With so many of us stuck at home this year, that number is on the rise—sparking greater search demand for the establishments and activities that cater to Hong Kong’s furry companions, like pet-appropriate restaurants, indoor spaces, and hotels.

Here, we use Dragon Metrics (a global SEO tool) to examine Hong Kong’s top 3 pet-friendly search terms to discover how your product or service can rank for them on Google.

Pet-Friendly Search Trend 1: “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants)

Monthly Search Volume: “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants)

Searches on Google Hong Kong for “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants) have risen significantly since May 2020. The term recently peaked at 1,000 monthly search volume (MSV) in April 2021—when Hong Kong’s government relaxed its social distancing measures for restaurants.

As of May 2021, “寵物友善餐廳” had an MSV of 480 searches.

Monthly search volumes for “寵物友善餐廳” on Google HK 

Top 10 Search Results: “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants)

Dragon Metrics lists the sites currently occupying the top 10 SERP results for any keyword, alongside other ranking data, including:

• Page authority (PA)—out of 100
• Domain authority (DA)—out of 100
• Backlink volume for each domain

Using Dragon Metrics, let’s observe who ranks on the SERP for “寵物友善餐廳”.

Dragon Metrics: Top 10 SERP results for “寵物友善餐廳”

As you can see, online media publications, blogs, and social media sites predominantly occupy the top 10 results for “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurant). This owes much to their ease of use, helping pet owners compare reviews of different restaurants by KOLs and fellow pet enthusiasts.

Given their low to moderate PAs (between 7 to 59), you can outrank these sites for “寵物友善餐廳” by reviewing pet-friendly restaurants in different parts of the city—so that there’s a recommendation for every pet owner no matter where they live in Hong Kong.

Pet-Friendly Search Trend 2: “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for dogs)

Monthly Search Volume: “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for dogs)

Summer temperatures in Hong Kong often exceed 36°C, so people naturally search for indoor dog-friendly establishments to avoid the scorching heat.

As such, searches for “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for dogs) have varied based on season—peaking at 480 MSV in June 2020 and remaining high during the summer months.

As of May 2021, the MSV for “狗狗好去處室內” was at 210 searches, which will likely rise as we near the warmer days of July and August.

Monthly search volumes for “狗狗好去處室內” on Google HK

Top 10 Search Results: “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for pets)

Dragon Metrics: Top 10 SERP results for “狗狗好去處室內”

The SERP for “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for pets) comprises online media publications, 3 video results, several blogs, and an ad—all with low to moderate PAs (between 1 to 59) and varying DAs (between 1 to 96).

Therefore, there is potential to break into the top 10 results for “狗狗好去處室內” by producing on-location walk-throughs and guides of your pet-friendly indoor spaces.

Pet-Friendly Search Trend 3: “Pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong”

Monthly Search Volume: “Pet friendly hotels in Hong Kong”

With international travel halted, many Hongkongers have indulged in staycations.

For pet owners, however, the need to care for their companions makes overnights stays away from home logistically challenging.

As such, MSVs for “pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong” rose steadily over the past 12 months—peaking at 720 searches in September 2020. As of May 2021, the term had an MSV of 590 searches.

Monthly search volumes for “pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong” on Google HK

Top 10 search results: “Pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong”

Online travel sites (OTAs), blogs, and ads occupy most of the top 10 results for “pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong”, but you’ll also notice some prominent SERP snippets like:

• 4 ads (at the top)
• Hotel results (at the top)
• 3 FAQ results at positions 1, 5 and 9
• 4 ‘People Also Ask’ results at position 7

Dragon Metrics: Top 10 SERP results for “pet-friendly hotel in Hong Kong”

Having your site rank as a rich snippet significantly improves your SERP visibility and website traffic compared to your competitors.

Common examples of snippets include FAQs, reviews, sitelinks, map results, and more.

Dragon Metrics tracks over 30 types of these on Google, which are distinguished by the icons on its SERP results overview—like the question marks or text bubbles under the ‘Type’ column.

According to Dragon Metrics, questions like “which hotels have no pet fees?” and “what is the most pet-friendly hotel chain?” also exhibited high search frequency.

Dragon Metrics: ‘People Also Ask’ section on the “Pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong” SERP

As such, you can break into the top 10 results for “pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong” by creating captivating, well-researched content that tackles these frequently asked questions.

At the same time, optimizing content with structured data and adhering to Google’s best practice SEO guidelines can improve the likelihood that your result will rank as a SERP snippet.

Despite not guaranteeing that your result will rank as a SERP snippet, structured data optimization will still help Google better crawl your content and serve it to the right audience.

How to target the right pet-related search term

Once you have a set of pet-related target keywords, Dragon Metrics’ keyword research tool can help prioritize the keywords for which you have the best likelihood of gaining traffic.

The platform uses these metrics in its assessment:

Keyword difficulty

Keyword difficulty measures the backlink strength of sites ranked on page 1 of the SERP and reveals how many backlinks it takes to rank in the top 10 results.

Organic CTR

Organic CTR measures how much of page 1 results are made up of ads, rich results, and various SERP features. This illuminates the percentage of clicks that go to organic results and helps you de-prioritize keywords that generate results below the fold.

Priority

Priority is an aggregate score—made up of search volume, keyword difficulty, and organic CTR—that reveals a keyword’s organic traffic potential. Lower keyword difficulty and higher search volume and organic CTR make for a higher priority score.

Dragon Metrics: Keyword overview for “寵物友善餐廳”.

Dragon Metrics: Keyword overview for “狗狗好去處室內”

Dragon Metrics: Keyword overview for “pet friendly in Hong Kong”

Based on the Keyword Overviews generated by Dragon Metrics, all three keywords display low organic difficulty, with “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for pets) being the easiest to rank for with the fewest quality backlinks.

“寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants) has the highest organic CTR at 95%, signifying that its SERP mostly comprises organic results. This also indicates that users generally find the ads and results on the first page useful and relevant to their search.

Finally, Dragon Metrics gave “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants) the highest priority score of 81, followed by “狗狗好去處室內” (good indoor spaces for pets) at 71 and “pet-friendly hotels in Hong Kong” at 62. Therefore, “寵物友善餐廳” (pet-friendly restaurants) is the keyword with the best-ranking likelihood due to its low keyword difficulty and higher organic CTR.

***

From pampering hotel experiences to pet-friendly restaurants, pet owners in Hong Kong are searching in greater numbers than ever before for local activities to experience with their beloved furry friends.

And as we discovered through Dragon Metrics, the growing pet-related search demand derives much of its momentum from owners reading blogs, scouring reviews, asking questions, and booking pet-friendly experiences online.

So make sure your pet-friendly destination shows up when they do!

Pro-Tip: As The Egg’s sister company,  Dragon Metrics is a proprietary tool developed as the first truly global SEO platform that provides rank tracking, onsite optimization reports, link management, keyword research tools, and more for search engines around the world. In this article, we look specifically at Dragon Metrics’ prowess on Google, but Dragon Metrics works for all of the world’s major search engines, including China’s.