Dog breeder website design

Breedpost is a do-it-yourself platform for dog breeders to build, update and manage a professional website.

Whether you want to build a new site or transfer an existing site into our system, Breedpost offers endless possibilities.

We provide everything you need to manage your dog breeder website, including free continuous support throughout the lifetime of your subscription.

What makes us different from other website builders and dog breeder web design companies? 

First and foremost; our dog breeder website templates!

We have many beautiful templates and different styles to choose from.

They are modern and look great on all devices. 

We’re continuously designing and creating new templates to keep up with current trends.

And it’s easy to change your dog breeder web design when you’re using Breedpost.

We have clients that change their template design quite often to freshen up their website and to keep it modern.

There’s nothing worse than a tired and outdated website. It will not instill confidence or keep your visitors engaged on your website.

Secondly, Breedpost has built-in pedigree software, a blogging platform and a show results system.

Breedpost has been developed specifically for dog breeders to quickly and easily update and maintain their website by

• making it easy to create and publish pedigrees using our built-in software
• providing an easy to update breeding announcements system
• incorporating a fully functional blog and news section

And finally, our support.

We know that most dog breeders are not web designers.

The team here at Breedpost are not only web designers and developers but we are ex dog breeders and exhibitors as well.

We know that building and maintaining a website can be frustrating and difficult, so we do our utmost to provide the best support possible to breeders who are either trialling our product or are our clients.

Why not check out our client showcase to view some of our customers’ websites. 

Some have built their sites entirely themselves and others have taken advantage of our free website build or transfer.

Read on and see how Breedpost can help you communicate with your website visitors by designing beautiful functional websites that are user friendly, accessible and responsive.

All you need to do is provide the content. And what good is a great website design without great content? Not much.

Making a good first impression on your homepage

Have you ever visited a website and had no idea what is was about?

Website visitors don’t bother trying to find out either. They just leave and visit another site because online attention spans are very short and patience is low.

Our dog breeder website designs have been optimised to help you publish a homepage that

• attracts and engages your audience
• assists and educates your audience
• and invites them to make contact with you

Selecting a homepage hero image that underpins your website’s message

The hero image is the first element your visitors see when they visit your website.

It should consolidate your tagline and about text. It needs to underpin the message you’re trying to convey.

The image needs to be a good quality photo, in focus and compositionally suited for a website banner.

Breedpost makes it quick and easy to upload new images. 

The formatting and web optimisation is carried out automatically, so there’s no technical or graphic design skills needed.

So experiment with the homepage banner until you find an image that is perfect. It will make a big difference when people visit your site.

Optimising the homepage tagline for your visitors and search engines

The homepage tagline is one of the first elements a visitor will see when they visit the homepage, so it’s very important to get it just right.

It should be short and to the point, but clear about who you are and what you do. For example,

• Breeding top quality Border Collies for 30 years
• Showing and breeding champion Pugs
• Top winning Pembroke Corgis in Canada

Your tagline will depend on your website’s purpose and your target market.

For example, you may be a breed promoter, educator and influencer. Or you may be a heavy exhibitor and big winning kennel.

You would therefore optimise your tagline to reflect your goals as a dog breeder and show dog exhibitor.

The tagline is also the H1 (heading one) tag on your page. What is this?

The H1 tag is the most important heading on a web page. It shows search engines what this page, the homepage - in this case, is about.

Optimising your H1 tag (tagline on your homepage) may help improve your search engine rankings.

Writing an about excerpt that encourages visitors to read more about your kennel

The about excerpt should expand on your tagline. It should be brief and to the point.

Make a list about the most important things that you would like to convey. Then construct a couple of sentences that encapsulates these together.

Then cut the sentences to try and make them as concise as possible without sacrificing descriptiveness. For example

• Border collies
• Top winning
• Australia
• Breeders
• 20 years

This could be as simple as

“Breedpost kennels has been breeding top winning border collies for over twenty years in Australia. We always breed from selective stock to improve the breed and have provided many happy owners with quality dogs.”

A first time visitor is highly likely to want to find out more about you and now you’ve provided them a quick and easy way to do that in under a couple of seconds.

A news section makes it easy for visitors to keep up-to-date with your kennel

All of our dog breeder website designs display the most recent blog posts on the homepage automatically.

If you’re not utilising the blogging platform, although we encourage that you do, then this section simply does not display.

The blog post title, date, image, excerpt and read more button are displayed making it easy for visitors to click through to an article directly from the homepage.

This also encourages online engagement as visitors can immediately ascertain that your website is active and maintained.

Improve your marketing and communication by publishing a fantastic second level hero image

Our dog breeder website designs publish a second level hero image that is displayed further down the homepage.

This breaks up the homepage, makes it more balanced and gives you the opportunity to use imagery to further market your dogs, breeds and achievements.

Featuring dogs on your homepage

Featuring dogs on the homepage is a great way to get visitors to start clicking through your website.

It’s easy to feature dogs in this section. All you need to do is select which dogs you’d like to display and the information automatically publishes to the homepage. This includes their

• pedigree name and titles
• image
• excerpt and link to their individual dog page

How to optimise the about section and about pages for your website visitors

Anyone that’s interested in you, your dogs and your kennel will read your about page(s). There’s absolutely no doubt about that.

You should start with one about page, probably a generic About Us page. This page is the most important and you should spend time formulating some great content. You need to get the point across and it should encompass

• who you are
• what you’ve done
• what you want to achieve

Breedpost does not limit you to one about page. Theoretically you can create unlimited about pages but we recommend a maximum of six and if you must, eight.

Each about template encompasses

• title
• text
• image or an image gallery

Some examples of about pages that may be relevant to dog breeders and show dog exhibitors are

• About Us
• About Border Collies
• Border Collie Breed Standard
• Our Breeding Practices
• Our Kennels
• In the Show Ring

These pages should be written with your website visitors in mind. Be succinct, use short paragraphs, sub headings and bullet points to make the pages easy to read and scan.

When I was researching for a registered purebred companion dog, I diligently read about pages.

I really wanted to know as much as I could about the breeders and this information helped me identify who to contact in the first instance.

So, I recommend working hard on the about section so

• your visitors are informed about you and your dogs
• your website engagement improves
• you can improve the likelihood of repeat visitors

Consider using the image gallery function to underpin the information that you’re delivering.

Creating breeds and publishing dogs. The core of your dog breeder website design.

Now to the main purpose of your website. The dogs!

How the breed listing page works

Each time a new breed is created, a new page is subsequently created to ‘house’ all the dogs.

This is automatically generated and formatted. All you need to do is name it.

You should upload a custom banner into a breed section, especially if you have more than one breed. If one is not uploaded, then the homepage banner will be shown instead.

Each breed page is essentially a listing page that makes it easy for visitors to find and view individual dog pages. Each list item, ie a dog, includes

• dog’s pedigree name and titles
• dog’s photo
• an excerpt and link to the individual page

It is easy to manage this section. When you add a new dog, the breed listing page is updated automatically.

Dogs are ordered alphabetically by default. However, you can order the dogs manually in the administration area.

Some breeders may prefer their current or biggest winning dogs appearing at the top of the breed listing.

It is also possible to separate males and females into two different sections. This is recommended if you’re publishing quite a few dogs, although it’s not necessary.

A closer look at the individual dog templates

Because the individual dog pages encompasses quite a bit a information it was challenging to present these well, ensuring an optimal viewing experience for visitors.

Therefore each dog page has been broken up into four main sections to make it easier to navigate. These are

• General information
• Pedigree
• Critiques
• Show Results

These sections only display if data has been entered. For example, if there are no show results or critiques, then these two sections will not be visible.

General information

This section should be completed with as much data as possible. All of the dog’s information is displayed here and comprises of

• pedigree name and titles
• call name
• date of birth
• sire and dam
• coat type/colour
• owner, breeder and handler
• descriptive text about the dog
• image gallery
• listing of any articles the dog has been tagged in (automatically generated)

Visitors will appreciate you providing comprehensive information about each dog here. 

Our website designs may display this information differently, but each design ensures that this information is easily accessible and easy to read.

Pedigree

How important is a dog pedigree on your dog breeder website?

I think it’s very important. It will help improve your credibility as a breeder and in turn, help promote registered purebred dogs.

Pedigrees can be displayed with either three or four generations. Our built in dog pedigree generator makes it easy to manage and output each pedigree.

Each dog is displayed with their

• titles
• pedigree name
• coat type

If a dog in a pedigree is also published on your website, their pedigree name will link to their own individual web page.

The pedigree designs are mobile friendly. It is difficult to output a pedigree in a small narrow space, so a horizontal scrollbar is used on some phones depending on their screen resolution.

Critiques

Dog show critiques are entered into the show results system. But these will also publish automatically to the critiques section on a dog’s page.

Critiques include

• dog show name and date
• critique
• judge
• link to that show result page

Show results

Show results are entered into the show results system and are listed on a dog’s page automatically.

They are displayed in date order, listing the latest results first.

Each show result list item comprises of

• highest award
• link to that show result page
• show name
• show date

An easy-to-use built in show results system to publish show results on your website

It is time consuming to publish show results on a website using free form text.

It is also difficult to display the results consistently and format them so they are easy to read.

That’s why we developed an inbuilt show results system into the Breedpost platform.

Publishing show results on your website should be important to dog breeders and exhibitors.

Show results enhance your online credibility as a breeder because the dogs have been independently evaluated and awarded.

When you publish a show result, a new web page is created specifically for that result.

Show results pages are accessible from a dog’s page in the show results section.

A show results page consists of

• show name and date
• dog pedigree name, titles and link to the individual dog page
• critique (if applicable)
• awards
• judges
• image gallery

The image gallery function was added to the show results template so you can publish photos of that dog specifically from that show day. Why not, since everyone’s taking heaps of photos on their phones nowadays anyway?

Using the article template to create pages using the powerful blogging platform

I think all dog breeders should blog. I think they should share their expertise with the world and in turn help to promote purebred dogs.

That is why we incorporated a blogging platform into Breedpost.

Blog listing pages templates

Like the breeds section, blog listing pages are generated automatically.

The main listing page displays the most recent blog posts in date order.

Category listing pages display blog posts in date order from that particular category.

Each list item, ie a blog post, comprises of the following

• article title
• article excerpt
• article category
• article date
• link to article

Blog article templates and how they improve your news delivery

Article templates are designed to make it easy for visitors to read posts on mobile, tablets and desktops.

They are also very easy to create and publish. We hope this encourages more dog breeders to blog and therefore disseminate their expertise online.

An article starts with your title. This is your H1 tag, so it should be descriptive and succinct to

• let your visitors know what your article is about
• help improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The first paragraph of your article is also published on listing pages. So this should be a short paragraph that’s succinct and descriptive.

A blog post can be as long as necessary. It could be a short news update of 300 words or a long form blog post of 3000 words.

The article page consists of

• Title
• Date
• Category
• Copy (text)
• Image or image gallery
• Related
  • Dogs
  • Show results
  • Litters
  • Articles

The related section makes it easy to list and link to dogs, show results, litters and other articles that may have been mentioned in the blog article.

Announcing and advertising litters

The litters section has been design to make it easy to add, update and edit litter announcements.

Publishing photos throughout the first 8 to 10 weeks should be easy. Who doesn’t like to check out baby puppy photos?

We’ve made it simple to create new photo albums that photos can easily be published into. And this is available on each litter page!

This means that every week a new album could be created and published. A new album can be created every day, if you’re that way inclined!

Like the dog templates, the pedigree generator is used to publish a litter pedigree quickly and easily.

Rehoming, gallery and contact pages

There are three other main sections available in our dog breeder websites, rehoming, gallery and contact pages.

The rehoming section provides a place for information about your rehoming practices and any dogs that need a new home.

The gallery enables the creation of unlimited albums, typically organised by topics for the publication of unlimited photos.

The technical and design aspects that improve dog breeder websites

There’s more to our web design templates than aesthetics and organising the content on the page.

Other factors such as navigation, SEO and usability have also been considered to ensure the design and function of the dog breeder website designs are of high quality.

Using principles of good navigation

The navigation structure has been predefined to make it easy for visitors to move around the website.

Best practices have been applied when designing the navigation structure. These include

• consistency
• familiarity
• simplicity

Many dog breeder websites have cumbersome and confusing navigation structures making it difficult for visitors to find what they need quickly and easily.

The dog breeder website designs all have the following structure. Unlimited pages can be published within this structure so as not to limit page volume or content delivery.

• About
• Breeds
• Blog
• Gallery
• Litters
• Rehoming
• Contact

These main navigation labels can be renamed to suit the dog breeders website. However renaming the main labels should apply the following principles.

• conciseness
• descriptiveness
• clarity

Website speed and how it affects visitors and search engine rankings

There are many factors that affect the speed and performance of a web page.

When websites are slow loading users tend to abandon the site. Why not? There are plenty more to choose from.

Not only will visitors abandon your website, Google will penalise websites that load slowly and therefore affecting search engine rankings.

Optimising images to decrease website load time

Optimising your website images is important as this can considerably decrease the load time of websites.

As photos (and lots of them) are an important element for dog breeder websites it was crucial that these were optimised efficiently and easily for publishers.

Therefore images are optimised automatically when they’re uploaded into Breedpost.

This makes it easy to upload large size images, for example, high resolution photos without having to carry out any formatting.

Using GZIP compression and code minification to increase page load speed

All of our dog breeder website designs utilise server GZIP compression and code minification.

Using these technologies also improves a website’s load time.

Improving readability with good typography

Good website typography is very important for readability, communication and professionalism.

Bad typography can make an otherwise decent website seem unprofessional, hard to read and unable to hold the attention of an audience.

Our dog breeder website designs typically utilise only different fonts on a website. One type for headings and another for the body text.

The designs have been optimised for readability and some important typography principles that have been considered throughout the design process are

• colour and contrast
• vertical rhythm
• size and space

Using https for better SEO and security

All of our dog breeder websites use https rather than http. What is https?

It is a more secure way of people connecting to your website.

It was originally only used for passwords and sending payments. But now the whole web is moving towards using it.

Google may also give preference to https websites over http websites in their search engine rankings.

It should be easy to publish dog breeder websites

Dog breeder websites need to be built specifically for breeders and show dogs.

There’s functionality and design elements that apply specifically to breeders and exhibitors websites. The main elements to note are

• pedigrees
• show results
• litters

We have designed templates and developed a content management system to make it easy to publish, update and edit dog breeder websites.