Building the public page for your pet shop

A shop page gets read in two different ways. The first is a confirmation search: the person already knows you and wants to know whether you are open right now. The second is a discovery search: they do not know you, they are comparing two or three options and deciding in ten seconds which one deserves a phone call. Both readings need the same information but in a different order, and a well built page satisfies both without forcing anybody to scroll.

Publication stays blocked while essential fields are missing, and the screen lists exactly which ones. This is not bureaucracy: a page without opening hours or without a contact detail does more damage than no page at all, because visitors read it as a shop that does not work. The list is closed and can be taken in at a glance in the missing data section.

The total is under an hour of focused work, and it should be done in one sitting. A page filled in pieces across three days stays blocked and nobody remembers what was missing: the missing data list is visible, but only if someone reopens the page to look at it.

1. 1

   Write the name people know you by

   Use the name people say out loud when they talk about you, not the registered company name. The legal name, if it is needed, belongs in the contacts or at the end of the description.

2. 2

   Generate the page address from the shop name

   The screen proposes an address based on the shop name. Accept it if it reads well, otherwise shorten it: a short address can be dictated over the phone, a long one cannot. Only lower case letters, digits and hyphens are allowed.

3. 3

   Write a description that could only be yours

   The minimum is forty characters, but the real test is different: if the same description would fit any other shop, it says nothing. State what you sell, for which species, and the one thing you do better than the shop down the road.

4. 4

   Add the opening image

   The field takes the address of an image already published online: there is no file upload. Choose a photograph of the actual shop rather than a generic animal picture, because the first one helps people recognise the place when they arrive.

5. 5

   Fill in the full physical address

   Street and number, town, postal code, province or region and the two letter country code. This is the block that lets someone decide whether you are reachable without opening another application.

6. 6

   Enter at least one direct contact

   Phone, email or website. If you only add one, add the phone: between two nearby shops the one that can be called immediately almost always wins.

7. 7

   Fill in the hours day by day

   Each row is a day with an opening and a closing time, and you can add more than one slot per day if you close at lunchtime. A day with no slots reads as closed: that is correct, but check it, because a forgotten day is a declared closure.

8. 8

   Add services with name, description and price

   Every service takes a name, a description, a price and an optional image. The description is the part that converts: saying what a service includes and how long it takes is worth more than any adjective.

9. 9

   Choose the products to feature

   Featured products are a selection, not the catalogue. Put the ones that set you apart or that people genuinely look for, and leave the rest to the shopping area: a page with forty products is read by nobody.

10. 10

    Select the languages served and check the preview

    The page will exist only in the languages you select. The preview shows exactly what a visitor sees: read it top to bottom and stop at the first question you cannot answer from it.

11. 11

    Save and switch publication on

    Until you publish, the page does not exist for visitors. If the switch is blocked, the missing data section names the field still outstanding. After publishing, open the page as a stranger would and check that everything sits where it should.

Opening hours are the most consulted and the most neglected piece of information. Wrong hours do not produce a complaint: they produce a person standing in front of a closed shutter who never comes back, and you will never learn it happened. They deserve to be treated as operational data with declared maintenance, not as a field filled in once.

• Fill in all seven days, including closing days: a day left empty reads as closed and that is only fine if it really is.
• If you close at lunchtime, use two slots for that day instead of declaring continuous hours you do not keep.
• Update summer and winter hours on the day they change, not the week after: that is exactly when people check most.
• Before a public holiday check the whole week, because unusual closures are the most frequent cause of wasted journeys.
• If grooming or order collection runs on different hours, write it in the service description rather than in the general hours.
• Have the hours checked by somebody who did not write them: whoever filled them in reads what they meant, not what is there.

The page takes a list of services and a list of products, both with name, description, price and an optional image. The price can be left out, in which case the page marks it as on request. That is a legitimate choice for services that depend on the animal, but using it everywhere turns the page into a silent list.

The right number is low. Four to eight services and six to twelve products cover almost any shop: enough to show the breadth of what you do and few enough to read in thirty seconds. The selection deserves a review twice a year, featuring what the season actually calls for rather than what was decided on day one.

The languages you select decide in which language versions the page exists: in the others it simply is not there. Selecting every available language is no advantage if the text stays in one: a page that promises one language and shows another drives away exactly the people it was trying to reach. Choose the languages you actually speak at the counter.

The page address is the part that ends up in messages, on leaflets and in answers given over the phone, so decide it once and leave it alone. An address changed after publication leaves behind every old reference pointing nowhere.