As a landscaper, you know it takes time to make a lawn, backyard, or garden look fantastic. Flowers don’t bloom overnight, and the hydroseeding process produces results within a few weeks, or even months! However, the finished product looks great, and your customers (and their friends) are left impressed and satisfied. But, it takes time and effort to create that customer base – that’s where we can help.
We don’t know much about landscaping, but we do know a thing or two about SEO – and how the right SEO strategies can produce the high quality leads you’ve been wanting. Once you get your hands a little bit dirty, it won’t be long until the leads come right to your website and ask to book a consultation.
The reality is landscaping SEO and the landscaping industry aren’t that different from one another. Instead of creating beautiful lawns, landscaping SEO requires the right number of keywords, strategies, and other marketing ideas to make your website become number one. Most importantly, growth doesn’t happen overnight. The initial hard work you do in the beginning leads to significant payoffs in the long run.
Now let’s dive into the landscaping SEO strategies you need to make your website as memorable as your clients’ lawn.
Lay Out the Landscaping SEO Groundwork
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. At Nu, we’re pretty passionate about SEO, local SEO services, and website optimization, so we can tell you anything and everything you need to know about SEO.
Essentially SEO is when you optimize your website to include important keywords, phrases, code, and information that Google likes. The more you please Google, the better chance you have of your website rising to the top its search results.
How do you rise to the top? By considering your customers pain points! Plenty of customers have issues in their everyday lives, ranging from plumbing problems to a door that won’t close tightly. In this case, your potential customers are asking themselves questions about their lawn. A few commonly asked questions that customers (and Google) would love to know the answer to are:
These are just a few examples of the many questions people ask Google about their yard. As a landscaper, targeting these keyword phrases on your website will help your customers while also increasing your ranking on Google. While Google might not understand these questions’ relevance at first, your potential customers are still going to need answers. The more frequently the question is asked, the more it forces Google to search for the correct response until your blog post or web page climbs to the top of page one.
By addressing relevant questions and highlighting your customers’ pain points, you are setting your landscaping SEO strategies down the path to success.
Manicuring Your Website for Landscaping SEO – On and Off-Site
Now that we’ve discussed some of the groundwork for SEO let’s talk about how to manicure your website for the best on and off-site SEO strategies.
To begin your on-site SEO work, include relevant keywords and phrases throughout your website. The best way to do this is by adding keywords in your title tags, meta description, and other headings throughout your website, in addition to the majority of your web content. By titling your service page “landscaping and lawn care services,” this helps Google give your website more visibility. The header explains the page topic, while the meta description describes the content. Now readers can learn more about your page before committing to your website. By optimizing your web page for landscaping SEO keywords, there’s a higher chance of Google raising your website to the top of its search results, benefitting you and your customers in the long run.
Off-page SEO is when you use other tactics and strategies not directly related to your website to help your webpage rank. For instance, links to other high ranking websites – known as backlinks – will help your website earn respect and visibility from Google. These backlinks help Google understand that your website has quality content, independent of your own resources.
With on-site and off-site landscaping SEO by your side, you’ll have prepped and manicured your website for all the new growth it’s about to see!
Pick Your Plants – AKA Landscaping SEO Keywords
Chances are you have that one client who likes one specific type of tree, plant, flower, or other outdoor species. While it’s essential to cater to your client’s needs, you probably remind them that variety is a good thing. Mixing different species of plants makes for a more creative and exciting outdoor space. Well, the same rules apply to your landscaping SEO keywords. If you only have a handful of very similar landscaping SEO keywords on your website, the lack of variety will penalize you on Google. Google loves variety, so be sure to cover every nook and cranny of your industry. Expand beyond “landscaping services” and “landscapers near me.” If you have hydroseeding, gardening, planting, design, and seasonal services, promote those! Frost protection is just as crucial as weed removal, so cover all your bases. List these keywords thoroughly on your service page, and then create subpages that can explain these topics more in-depth. Google will reward you for your hard work in the long run.
Design Your Website’s Landscape with Care
Your landscaping website is like a lawn – the more contrast and variety on the site, the more appealing it is to leads. However, it’s a fine line to walk because too much growth (or, in this case, graphics) can be very overwhelming. No one wants to feel overwhelmed when they step on a patio and see an overgrown garden. They’d rather see a space that works together seamlessly.
This same thought process applies to your website. Organize your website in a way that highlights your services, FAQs, resources, testimonials, and other information that users find helpful. Prioritize the customer experience, just as you would on the job.
Additionally, consider how customers experience your website on their phones! More and more searchers are using mobile search to find services. If your landscaping website takes too long to load or creates friction during their experience, they’re going to turn towards your local competitor. Consider the size of your graphics, images, and amount of copy on a page. If it’s too dense to load, Google will penalize you in the end.
There is nothing Google loves more than rewarding local businesses. When it comes to landscaping SEO, the key to Google’s heart is with local SEO keywords and services. What exactly is local SEO? It’s keywords research and phrases that directly relate to your company’s physical location and the surrounding areas.
A great way to increase local SEO search visibility is through Google My Business. Google My Business is the Google profile that allows people to learn more about your business, like its hours, location, phone number, and other services you provide. We’re big fans of GMB and go into detail in our favorite guide, Why it’s time to Take Google My Business Seriously. Outside of GMB, creating location-based webpages on your website will help your website rank in local service locations.
Trust us; local SEO services are a great way to get your landscape SEO up and running in no time. For more help, review our Local SEO Checklist For Home Service Providers.
Content Marketing and Landscape SEO
What do content marketing and landscape SEO have in common? They’re both designed to optimize your website for Google! Content marketing is there to educate and generate interest in your website and help Google determine your content’s relevance. If your website has the right content and landscaping SEO keywords, then you’re already on the right track.
If you need help brainstorming what content would be relevant and helpful to your customers, think about the questions they usually ask you. Create an FAQ page off these questions and a few relevant blog posts. “How to maintain a garden” or “how to keep your grass looking green during the summer” are significant questions that will likely help your website soar in Google’s search engine results.
It’s all about using your knowledge and leveraging that into the content. Making readers see that your industry experience is valuable is very compelling. Eventually, it could be the tipping point that has these leads contacting you for work!
Take your Landscaping SEO to the next level with Nu
Landscaping SEO is a lot to unpack. Just like designing an outdoor space, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. If you want to make sure your landscaping SEO strategies stick with your customers, then we have the perfect solution: work with a local SEO agency!
At Nu, we’re not landscapers, but we can craft and create SEO strategies that achieve long term results. You don’t have to do everything yourself – now you can work with someone who cares as much about your landscaping business as you do!
