Featuring Animals on Your Homepage #

Your homepage is prime real estate for driving adoptions. PetMatchPro provides several ways to highlight animals front and center without requiring a dedicated search page.

Hero Image (Single Animal) #

The hero template fills a large hero or banner image zone with a single animal – one full-bleed photo with the animal’s name and a “Meet Me” button that links to its detail page. A different animal appears at random on each page load, drawn from the filters you set, so the spot stays fresh on its own. This is the most literal homepage-hero option. The template filename varies by partner:

• RescueGroups: adopt-search-hero (use with type="adopt")
• PetPoint and AnimalsFirst: featured-search-hero (use with type="featured"; shows featured-flagged animals)

<!-- RescueGroups -->
[pmp-search type="adopt" template="adopt-search-hero" count="8" pagination="disable" filter="disable" species="cat"]

<!-- PetPoint / AnimalsFirst -->
[pmp-search type="featured" template="featured-search-hero" count="8" pagination="disable" filter="disable" species="cat"]

The count parameter sets the pool the random pick draws from – for example count="8" picks one of up to eight matching animals. Narrow the pool with species, breed, or sex. Add overlays="disable" for a clean image with no icon badges. The hero is a paid template (Junior license or higher); Free-tier sites fall back to the configured default.

Featured Carousel #

The carousel template displays a rotating slider of animals – ideal for homepage hero sections. It auto-advances and supports swipe on mobile.

[pmp-search type="featured" template="featured-search-carousel"]

This shows featured animals (PetPoint and AnimalsFirst) in a horizontal slider. For RescueGroups, use the adopt type with the carousel template:

[pmp-search type="adopt" template="adopt-search-carousel" count="8"]

Compact Cards #

The compact template shows small animal cards that fit well in sidebars, footers, or narrow page sections. Template filename varies by partner:

• RescueGroups: adopt-search-compact
• PetPoint and AnimalsFirst: featured-search-compact (use with type="featured")

<!-- RescueGroups -->
[pmp-search type="adopt" template="adopt-search-compact" count="4" row="4"]

<!-- PetPoint / AnimalsFirst -->
[pmp-search type="featured" template="featured-search-compact" count="4" row="4"]

Keep the count low (4-6) and match the row count to display a single clean row.

Species Spotlights #

Create species-specific featured sections:

[pmp-search type="adopt" species="Dog" count="4" row="4" subtitle="Dogs Available for Adoption"]
[pmp-search type="adopt" species="Cat" count="4" row="4" subtitle="Cats Available for Adoption"]

Combining with Other Content #

Place a carousel above your main content, or add compact cards in a sidebar widget. Multiple shortcodes work on a single page:

<!-- PetPoint / AnimalsFirst example -->
[pmp-search type="featured" template="featured-search-carousel"]

<!-- Your regular homepage content here -->

[pmp-search type="featured" template="featured-search-compact" count="6" row="3" subtitle="Recently Added"]

RescueGroups users would substitute adopt-search-carousel and adopt-search-compact with type="adopt".

Tips #

• Use count to limit results – homepages should load fast
• Add a subtitle to give context: “Meet Our Featured Friends” or “Just Arrived”
• The carousel auto-advances but visitors can pause by hovering
• Test on mobile – the compact template stacks to single column automatically

Next Steps #

• Adding Animals to Sidebars — Compact template for non-search pages
• Search Templates Gallery — Browse all available templates
• Template Selection Guide — Choose the right template for your use case