Did you know that 97% of users use search engines like Google to find local businesses?
Therefore, if you want your landscape business to be successful, earning the favor of the search engine gods is key. Implementing landscaping SEO (or search engine optimization) works to make your business more visible online. Done correctly, you may drive significant traffic to your website which may become potential customers.
Delightful, isn’t it?
There’s just one problem: Landscaping SEO is easier said than done.
Keep in mind that other industry-specific businesses will be competing for the same sunlight. So, you’ll want to choose the right channels and use the right language to bag Google’s top spot. If done incorrectly, your SEO efforts can be costly and ineffective. And while you may think that you did everything right, your competitors might be one step ahead.
We’re here to prevent that from happening.
SEO is the secret to curating increased foot traffic and conversions. It may also be the only bottleneck from making you the industry leader among local landscaping businesses.
But how exactly does it work? And what SEO strategies can you use to land the top spot of search engines? Find out below.
How SEO Works?
Search engines just like Google are congested with billions of assets fighting for attention. Think of it as a race track. There are cars that emerge first and there are those that finish last. Every once in a while there will be cars that don’t even make it past the finish line.
SERPs, or search engine results pages, follow the same principle. But instead of powerful throttles and revving engines, various assets compete for the first page. From websites to blogs, to social media posts and articles, SERPs are essentially a virtual race track.
Some businesses land on the first page. Others are stuck on page 99 where no one cares and no one bothers to click. The unfortunate rest don’t even manage to rank on Google.
Landscaping SEO is the holistic practice used to make your web pages more visible to search engines. This ranges from tweaking backend information within your website to optimizing your content.
Why does this matter?
While your business may be professional and presentable, most internet users don’t scroll past the first page of SERPs. In fact, on the first page alone, the first five organic results account for 67.6% of all the clicks.
This means that if you’re not on the first page, you’re losing out on valuable website traffic. To increase your website’s ranking organically, SEO can increase your visibility and sales.
Luckily, there are things you can do to improve your SEO. You may either do them yourself or seek a landscaping SEO service to get the job done. Keep in mind that whichever you choose, it will take time and effort to see the results.
Landscape Marketing Hero specializes in helping businesses improve their digital marketing efforts through landscaping SEO. Your quest to secure the top spot in SERPs begins with downloading our FREE Hero’s Guide to Growing: Growth Map!
Understanding SEO Strategies and Tactics
While SEO works to increase organic traffic, like landscaping, it requires meticulous planning to be successful. Tailored to your target audience, successful landscaping SEO must be built on understanding proven SEO strategies and tactics. And while there are many, implementing the right strategy might be just what your business needs to succeed.
Local SEO
Have you ever searched for a product on Google and SERPs return with a list of businesses and a map? That’s local SEO.
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence so that you’re more visible to local customers searching for a service. When users type in “landscapers near me” or “landscaper + location”, businesses with solid landscaping SEO come up top. Naturally, the top resulting landscaping businesses become the frontrunners in a prospect’s mind.
To ensure that your business is visible locally, you must first ensure that you’re actually registered on Google. You can do this by signing your business up on Google My Business. Once your business is now visible within the list, you can begin optimizing for local search.
To do so, you’ll need to provide your business hours, address, phone number, services and website URL. Additionally, you can upload high-quality photos of your business, products and services to serve as a visual element.
Also, consider listing yourself on your local Chamber of Commerce website and other local directories like Yelp and Angie’s List. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for potential customers in your area to find you online. Doing so will likely increase your popularity in your industry, establishing you as the obvious choice for local jobs.
Keyword Analysis
Keyword analysis is a process to help you understand what keywords people are searching for within your category. For example, customers looking for landscaping services will normally search for terms like “yard work” or “gardening.” When you use these relevant terms in your content, you’re telling Google that your business is related to those terms.
So, the next time a user searches for the same queries, Google will rank your business to appear in SERPs. Additionally, you must consider that consumers may also use different words when searching for your services. For instance, a user looking for “landscaping services” may search “lawn care” instead. Integrating related terms as such in your content signals Google’s robots that business has something to do with landscaping.
Doing keyword research can also help you identify gaps in your keyword coverage. Your competition might be using keywords you aren’t. You want to use all relevant terms to secure your position in SERPs.
Why do keywords matter?
Around 60% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest quality source of leads. Meaning that if you don’t research keywords, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers and revenue.
Link Building
One of Google’s most popular metrics when ranking websites on SERPs is EAT. This is an abbreviation that stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Websites that rank high in SERPs are those that are the epitome of EAT. A method that Google uses to assess your EAT level is the number of links pointing back to your website. Link building helps on that front.
Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites that back lead to yours. These links act as a vote of confidence from the linking website. They tell Google that your website is a credible and trustworthy source of information. The more number of high-quality links you have pointing back to your website, the higher your EAT score will be. Ultimately, the more likely it is for you to rank higher in SERPs.
Search engines, however, take into account the quality of the websites linking to you. So, it’s important to focus on getting links from high-quality websites than low-quality ones. You can do this by publishing high-quality content that adds value to readers.
The more backlinks your business receives, the more of an industry expert you become.
Content Creation
Content creation is a landscaping business’ best friend. It’s not enough to have a website – you need to populate it with content that is interesting, informative, and engaging. Besides, the more high-quality content you have on your site, the more likely people are to link to it.
When people think of content creation, they only usually consider optimizing blog articles. However, that shouldn’t only be the thrust of content creation. Keep in mind that every single bit of information found on your website is content. Therefore, every single copy found on all your web pages must be optimized for search engines.
Creating strong landscaping SEO content draws potential customers to your business and convinces them that you’re the best solution. Furthermore, it cements your company’s position in the search engine rankings by providing helpful information about your industry. This is important because it proves that you are a trusted source to both the search engines and your customers.
So how do you create strong landscape SEO content?
The answer is simpler than you might think. Ask your clients!
Your current clients are great sources of information regarding what keywords potential customers are using to find your business. Additionally, they can provide helpful feedback about any potential questions they may have about your business or industry.
This information can be used to gather potential keywords and topics to include in your landscape SEO copy.
When creating SEO content, be sure to focus on producing information that is relevant, reliable and engaging. By producing high-quality content, you’ll be ranking higher in search engines and draw in new clients. Furthermore, include as many keywords as you can to help increase the chances of being found online.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can either talk to customers or refer to your keyword analysis.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing your website’s structure, code, and off-page elements to improve SERP ranking.
Now, what does that mean?
Put simply, technical SEO is all about making sure your website runs smoothly for engine engine bots to locate, read and understand.
So how can you improve your technical SEO?
To begin, it is crucial to have a well-structured website. This means using proper coding, descriptive titles and a consistent URL structure. If your website happens to be on the larger side, you’ll also want to ensure it is properly indexed by the search engines.
Next, it is important to spot any index issues that may be preventing your website from being properly recorded. This can be done by using a tool like Google Search Console. If you find any indexing issues, be sure to fix them as soon as possible as this can be damaging to your website’s ranking.
Finally, it is crucial to optimize your website so that your content loads quickly. This can be done by reducing the size of your webpage and eliminating unnecessary content. If you have a slow website, it will likely deter potential customers and can even hurt your ranking. Additionally, search engines favor websites that load quickly as it helps them provide the best user experience.
This also reigns true while designing your website.
Web Design
How you design your website can be a dealbraker your business. Think about it, you can have the most amazing solutions out there. But without an appealing website to wrap it with, it’s pointless. Conversely, producing low-quality content in a beautifully designed website is also equally pointless.
You want your content to go hand-in-hand with your web design. They must complement each other, so to speak.
To ensure that consumers will stay on your high-quality content once it’s found, create a professional and engaging design.
To help with optimization, use internal links to lead visitors to other related content on your site. This will keep them engaged with your website for longer and reduce their chance of leaving.
Additionally, ensure your website is mobile-friendly. With an increasing number of people using their phones to browse the internet, it’s essential to have a responsive design.
And while it may take more time and money, curating an experience for everyone is more important now than ever. In fact, 53% of mobile users will close a website if it takes more than three seconds to load (Think With Google).
By making your website fast, user-friendly, and agreeable to look at, you will be well on track to keeping visitors engaged.
Meta Title and Description
Meta tags are an important ranking factor for SEO. Its purpose is to give the reader an accurate description of the page content. Additionally, it is also used by Google to determine what your page is about and rank it accordingly. Although meta tags consist of various types of information, the most important ones for SEO purposes are the title and description tags. By following specific guidelines, you can make sure that your tags are effective in driving traffic to your website.
The meta title is what appears in the search results as the blue link. This is what users look at to indicate whether they should click on your website or not. To ensure your meta title draws users in, it’s crucial to ensure it contains keywords and is relevant. The recommended length for the title tag is 55-60 characters. With this, ensure that your title quickly tells users what your website is about.
The meta description is the black text that appears below your meta title in the search results. Users typically reference this to see if your website contains what they’re looking for. For this reason, it’s important to ensure that your meta description includes relevant keywords and summarizes your content. Although there is no length requirement, it is important to understand that the search engines will only display the first 160 characters of your meta description. For mobile users, only the first 130 characters will be displayed. Make sure to write what your content is about and use appropriate keywords to boost your ranking.
To further boost your content in the SERPs, you can use other meta tags that are useful. The meta title and description, however, are the most important.
Start SEO for your landscaping company today
When it comes to landscaping SEO, it is important to create content that is keyword-dense, but also informative and engaging. By following proven SEO guidelines, you can ensure that your website or content will rank high in the search engines. Enabling more foot traffic and potential customers, SEO is a crucial part of any landscaping business.
And while you may be able to do some of the work yourself, SEO takes time, effort and knowledge to get right. With this, it is crucial to thoroughly follow the guidelines listed above to ensure you are maximizing your landscaping SEO efforts.
At Landscape Marketing Hero, we understand how important it is to have a strong SEO strategy. Our team of experts can help you create and implement a plan that will get your website ranking high and bringing in new customers. If you want to improve your rankings or you are not sure where to start, download our FREE guide to growing, The Hero’s Journey, here today.