Search Marketing Priorities for Landscaping Companies

This article is intended to help business owners prioritize their expenses when it comes to Internet and Search Engine Marketing. This month we will look at the unique marketing needs of Landscaping Companies.  With so many different options to choose from it’s important for a Landscaping company owner to know where he should put the most and least amount of effort.

Priority List:

• Local Listings/Google Maps – 10/10
• Paid Search – 9/10
• Organic SEO – 8/10
• Website Quality – 8/10
• Social Media – 7/10

Local Listings/Maps

When a potential client is looking to get some home landscaping work done they will likely want to look at several local companies and compare their pricing, availability and service options. Making sure that you are one of the companies that comes up on the Local listings is very important. It can mean the difference between competing for a job and never even being considered for one. Local listing or map listings will appear often times first in a search result depending on if the person is using a computer or a mobile device. Most of the time the company who has a physical location closest to where the person is making the search will have the greatest advantage in coming up first in the Search results.  You can influence the map listings by making sure that you are listed in the right service category and by getting positive reviews for your company’s services from happy customers. You should also coordinate and make sure that your companies information (phone number, address, company name) are all the same across many different directories and local web sites. This helps keep consistency and will affect your local listings positively.

Paid Search

Landscaping is a pretty competitive business and many different companies are looking to gain potential customers who make an Internet search. In such a market it is important to stand out. You can do so by utilizing Paid Search ads and all the options it offers. You can coordinate the text in your Search ads with specific landing pages to offer specials or particular services that your competitors may not. If you are a newer company and the organic and local listings are filled with competitors you can use Paid Search as a way to push yourself into contention for jobs. Since paid search listings come up as soon as you create them and bid on the keyword terms you can start gaining new customers right away.

Organic SEO

All consumers use organic search listings because they trust them to be authentic and not manipulated since they are not seen as ‘ads. In most cases a Landscaping company that has been in the organic listings for a while will gain a higher quality and quantity of clientele. Moving yourself onto Organic listings takes time and patience. You need to acquire good links coming into your website that will help bolster the sites trust. You also need to make sure that your site has quality content and that you target both locations and specific services with quality landing pages. Having an active blog will also keep your site in front of people looking for your latest services and offerings. Organic search if done right can bring you a steady stream of new customers.

Website Quality

Although some Landscaping companies can get away with very old and out dated sites it is important to present both your company and your work in the best light possible. Having a more modern website will help with both your Search rankings as well as the customer experience once they come to your website. Having quality galleries of your previous landscaping work can really help improve the conversion on your site. You also want to make sure that your contact information is easily seen by anyone coming into your website so that they can contact you quickly and easily. Depending on your budget a new web site might not be in the cards for you but If you are able to create one you would see an increase in new clients.

Social Media

Many people like to show off their new gardens or landscaping work that has been done on their house via Social Media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Making sure that you have a basic Social Media presence will insure that you get the credit or at least a link back to your website for those kinds of pictures. As a Landscaping company you want to utilize Social Media but it doesn’t need to be a huge source of referrals. It should be used to make sure that your clients know that you are an active and caring kind of business. Making sure that you monitor reviews about your companies work is also important as well.

Landscaping companies face unique Marketing challenges in the online marketplace. As a Landscaping company owner you want to make sure that you focus on your local market by attentively monitoring review sites, keeping your local listings updated and putting out quality ads promoting your services via Search Engines. If you focus your attention properly then the online marketplace will provide you plenty of clients to keep your business healthy and growing.