a price per walk that an owner can read at eleven at night, area pages, your insurance and vetting stated where a nervous owner will actually see it, or any way to book a meet-and-greet without a conversation.
Right for: the first few months, while a round is being filled by word of mouth.
Band 2: a builder template, $600 to $2,000
A Squarespace, Wix or WordPress theme with your logo, a photo of a border collie, an about paragraph and a contact form.
You get: something presentable at your own domain.
Usually missing: a price table that separates group walks, solo walks and puppy visits; area pages for the villages and suburbs you actually cover; walking windows stated so out-of-hours enquiries stop; insurance, DBS or equivalent checks, canine first aid and references in one place; a meet-and-greet booking rather than a form; hosting in your own name.
Right for: a walker who is full and wants a business card at a web address.
Band 3: a purpose-built dog walking website, $2,000 to $5,000
Built around how an owner chooses a walker. Prices per walk as editable records: thirty and sixty minute group walks, solo walks, puppy and senior visits, bank holidays, packages of four or five walks a week. A trust page carrying insurance, vetting, canine first aid and references, with a sample visit report shown. Area pages for the places you cover, with the walking windows on each. A meet-and-greet booked online rather than requested by email. Regular walks and billing handed to Time To Pet, Pet Sitter Plus, Scout or Precise Petcare, with the site explaining what the owner portal does. Real photographs of you, your van and the fields you use. Google reviews near the buttons. Fast on a phone, structured data, tracking, everything in your name.
You get: a site that is found locally, prices the walk before the phone rings, filters out the enquiries you cannot serve, and books the meet-and-greet while you are out on a round.
Not usually included: photography and copy unless the quote says so.
Right for: an established walker or a small team who want new regular clients from search rather than referral alone.
Band 4: a team, home boarding or franchise, $6,000 and up
Several walkers with their own areas and calendars, or walking attached to home boarding, sitting or daycare, where the site sells two services that answer to different rules. Add a recruitment page: staffing is the constraint once the round is full.
After launch
- Hosting: managed WordPress at $20 to $50 a month, or often free on a framework host, in your name.
- Domain: small, annual.
- Pet care software: whatever you already pay Time To Pet, Pet Sitter Plus, Scout or Precise Petcare, usually a monthly fee that scales with clients or staff.
- Maintenance: a care plan at a modest monthly fee, which is where prices, areas and photos get kept current.
- Photography: a couple of hours on a real walk, with owner permission for the dogs. Photos of you with dogs you actually walk beat anything else on the site.
Where the band 3 money goes
- The price list as records, so group, solo, puppy visit and package prices are all separately stated and editable by you in January.
- The trust page, gathering insurance, checks, first aid, references and a redacted sample visit report in one place.
- Area pages for each village, suburb or postcode group, so local searches land somewhere specific.
- Walking windows stated on every area page, which is what stops the school run enquiries you cannot take.
- A meet-and-greet booking, tested on a phone including the Instagram in-app browser, going into your calendar rather than your inbox.
- The handover to your pet care tool, explained so owners understand the portal, the visit reports and the monthly invoice before they sign up.
- Speed, local search foundation and tracking of booking taps and calls by page.
Judging a quote
Ask six things. Are group, solo and puppy visits priced separately, and can I edit them myself. Is there an area page per place I cover. Is insurance, vetting and first aid on its own page or buried in About. Does the meet-and-greet book into a calendar or land in an inbox. Are the photos mine or bought in. Whose name is the domain and hosting in. A quote with no answer to those is a template quote whatever the number says.
Where this sits
Our dog walking business websites sit in band 3 at a fixed price, with the price list, the trust page, area pages and meet-and-greet booking included, and the wider approach is on the pet business page. If you are in band 1 or 2 and still typing your prices into Facebook Messenger every evening, the number to weigh against a rebuild is how many of those conversations turned into a weekly walk.