Shelterluv on your site,
minus the iframe.
Most rescues on Shelterluv show their adoptable animals with Shelterluv’s embed, a frame that runs Shelterluv’s own app inside a page of your website. It works, and it’s free. But everything inside that frame belongs to Shelterluv’s page, not yours. We connect your website to Shelterluv through its API instead, so every animal gets a fast page of its own on your domain, in your design, while your team keeps working only in Shelterluv.
How the Shelterluv embed works
Shelterluv gives every rescue a short snippet to paste into a page of its website. The snippet loads a frame from Shelterluv’s servers and draws your adoptable animals inside it, from a list you choose in Shelterluv: everyone available, dogs only, or one location. Click an animal and its details open inside the same frame.
Credit where it’s due: the embed costs nothing extra, there’s nothing to maintain, and it’s always as current as Shelterluv itself. It comes with filters for things like sex, age, size and attributes, a sort, and a search by name. For a small rescue with a handful of animals, it’s a perfectly good place to start.
Where the embed runs out
The limits all come from the frame. Whatever happens inside it happens on Shelterluv’s page, so your website can’t see it, style it, link to it or count it. As a rescue grows, that’s where it starts to cost you:
No page per animal on your domain. An animal’s details open inside the frame, so there’s no address of yours for that dog to be shared, bookmarked or found in a search.
Shares that leave your site. Share your adoptable pets page and the preview shows that page, not the pet. Shelterluv’s own pet links preview nicely, but they send people to Shelterluv’s page, away from your donate button, your foster sign-up and your story.
Applications you can’t count. The Apply button sits inside the frame, on Shelterluv’s domain, where your Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta pixel can’t see it. That’s the one click you most want to measure.
One list per frame. More than one location, or a foster program, usually means several frames on one page and adopters scrolling through each.
Shelterluv’s look inside yours. Your design stops at the edge of the frame. The fonts, layout and colors inside it are Shelterluv’s.
No room to grow. A longest-waiting spotlight, new-arrival badges, a seniors page or a page for each partner store aren’t settings you can switch on.
The embed vs the API.
| Connected through the API (Stonekept) | Shelterluv’s embed | |
|---|---|---|
| Where each animal lives | A page of its own on your domain, like yourrescue.org/animal/buddy | Inside a frame on your page; click an animal and its details open in Shelterluv’s frame |
| Search engines | A real page per animal with its own title, description, photo and structured data, plus an animal sitemap with every photo | One page of yours with a frame in it. Shelterluv’s own pet pages can turn up in search, but they send people to Shelterluv |
| Sharing an animal | The link is yours, and its preview shows the animal’s name and photo | Your adoptable pets page previews as that page, not the pet. Shelterluv’s pet links preview well, but land on Shelterluv |
| Your analytics and ads | Views and Apply clicks happen on your site, so Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta can count them | Clicks happen inside Shelterluv’s frame, where your tags can’t see them |
| Locations and foster homes | One search across every location and foster home, with where each animal is staying on its card | Usually one frame per location or list |
| Design | Your fonts, colors and layout, built around your rescue | Shelterluv’s layout inside your page |
| Speed on a phone | Pages served ready-made from a global edge network, with photos sized for the screen | Your page loads, then Shelterluv’s app, then the animals |
| Room to grow | Pages for puppies, seniors, small dogs, new arrivals, longest waiting, partner stores, whatever fits your rescue | What the widget offers |
| Staff workflow | Unchanged. Update Shelterluv and the site follows within minutes | Unchanged. Update Shelterluv and the frame follows |
| Applications | Apply opens your same Shelterluv application | Apply opens your Shelterluv application |
| Cost and upkeep | A build and a monthly care plan; we look after the connection | Included with Shelterluv, with nothing to maintain |
The embed is a good tool for what it is, and plenty of rescues are well served by it. The API is for the rescue that wants its adoptable animals to work as hard as the rest of its website: found, shared, counted, and in its own design.
Why a page per animal matters
Found where adopters actually search
Nobody searches for “Shelterluv”. People search “adopt a dog near me”, “senior cats for adoption”, “small dogs for adoption in Minnesota”, or a breed and a town. A page per animal, plus pages for the groups people look for (puppies, kittens, small dogs, seniors), gives search engines something of yours to show for each of those. Every animal page gets its own title, description, share photo and structured data, and an animal sitemap with photos tells Google when animals arrive and when they’ve gone home. Nobody can promise rankings, but you can’t rank a page you don’t have.
Shared with a face and a name
Fosters, volunteers and fans are your best marketers. When the link they post shows the dog’s face and name, people tap it, and they land on your site, one click from your application, your donate page and your foster sign-up.
Counted, so you know what works
With the Apply click on your own page, your analytics can tell you which animals, pages, posts and ads lead to applications. That’s how you find out the Facebook post worked and the newsletter didn’t. If you run Google Ad Grants, which requires conversion tracking, an Apply click on your own site is a clean conversion to count.
Fast on the phone in their hand
Most adopters browse on a phone. Pages served ready-made from a global edge network, with photos sized for the screen, show animals almost at once, instead of waiting for your page, then Shelterluv’s app, then the animals.
Gone home, handled cleanly
When an animal is adopted, it drops off your lists on the next sync and comes out of the sitemap. An old link sends visitors on to the animals still waiting and tells search engines to drop the page, so adopters don’t land on dead ends.
Found
A page per animal and per group, with titles, share photos, structured data and an animal sitemap.
Shared and counted
Links that show the animal and land on your site, with every Apply click in your analytics.
Nothing new for staff
Your team keeps working in Shelterluv. The site follows within minutes.
From the embed to
pages of your own.
A look at your setup
We look at your Shelterluv lists, locations, foster program and current site, and map the pages that fit your animals. If you’d like, we build a free sample from your public listing first.
Your API key
You generate a key in Shelterluv under Settings, Integrations, API. It lives as an encrypted secret on the server, never in the page, and only reads your listed animals.
Pages in your design
Animal cards with filters, a page per animal, and the groups that fit you: dogs, cats, puppies, seniors, new arrivals, longest waiting, partner stores. On a new site, or as a pets section beside the one you have.
Kept in sync
A scheduled sync checks Shelterluv every few minutes and updates pages, share previews and the sitemap when something changed. If Shelterluv has a hiccup, the site keeps the last good copy.
Launched and looked after
We point your old adoptable pets page at the new one, submit the animal sitemap to Google, set up tracking for Apply clicks, and keep the connection healthy on your care plan.
Fair
questions.
Does this replace Shelterluv?
No. Shelterluv stays where your team keeps animals, medical records, fosters and applications. Your website only reads the animals you’ve marked available, the same ones your embed shows today, and turns them into pages.
Will our staff have to do anything differently?
No. They keep updating Shelterluv the way they do now: photos, bios, attributes, locations. The website picks the changes up on its own.
How quickly do changes show up?
Within minutes. A sync checks Shelterluv every few minutes and updates the site when something changed. A new or adopted animal typically shows within about five minutes, and an edited bio or fee within about twenty.
What do you need from us?
A Shelterluv API key, which you can generate in Shelterluv under Settings, Integrations, API (we’ll walk you through it), your logo and colors, and a say in which pages make sense for your animals.
Is it safe to hand over our API key?
It’s stored as an encrypted secret on the server that runs your site, never in the page code, and we only use it to read your listed animals. You can generate a new key in Shelterluv at any time, which switches the old one off.
How do animals in foster homes show up?
On their cards and pages, from the location you already set in Shelterluv, along with how to meet them. Adopters don’t have to read every animal’s story to find out where it is.
What happens when an animal is adopted?
It drops off your lists on the next sync and comes out of the animal sitemap. Anyone following an old link is sent on to the animals still waiting, and search engines are told to drop the page, so nobody lands on a dead end.
Does it change our Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet listings?
No. Whatever Shelterluv sends to those sites keeps going exactly as it does now. This only changes your own website.
Can we keep the website we have?
Yes. We can build a pets section that matches your current site and sits beside it, usually at an address like adopt.yourrescue.org, or build the connection into a full redesign. Either way, your domain and your Shelterluv account stay yours.
What does it cost?
It’s scoped with the site around it: a build, then a monthly care plan that keeps the connection healthy. See pricing for builds and plans; we quote the Shelterluv work after a quick look at how your rescue is set up.
Can we see it with our own animals first?
Yes. Tell us which rescue you’re with and we’ll build a free, private sample from your public Shelterluv listing, in your colors, so you can click through your own animals before deciding anything.
Your animals,
on your site.
Tell us about your rescue and we’ll show you your adoptable animals with pages of their own, built from your Shelterluv listing.