How to Claim and Optimise Your Pet Business Listing

A potential customer in your town is, right now, typing “dog groomer near me” or “kennels in [your town]” into Google. Whether they ring you or your competitor down the road comes down to a few things you control for free: whether your listings exist, whether they are claimed, and whether they are filled in properly. Most pet businesses get this half right. They have a Google profile someone set up years ago, a Facebook page with the wrong opening hours, and no presence on the directories pet owners actually browse.

This guide walks you through claiming and optimising every listing that matters, written for UK groomers, kennels, catteries, dog walkers, pet sitters and pet shops. It covers Google Business Profile properly (including the bit mobile groomers always get wrong), the review rules you have to follow under UK law, and how to build a wider listing footprint that sends you warm, local enquiries.

Start by getting listed on Pets Locally

Before you touch Google, claim your spot on the directories where people already browse for pet services. Pets Locally is a UK pet business directory: someone landing here is not casually searching, they want a groomer, walker, sitter, kennel or pet shop in their town and they are ready to enquire.

There are two situations. If we have already built a listing for your business (we are actively adding groomers and pet trades across UK towns), you can claim it so the details are yours to control. If you are not listed yet, you can request a new listing. Either way it gives you a relevant, pet-specific citation pointing at your website, plus inbound enquiries from people with buyer intent rather than a general directory full of plumbers and takeaways.

To get listed or claim an existing entry, get in touch through our contact page. It takes a few minutes and you control what shows.

A niche directory also does something a generic one cannot: it puts your name next to genuinely useful owner-facing content. If a dog owner is reading our guide on how to choose a dog walker or questions to ask a mobile dog groomer, they are exactly the customer you want, and you are one click from them.

Claim or create your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is the single most valuable listing you own, and it is free. It is what powers the map pack, the “near me” results, and the panel on the right of a Google search. If you do nothing else from this guide, do this.

First, find out what already exists. Search your business name on Google or Google Maps:

• If your business appears with a “Claim this business” or “Own this business?” link, click it. Google often auto-generates listings from public data, so one may exist without you ever creating it.
• If nothing appears, choose “Add your business to Google” and create it from scratch.

When you sign in, use the Google account you want to own this listing for the long term, ideally a dedicated business Gmail. Do not let a marketing agency claim it under their throwaway account, and do not use a personal email a former employee controls. Getting an owned profile back later is slow and painful.

Then confirm your core details exactly as they appear everywhere else you trade: business name, address, primary category, phone number and website. Precision here matters for the consistency point later in this guide.

Verify it: the methods and how long they take

Once you have claimed or created the profile, Google needs to verify you are the real business. There is one thing every owner needs to understand: you do not get to choose the verification method. Google picks it automatically based on your business type, location, public information and opening hours, and sometimes it asks for more than one. The full official rundown is in Google’s own help page, verify your business on Google.

The methods, with realistic timings:

Video recording has become the most common method for new profiles, so have your premises, signage or van ready to film. If your business is already verified in Google Search Console under the same email, you may be verified instantly. If you are given a postcard, do not edit your address while you wait, as that can reset the whole process.

Mobile groomers, walkers and sitters: hide your home address

This is the section most generic guides skip, and it is the single biggest mistake mobile pet businesses make. If you go to the customer and have no public shopfront, you are a service-area business: mobile groomers, dog walkers and pet sitters all fall into this category.

Here is the nuance. You still need a real, verifiable address to set up and verify the profile, and a home address is fine. But Google does not have to show it publicly, and for a home-based business it absolutely should not. Google’s guide to managing your business address sets out exactly how this works.

To set it up correctly:

1. In your profile, go to Edit profile, then Location.
2. Under Business location, turn off “Show business address to customers.”
3. Set the business to a service-area business and add the areas you cover.

You can add up to 20 service areas, and Google recommends keeping them within roughly a two-hour driving radius of where you are based. List them by town or postcode. The two failures to avoid are the extremes: leaving your home address visible to the public, or never listing your service towns so you never appear when someone in the next village searches. Spend ten minutes here and you fix the problem most of your competitors still have.

Pick the right category

Your primary category is the heaviest single lever on whether you rank for the right searches. Google uses it to decide which queries you appear for, so being specific beats being broad every time. “Pet service” tells Google almost nothing. “Dog groomer” tells it exactly who to show you to.

Use the real Google category names for pet trades:

You can add up to nine secondary categories, so use them to capture everything you actually do. A groomer who also boards dogs should set “Pet groomer” as primary and add “Pet boarding service” as a secondary. A kennels that also offers day care should add “Dog day care center.” Do not add categories for services you do not provide, as it dilutes relevance and can confuse the searches you show up for.

Fill in every field

Google’s own data shows complete, accurate profiles are around 70% more likely to attract visits to your location than half-finished ones. “Complete” means every field, not just the obvious ones.

• Services: this section is underused and it is indexable, so list every service with the words customers actually search: puppy first groom, hand-stripping, de-shedding, nail clipping, cat grooming, full board, day boarding, dog walking, drop-in visits. Each one is another phrase you can be found for.
• Description: you get around 750 characters. Write naturally about who you serve and what you do, with your real services and towns woven in. No keyword stuffing.
• Photos: before-and-after grooming shots, your premises inside and out, the team, and the van if you are mobile. Profiles with photos get more clicks and direction requests. Add new ones regularly rather than once and forget.
• Hours: keep them exact, including bank holidays. Wrong hours generate angry one-star reviews more reliably than almost anything else.
• Posts: a quick weekly post (an offer, a seasonal reminder, a new service) signals the profile is active and looked after.

If you run a kennels or cattery, the same care that goes into choosing a boarding kennel or cattery from an owner’s side is what your photos and description need to demonstrate from yours: clean runs, secure outdoor space, calm animals.

Get reviews the legal way

Reviews are the heaviest trust and ranking signal you have, and there is a hard line in the UK about how you collect them. You cannot offer money, a discount, a free product, or entry into a prize draw in exchange for a review. That breaches Google’s terms, and since the fake reviews rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force in April 2025, fake and incentivised reviews are explicitly illegal in the UK, with the Competition and Markets Authority able to enforce. “Leave us a five-star review for £5 off your next groom” is not a clever growth hack, it is a legal risk.

What you are allowed to do works better anyway:

• Ask every happy customer at the right moment, right after a finished groom, stay or walk.
• Use one clean review link. In your profile, go to “Get more reviews” and copy the short g.page link.
• Turn that link into a QR code and print it on invoices, collection slips or a card by the till.
• Send an SMS or WhatsApp with a one-tap link after the appointment. This converts far better than a verbal “we’re on Google.”
• Reply to every review, good and bad. A calm, specific reply to a complaint reassures the next ten people reading it more than the complaint itself worries them.

A charity donation per review is generally acceptable because it is altruistic rather than a benefit to the customer, but keep it neutral and never make it conditional on a positive review.

Build your wider UK listing footprint

Google is the priority, not the whole job. A scatter of consistent listings across the web reinforces to search engines that you are a real, established business, and each one is another place a customer might find you.

The core UK listings to build, mostly free:

• Google Business Profile
• Bing Places
• Apple Maps via Apple Business Connect
• Facebook Page
• Yell, Thomson Local, 192.com, Foursquare
• Pet-specific directories: Pets Locally plus options such as MyPetGroomer.co.uk and The Good Dog Guide

The one rule that ties this together is NAP consistency: your Name, Address and Phone number must be identical everywhere, down to the character. “Ltd” versus “Limited”, “St” versus “Street”, a mobile number on one and a landline on another, an old address with a missing suite number: these mismatches confuse search engines and erode trust. Surveys consistently find a large majority of consumers distrust a business whose contact details do not match across the web. Pick one exact format and use it on every single listing, including your own website footer.

For a fuller picture of pet-specific directories worth your time, BrightLocal maintains a free and regularly updated list of citation sites for pet services.

Turn listings into actual enquiries

A claimed, optimised set of listings is the foundation. The businesses that win locally then do a few simple things on top:

• Post your before-and-after grooming photos in local Facebook groups, where pet owners ask for recommendations daily.
• Build referral relationships with nearby vets and pet shops, and ask to leave cards.
• Keep the review system running so fresh reviews arrive every week, not in occasional bursts.
• Make sure your pricing is easy to find, since hidden prices lose enquiries. If you are unsure where the market sits, our guide to dog grooming prices in the UK gives a current picture.

Do the unglamorous setup once, keep the reviews and photos ticking over, and you stop competing on luck and start competing on visibility.

Frequently asked questions

How do I list my pet business for free in the UK? Start with a Google Business Profile, which is completely free, then add free listings on Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, your Facebook Page, Yell and pet directories like Pets Locally. None of these cost anything to claim, and together they form your core local presence.

How do I claim a business that is already on Google? Search your business name on Google or Google Maps. If a listing appears, click “Claim this business” or “Own this business?” and sign in with the Google account you want to own it. Google will then ask you to verify, usually by phone, video or post.

How long does Google verification take? It depends on the method Google assigns you, and you cannot choose it. Phone or SMS codes are often instant, video recording reviews take up to five working days, and postcards arrive within about 14 days and expire after 30.

Do I have to show my home address as a mobile groomer or dog walker? No. You need a real address to verify the profile, and your home address is fine for that, but you can switch off “Show business address to customers” and set yourself up as a service-area business listing the towns you cover instead.

Can I offer a discount in exchange for a Google review? No. Incentivised reviews breach Google’s terms and are illegal in the UK under the fake reviews rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Ask happy customers with a clean review link or QR code instead, with nothing offered in return.

Why is my business not showing on Google Maps? The usual causes are an unverified profile, a duplicate listing splitting your presence, a suspended account, or the wrong primary category. Check the profile is verified, search for and remove duplicates, and make sure your category is specific to what you do.