Did you know that there are currently 632,895 landscaping businesses in the United States in 2022?
With so many landscaping businesses out there, how can you ensure that yours stands out from the crowd?
The answer? Search Engine Optimization.
SEO services for landscaping companies are a growing industry. It covers everything from finding the right landscaping keywords, producing rich, informative content and ranking high on search engines.
That said, with over 600,000 landscape and lawn maintenance contractors competing, lawn service SEO isn’t simply important. It is necessary to stay ahead. And the foundation of landscaping SEO has always been finding accurate, search intent-satisfying and fresh landscaping keywords.
Here, we’ll teach you how to find them. Keep reading.
What Exactly Is Keyword Research?
Keywords are critical components of websites and landing pages on the internet. More importantly, they connect online searchers and businesses. However, Google won’t necessarily tell you which keywords to use. It falls on you to find them, and keyword research is how you do it.
Keyword research is discovering landscaping keywords that relate to your industry. The top keyword results are the most valuable and highly sought-after searched queries within your market. The idea is to integrate these keywords into your website content, blog posts and even social media posts. This signals Google to rank your website along with competitors who also rank for the same landscaping keywords.
Of course, SEO marketing for landscaping companies varies from one agency to another. You want to hire people who use accurate landscaping keywords and produce high-quality content. Landscape Marketing Hero can do all of that for you.
It begins with downloading our FREE growth map, the Hero’s Guide to Growing: Growth Map!
Traffic Growth Means Using the Right Keywords for Landscaping
Landscape contractors like you should find the landscaping keywords that your audience uses and actively incorporate them into your content. Why? Because search engine algorithms favor businesses that use the right landscaping keywords based on a user’s search query.
Search engine results will rank you higher if you use lawn care keywords in your industry. In other words, you become more visible to your target market. The better your SERP ranking, the more people will click through your link and navigate your website. Ultimately, this boosts your website traffic and, in turn, increases your odds of making sales.
That’s what you want, right?
The only challenge is finding the landscaping keywords that will give your business the exposure it needs.
Here’s the catch: keywords are more than just words. Keyword research has more to do with strategy and psychology than finding related words. We’ll share with you the three crucial things you should know when doing landscaping keyword research.
3 Vital Elements in Landscaping Keyword Research
If all it takes is inserting keywords on a page, then everyone would spam their content with keywords. That’s true, and people have done that before. Keyword spamming or “stuffing” was a widespread now-obsolete practice for SEO, and Google has blocked such practice since.
Today, the advancement of search engines’ artificial intelligence has complicated the use of keywords. But worry not because we’re here to unravel those complications below.
Search Intent
According to Google’s about page, they aim to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful. Search engines don’t care about websites optimizing their content. All Google wants is to give searchers the best user experience. That’s what they did precisely with search intent.
Search intent refers to the intention or the purpose behind a search query. This banks on the presumption that there is always an underlying context behind searches. Updates on search engine algorithms have enabled search engines to discern a query’s context. This refines the search process to give users exactly the content they want.
For example, let’s use “landscape design” as our main ranking keyword. The types of content that appear in SERPs will depend on the searcher’s intent. One of four:
- Navigational intent: “Landscape design business” will yield companies that offer landscape design services.
- Informational intent: “How to do landscape design?” may reveal informational content on how people could do landscape designs.
- Transactional intent: “How much for landscape design services?” may show landscape businesses and their average pricing.
- Commercial intent: “Best landscape design services in Ohio” will result in a comparison content of various landscape service providers.
Despite using the same landscaping keyword, searcher intent will ultimately define your SERP ranking. Therefore, you need to understand the search intent behind landscaping keywords.
Keyword Difficulty and Search Volume
Another thing you must consider when finding landscaping keywords is their:
- Keyword difficulty
- Global/local search volume
Keyword difficulty refers to how easy or hard it is to rank for a landscaping keyword on SERPs. The more competitors rank for a specific keyword, the tougher it is for you to rank for the same keyword. The logic is simple. If many businesses attempt to rank for a keyword before you, Google will prioritize them.
The landscaping industry is exceptionally competitive, so you can expect most landscaping keywords to have a high difficulty score.
Search volume, however, represents the number of people actively searching for that keyword in a season. Naturally, you want to rank for keywords with higher search volume. This means that people are interested in that query, so you’re like to get a percentage of the search traffic. Since landscapers operate locally, it’s best to find local high search volume keywords.
You’ll want to consider both of these factors when choosing landscaping keywords.
Keyword Funnel
When people search on Google, they’re not always simply after information. They may also look for the next landscape business they want to work with. That said, the keyword funnel is a way to categorize searchers based on where they are in the purchase journey. Users generally go through three phases:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
Awareness is when people are getting their bearings in the industry. They’re familiarizing themselves with various brands and solutions. Search queries during the awareness stage focus more on informational content. During this stage, users are already aware of an existing problem, and they’re only looking for information.
Consideration is the phase when users have already seen potential candidates or solutions for their problems. However, they still need additional information to determine who to trust. This is where commercial content comes in.
Finally, conversion is when your audiences know what they’re looking for and are willing to take action. Transactional contents shine through in this area in the funnel.
The point is that you want to rank for landscaping keywords on all the phases within the purchase funnel. It’s all about building relationships. You don’t wish to fully conversion-driven content if your market isn’t aware of your business or hasn’t even considered your brand.
But how do we know what keywords apply to which part of the funnel? You’ll find the answer below.
Short-Tail vs. Long-Tail Keywords
There are two classifications of keywords you’ll encounter on SEO: short-tail and long-tail keywords. The best way to understand them is by putting keywords in a graph side-by-side with search volume. Ahrefs describes this as the “Search Demand Curve,” as seen in the graphic below:
In the graphic, you’ll observe that the more “general” or short a search query is, the higher its search volume. In our context, landscaping keywords like: “landscape,” “landscape business” and “landscaping” fall in this category. There’s high search volume and high competition, but the user’s intent is still muddy. You should rank for short-tail keywords, especially when targeting people on top of the purchase funnel.
As observed above, the more users become specific or “longer” with their search query, the user intent becomes clearer. Google is more educated on what users are searching for, so they can present more accurate SERP results. For example, “landscape design business near me” or “reliable lawn maintenance services.” Long-tail keywords are intended for users in the middle or at the bottom of the funnel.
The long-tail landscaping keywords drive results, but you shouldn’t primarily focus on those. Remember that running a business is about relationships. You want to be seen as the industry expert, so ranking for short-tail top-of-the-funnel keywords helps in this regard.
The goal is to rank for both short- and long-tail keywords for better results and odds of making sales.
Top 10 Most Searched Long-tail Keywords Pertaining To Landscaping
Of course, we won’t let you leave empty-handed. If you’re wondering what the top 10 landscaping keywords are on landscaping, below are the results from our keyword research. They represent the keyword and the average monthly search volume in the U.S.
| backyard landscaping ideas | 33000 |
| backyard design ideas | 11000 |
| best landscapers near me | 10000 |
| front yard landscaping | 9400 |
| back yard landscape ideas | 6900 |
| landscaping ideas for front of house | 6900 |
| backyard garden ideas | 6400 |
| small front yard landscaping ideas | 5900 |
| backyard landscape ideas | 4900 |
| front yard landscape ideas | 4600 |
The next time you produce content for your landscape and lawn maintenance business, consider these long-tail landscaping keywords. Or better yet, trust Landscape Marketing Hero to do both keyword research and high-quality, conversion-focused content for you.
Choosing the Right Keywords for Landscaping Business
Choosing the right landscaping keywords is not simple. There’s an intricate process behind the SEO specialists use to help contractors, like you, stay ahead of your competition. Here are some of the tools of the trade you could use for keyword research:
- Google Keyword Planner. A free tool to help you find related landscaping keywords and their estimated search volumes.
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. A premium keyword research tool that provides in-depth information on landscaping keywords.
- SEMRush. A paid keyword research tool similar to ahrefs.
- Wordstream Keyword Tool. A free keyword research tool for PPC ads perfect for finding seed keywords (or starting keywords) for campaigns.
- Google Search Console. A non-traditional free keyword research tool to find related keywords on already ranking webpages. This can help you improve your on-page SEO performance.
Now that you know how to find landscaping keywords, you have two options:
- Buy a license for paid tools and do keyword research and SEO from scratch
- Hire SEO services for landscaping companies and let them do it for you
If you ever decide to hire specialists to get the job done, consider their experience, expertise, and reliability. Not everyone can give you the results you need. Landscape Marketing Hero can demonstrate how we intend to grow your landscaping business through a holistic marketing approach. All it takes is checking our FREE growth map called the Hero’s Guide to Growing: Growth Map to learn more.
The question is: do you want to grow your business? If so, check our growth map out. We’ll be waiting.