The Emotional SEO of UK Dog Food Brands
Why I trust my dog’s food brands as much as I trust my own
As you might have seen, I’m a freelance food and drink copywriter and SEO expert for UK brands.
Sure.
But what does that mean for you, then?
Well, recently, I’ve wanted to show you what it means for you by talking about some brilliant brands, how they’re killing it in the world of food and bev, and what you can learn from them too.
M&S have done it again with their amazing food marketing
For example, I wanted to talk about M&S’s new approach to challenging the challenger brands, with their amazingly bold and bright cooking ingredients, confectionery and snack selections. But as food and drink designers like Jon Richards rightly say, it’s the dopamine packaging that really makes those products sing on the shelf. And, although M&S is one of the only food-to-go brands I really enjoy (food snob alert!), overall, as a national food brand, it doesn’t light a fire in ma belly.
Upon mulling this over, I’ve realised the brands that actually excite me are
🍰 Niche products that appeal to my personality, like retro School Cakes
🧀 Single products that shine on the shelf (have you tried those manchego and olive crisps by MANOMASA?! Ooof they’re good!).
💙💛 Sussex and South Downs food and drink that’ve been produced on my doorstep
🐶 And very, very often, the brands that excite me are dog food brands
So here are 3 UK dog food brands who have emotionally SEO’d their way into my heart
Brand 1: Lily's Kitchen (tinned wet food)
About this UK-based, B-Corp pet food brand
Lily’s Kitchen is my go-to brand for my dog, Peggy Mitchell’s holiday food. I buy their grain-free, full-of-real-ingredients wet food especially for when we go away to holiday cottages in the UK, and for Christmases and birthdays. Peggy also enjoys their Bedtime Biscuits with chamomile, and she has one every night, getting so excited about them, she drools in her bed. (Oh my, but she’s a very special, spoilt little girl!)
What I loved first about this brand was their beautiful, thoughtful artwork - each product type having its own label style.
The naming of each product is the clever bit – Fish and Chips, Sunday Lunch, Wild Campfire Stew, Fishy Fish Pie, Great British Breakfast, Cottage Pie, Lamb Hotpot – all evocative of fun times, away days and indulgent meals.
How to make dog food branding work: sell to the owner!
The human-facing names evoke a shared occasion; while the dog gets a delicious and nutritionally complete meal, you feel good that this is a special meal for your best mate.
More than that, even though I’m massively spoiling my dawg, it’s not patronising, "whistling dog advert" (shudder) energy. I love my dog because she’s a dog, not a baby. If this food had a soundtrack, it’d be more I Love My Dog by Cat Stevens than Who Let the Dogs Out by… whoever the hell did that one.
These lovely tins have become part of our holiday ritual with Peggy. And in the end, it’s not really about the food; it’s about her being part of the trip.
Peggy is a yellow Labrador eating a W’Zis dog food brand treat next to a thank you message to them from her owner
Brand 2: W'Zis dog treats
About the 100% vegan, Brighton-based dog food brand
The next brand I want to talk about is one I have a bit of a soft spot for, because it was started by someone I know. W'Zis (I had to show you their full URL: www.wzis.dog) was founded back in 2020 by four dog owners who wanted to shake up the whole "brown, bone-shaped treat" cliché (you know, the kind of thing you didn’t realise you also hated till someone else came along and said it?).
The name is the first bit of cleverness: W'Zis/ "What's this?" Their tagline is "say it and they will come," and the treats themselves are shaped like a W.
There are big treats and small one-calorie treats, none of which stink the house out like dog food can, all of which are made from natural ingredients.
How to name dog food products so people will love you
My favourites are Lamp Post & Chips and Postman & Roast — daft, brilliant little names that have nothing to do with what's actually in the treat and everything to do with making you smile.
Peggy's verdict? She actually play-bows to them. If you've got a dog, you'll know that's about as high a compliment as it gets — and given she's five now and generally a bit less bouncy than she used to be, that little bit of excitement still makes my heart fuzz every time. Treat training never really stopped with Peggy; she's a touch anxious, so a treat is often as much about reassurance as reward.
Having something with a silly, human-facing name turns what could just be a training tool into something with a bit of personality — and again, this treat makes you feel you can share lovely moments with your dog, even though you’re not eating your treats with them. Usually.
Peggy is still a yellow Labrador this time eating a Jude’s Ice Cream for Dogs
Brand 3: Jude's Ice Cream for Dogs
About the Battersea Dogs and Cats home supporting ice cream brand
We gave Peggy her first taste of Jude's Ice Cream on holiday in 2025, not really knowing what to expect. Turns out dog ice cream isn't much like our ice cream at all — it's closer to a fruit sorbet, made with a plant-based base and purées of strawberry, apple and banana.
Peggy gets so excited she tries to make off with the pot to eat alone, then has to keep coming back to me to hold it steady for her. She goes into an absolute trance while she's eating it. It's one of the only treats where I'm properly involved the whole way through, rather than just handing something over and watching from a distance.
When simple wording beats elaborate branding
The branding is gorgeous — soft strawberries-and-cream tones that immediately conjure up a classic seaside ice cream, which tells you everything about who it's really aimed at. It comes in little cardboard pots, four to a pack, and when it comes to the brand voice, they use simple wording like “Ice Cream for Dogs” - a phrase for which they also rank 2nd on Google.
It's positioned as a complementary treat rather than a meal replacement, and in the kind of hot weather we've been having lately, it's a proper, practical way to help keep a dog cool, not just a gimmick. But really, if I'm honest, the reason I love it is the same reason I love the other two brands – it's not really about Peggy having ice cream; it's about us having it together.
So what’s dog food branding all about then?
What I keep coming back to with all three of these brands is that:
None of them are really selling to the dog.
They're selling to us — the owners, the ones with the money to hand over. Clever names, nostalgic little scenes, playful branding that makes us smile before we've even opened the packet.
It's a lovely reminder, as a copywriter, that good branding doesn't always need to appeal to logic. Sometimes the best copy in the world isn't trying to convince anyone of anything — it's just trying to make them feel something about the thing, or in this case, the dog, they already love.
And here's the food SEO bit
It could be easy at this point to think SEO doesn't belong anywhere near a brand like these — that it's too cold, too technical, too far removed from lovely feelings and silly names and dogs play-bowing at their dinner. But actually, it matters just as much here as anywhere else.
Because, before someone falls in love with the branding, they have to find you in the first place. And that's especially true if you're a challenger brand, a niche one, or a local one; you may not have a huge marketing budget or the household-name recognition just to be stumbled upon. You need to show up when someone's searching for someone like you.
At its heart, food and drink SEO isn't really about keywords and technical mechanics; it's about the problem you solve and the answer you provide. Sometimes that answer looks like "low calorie vegan dog dog food." And sometimes, just as validly, it looks like "indulgent treat food for very special dogs."
Either way, someone out there right now is searching for exactly what you offer.
Have you made sure the path is clear enough for them to find you?
Looking for an SEO for your niche UK food or drink brand?
I’m Kate, a freelance food SEO expert and copywriter based in Sussex. I love niche food and bev brands, finding and eating local food and drink (from Sussex, or your local place in the UK) and I really, really want to help your food brand make more money.
Get in touch with me about:
SEO for your website
SEO copywriting for your website and other marketing
Eat well, sell better,
Kate