Before a buyer ever contacts you, they've already judged your cattery based on your website. In 30 seconds, they've decided whether you're professional or amateur, trustworthy or sketchy, worth $3,500 or not.
Your website is your most important marketing asset. Here's what it must have — and what you can safely skip.
The 6 Pages Every Cattery Website Needs
1. Homepage
Your homepage has one job: make a strong first impression and direct buyers to the right next step. It should include:
- A clear headline that says what you breed and where you're located
- One or two beautiful photos of your cats
- A brief statement of what makes your program different
- A clear call to action: "View Available Kittens" or "Join the Waitlist"
- Trust signals: TICA registration, health testing, years of experience
Keep it clean. Buyers who land on a cluttered homepage leave immediately.
2. Available Kittens
This is the page buyers come for. Each kitten should have a name, a photo, a short personality description, their status (available/reserved), and their price. Keep it updated — nothing destroys trust faster than a "reserved" kitten that's been listed as available for six months.
3. Future Litters
Show buyers what's coming. Include your breeding pairs, expected dates, and a way to join the waitlist for upcoming litters. This page keeps buyers engaged even when you don't have kittens available right now.
4. Our Parents / Our Cats
Buyers want to know who the parents are. Include photos, names, health testing results, and pedigree information for each breeding cat. This page builds enormous trust — it shows you're serious about your program.
5. About Us
Tell your story. Why do you breed Maine Coons? What drives your program? What are your values? Buyers are choosing a person, not just a kitten. Make them feel like they know you before they ever reach out.
6. Contact / Waitlist
A simple form with the right fields (see the waitlist system post in this blog). Your phone number and email. Your response time policy. Make it easy to reach you.
What to Cut
- Autoplay music: Immediately unprofessional. Cut it.
- Excessive text on the homepage: Nobody reads walls of text. Use photos and short, punchy copy.
- Outdated information: Old litters, old prices, old kittens. Keep everything current or remove it.
- Too many pages: You don't need 15 pages. Six strong pages beat fifteen mediocre ones.
- Stock cat photos: Use your own photos. Always. Stock photos signal that you don't have real cats to show.
What Buyers Look For (In Order)
Based on how buyers actually behave on cattery websites:
- Photos — are these cats beautiful and well-cared for?
- Available kittens — is there something for me right now?
- Price — can I afford this?
- Health testing — are the parents tested?
- About the breeder — do I trust this person?
- Contact — how do I reach them?
Design your site to answer these questions in this order. Put your best photos front and center. Make pricing easy to find. Make health testing prominent. Make contact effortless.
Building or Improving Your Site Without a Developer
You have two good options:
- GoDaddy Airo: AI-powered website builder that creates a professional site from a description. You can build and manage it entirely from your phone. This is what powers dashingcoons.com.
- Squarespace or Wix: Template-based builders with good mobile apps. More manual but very capable.
Use ChatGPT to write all your page copy. Describe your cattery, your values, your program — and ask it to write your homepage headline, your about page, your kitten listing descriptions. Then paste the copy into your builder.
A professional cattery website is achievable in a weekend, from your phone, for under $20/month in hosting costs.
The Bottom Line
Your website is working for you 24 hours a day. It's answering buyer questions, building trust, and collecting waitlist applications while you're sleeping, feeding kittens, or at your day job.
Invest a weekend in getting it right. Update it regularly. And let it do the heavy lifting so you don't have to.