Google-kicked in the teeth

Recently I was chatting with a pet business owner who told me that his biggest problem – the thing that kept him up at night – is his website’s Google rankings.

Apparently he had been the #1 search result in his niche for a long time… Until 2018, when everything changed overnight thanks to a phuck-up by his tech guy. And now Google’s kicked him back to page 3, under Amazon, Walmart, the big pet retailers, and so on.

He’s spared no expense in trying to claw his way back up to that coveted #1 spot. Hired no end of self-proclaimed SEO experts to turn his struggles around. But none of it has helped.

But do you know what I found most interesting?

He doesn’t even get most of his business from SEO, and he never did. Almost 80% of his business comes from repeat customers and referrals.

What’s more, he barely does anything to encourage those repeat customers or referrals – he only emails his list once a month.

So while he’s seething over his lost search ranking… and has decided to make fighting for it his priority in 2025… he’s completely ignoring the low-hanging fruit staring him in the face. He could probably book himself solid if he started emailing his list more often. Not to mention, building a proper referral system to get them predictably rather than randomly.

But. I don’t blame him for it.

Because he’s not even close to being alone in his obsession. I’d estimate 95% of business owners focus too heavily on the front end (bringing in new customers) while completely neglecting their backend (selling to former customers). Even though the backend is where all the money is made.

As for that 5% of savvy business owners who know better?

They are not beholden to Google, or any other algorithm. They can legally “print money” whenever they want, simply by firing off a new email campaign to their list.

And if you wanna learn how to do that for your pet business, then sign up for my newsletter by clicking the button below.