Would you like to build your own charity or pet care website? This post is for you. Like any other niche, pet websites facilitate interaction with users, and that makes it easier to donate, volunteer, or purchase goods online. So whether you own a pet shop, veterinary, or a pet grooming website, you’ll likely boost sales and increase the revenue.
Great news for beginners! In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to create a pet sitting website for shelters or animal welfare, even if you have zero experience in coding.
Of course, we’ll need some instruments:
- The latest versions of WordPress & Gutenberg
- One solid Gutenberg theme
- A couple of WordPress plugins
And if you are not sure whether Gutenberg is any good for building professional websites, I am here to debunk the doubts. While the default WP editor is becoming user-friendlier with every new update, there appear tons of awesome Gutenberg themes & plugins.
New to Gutenberg? Learn how to use the WordPress block editor with this guide.
Today we’ll speak about Adoptix – the only Gutenberg template by Gutenix created primarily for animal welfare and pet sitting websites.
Adoptix – Best Gutenberg Pet Template (by Gutenix)
Before we move on to our pet theme, let me clarify a few details about Gutenix. This multipurpose WordPress theme provides 47+ starter site designs for various business niches and website types (portfolio, eCommerce, etc). Besides Gutenberg, you’ll find templates for the Elemento & Brizy page builders.
When it comes to speed and lightweightness, Gutenix is the best WordPress theme for Gutenberg. It has a 96% score in Google Speed Insight.
More Features of Gutenix:
- Supports Gutenberg, Elementor, and Brizy
- ZeGuten Gutenberg Blocks included for FREE
- Advanced design options
- WooCommerce ready
- Free version available
Adoptix is a PRO Gutenberg WordPress theme created primarily for animal welfare organizations and pet shelters. But also, it makes a great match to pet boarding services, pet care & training centers, pet shop websites, etc.
The Adoptix design features a balanced but vibrant color palette, readable fonts, and well-placed CTA elements. Each of the 5 pre-built pages helps you somehow represent your mission, and gain credibility among site visitors.
View Adoptix Demo
Now let’s see how Adoptix can help us build a pet company website…
How To Create A Pet Adoptable Website In Gutenberg?
Just one WordPress pet theme is not enough to launch a website. The good news is, WordPress makes it easier to get started.
These are 6 major steps for launching your pet website in WordPress:
- Define the site type and your content. Will it be a pet service, sales platform, or a charity website for collecting donations?
- Register a domain name.
- Acquire web hosting and choose one of the suitable hosting plans (shared, dedicated, VPS, etc);
- Acquire an SSL certificate.
- Install WordPress on your hosting account (most web hosts offer automatic app installation). The Gutenberg editor is installed by default.
- Upload the theme in .zip format to your WordPress theme directory (Appearance => Themes). After activation, start configuring blocks in the editor.
- Add other plugins. They can be used to improve the security of your site, improve performance, or even add extra features.
Define The Type & Topic
Start with the right niche. Would you like to build a pet charity organization, a blog, a pet sale website, or a service platform?
And if you want to develop an animal charity resource, would you like it to be just a news outlet or a platform for collecting donations? These questions will help you define the mission of your platform and fill it with the needed functionality.
This is when you can outline the ultimate website goal. Do you want to boost your income, raise funds, or just spread the word about your pet organization? Whatever goals you are going for, make sure they are consistent.
Finally, think of your target audience. Who will likely click and surf your website? Depending on your target audience, you’ll be choosing the right format, style, and suitable content.
Register a Domain Name
The domain name will represent your brand, so make sure it reflects the company or the idea behind one.
Use a short and unique name – those are easy to write and remember. You don’t want to lose visitors just because they can’t remember your domain. If you struggle, try domain name generators – they will generate dozens of available domain names.
Don’t forget that NPO organizations typically have the .org ending instead of .com (or local domains).
Acquire Web Hosting
Hosting is an ever-functioning server (computer) that will host your site. Good hosting means stable uptime parameters 24/7, and a quick response rate.
The most affordable hosting type is shared hosting, often used by owners of new websites who don’t need much storage space.
When the site is growing to more than a thousand visitors a day, it makes sense to switch to a dedicated or VPS hosting plan. Both are suitable for heavy-duty professional web resources.
Not only do you need to choose the hosting type but also find the best hosting provider. Here is what you need to consider:
- The volume of resources. What is your growth plan for the next year?
- Uptime time. Make sure your hosting guarantees this.
- Support service. In case of downtime, support should help you solve the issues instantly.
- Easy to use. The control panel should be user-friendly and easy to navigate.
- Relevant plan. You don’t want to pay money for hosting that doesn’t meet your needs.
Acquire an SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate allows you to encrypt the entire process of exchanging information between the site and the user. This shared data becomes inaccessible to third parties, system administrators, and even providers.
SSL certificate is a must-have if your site contains confidential data: logins and passwords, banking information, and personal data.
The good news is, you can find a free SSL certificate in the admin panel in almost all hosting providers.
Install WordPress
If your hosting does not support automatic WordPress installation, you can easily do it yourself.
- Download the latest version of WordPress on its official website (it’s free).
- Once it’s downloaded, unpack the archive.
- Upload the extracted files to your hosting using one of the FTP clients (for example, FileZilla) to the public_html folder or to the root directory of your domain.
- After the upload, create a database. Go to the MySQL databases section on your hosting control panel and click “Create database“. Think of a database name and a password – you’ll need them in further steps.
- Now link the database with the files uploaded to the hosting. The database stores all site settings, posts, pages, and other data.
- To connect the storage location of our future posts with the site skeleton, specify the database name, username, and password in the wp-config.php file (the same data as for your database).
- Write down the website name in the browser’s address bar, and it will automatically transfer you to the my-site.ru/wp-admin/install.php installation page. There you’ll need to specify the remaining settings, such as the site name, login + password, and the admin’s e-mail.
The installation is complete!
Upload The Theme
Before you launch your site, you need to make sure it looks and works well. If you are interested in more solutions, this is our roundup of best free & premium Gutenberg themes.
If you are looking for a Gutenberg solution for pet hotels & boarding centers, try Petotel. The theme includes a premium Hotel Booking system allowing users to reserve a boarding unit directly on the website.
Whichever pet theme WordPress you choose, here’s how you may upload a theme to your dashboard.
You can do it in two different ways.
The first one is when you go to the admin panel, select “Appearance – Themes“, and click “Add New”. Type in the name of your preferred theme in the search bar, click “Activate”:
Note that this library of WordPress templates library contains free solutions only. If you want to upload purchased software (like Adoptix from Gutenix PRO), use the second method.
Download the theme file to your computer (must be a .zip archive). Go to the section “Appearance – Themes – Add – Upload Theme”. Drag the file to choose it from your PC. Wait until the installation is complete and then, activate a template:
On the WordPress sidebar, you’ll see the new Gutenix Wizard tab. In the Welcome tab, choose either Gutenix FREE or PRO (use the received license key):
The wizard has tabs with information on your license, Gutenix theme version & backups, a list of available start sites, Gutenix & recommended plugins, a user guide, and an option for the content export/import:
When you install Gutenix with or without a child theme, and you will see the tab with pre-designed starter sites. Find Adoptix and click Install:
The Gutenix wizard helps you lets you install additional plugins like ZeGuten, and Contact Form 7.
Choose if you want to add demo content to your existing content or replace your content with the new.
The final part is regenerating thumbnails. And voila, Adoptix is ready to use!
How To Edit Adoptix?
Even if Adoptix comes with ready-to-use content, you will need to re-edit some parts to your own needs. Hopefully, Gutenberg simplifies this editing process with every update.
All Adoptix elements are blocks: they can be easily removed, replaced, or enhanced.
If you are new to Gutenberg, it will not take a long time before you figure out the principle of block customization. And if you are a skilled player, you can easily redesign the template from a pet adopting resource to, let’s say, a pet supermarket website.
Add Other Plugins
Plugins are not included in the WordPress system by default. But users need them for some important reasons like:
- Security (Wordfence Security, Keyy Two Factor Authentication)
- Spam protection (Akismet)
- SEO (Yoast SEO, All in One SEO)
- Increased functionality & usability (WP Super Cache, Contact Form 7, WooCommerce)
If you make a top pet website in the WordPress editor, you can use plugins to enhance the Gutenberg functionality. Just use one of the many blocks collections.
Getwid Gutenberg Blocks
Getwid is a FREE library of 40+ Gutenberg blocks that serve more advanced customization needs. With Getwid, your pet product website will acquire a dozen of elements to represent data in a visual manner – from beautiful sliders to vibrant headlines.
Getwid is a must-have in your plugins arsenal. These are universal blocks suitable for all website types. They are perfectly interplayed with each Gutenberg plugin and all core blocks. Each block provides advanced tweaks for more exquisite styles and configurations. But at the same time, inline editing is simple and clear for every beginner.
Which Getwid Blocks To Use For A Pet Website?
- Section block – works as a container for multiple blocks in one section;
- Media & Text Slider – for homepages or galleries;
- Post Grid & Post Carousel – to display blog posts in the most convenient way;
- Contact Form – to collect basic user data;
- Content Timeline – to include a timeline of events & accomplishments;
- Progress Bar Blocks – to demonstrate the progress of donations in percentages;
- …and many more.
Read more about the potential of Getwid blocks in this post: How to Enhance the WP Block Editor via One Gutenberg Plugin?
Just remember, you better make smart plugin choices! Even if there are so many cool plugins, too many extra plugins can be harmful to your site performance.
To avoid this mistake, make sure you know which goals and tasks you want to cover with your webpage.
If you need an create a pet seller website, focus on eCommerce plugins. If you offer pet care service (grooming) and you want to attract visitors online, let them book an appointment and pay for it directly from your website.
Conclusion:
You have created and configured an animal shelter, animal welfare, or any kind of pet supplies website using the Adoptix Gutenberg theme WordPress. You also learned how to new functionality and edit content with extra plugins.
The hardest and most responsible job is ahead. To attract more traffic, you must produce high-quality content, from basic SEO optimization to creating valuable blog posts.
