As a landscaping company, most of your business comes from local homeowners needing lawn care, landscape design, lighting, hardscapes, and seasonal plantings.
Digital marketing for landscape services allows you to connect these local customers to your services both online and offline.
Specifically, employing local search engine optimization (SEO) should serve as the core of your digital strategy.
When people search for local landscape help, you need your company to appear prominently in search engines and maps.
Through this guide, we’ll explore actionable local SEO tips landscape maintenance and design companies can leverage to improve visibility and website traffic from local customers.
Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
Google My Business (GMB) profiles appear prominently in Google search and Maps for local service queries. Optimizing your free GMB listing should top your priority list. Tactics to boost your listing include:
- Complete your profile 100% – Fill out every field possible like services, photos, branded map pin, website links, service areas covered. Complete profiles perform better.
- Earn customer reviews – Reviews boost credibility and rankings. Email customers asking them to review your GMB listing. Goal for 10-30 reviews in year one.
- Monitor insights – Check GMB insights monthly. Analyze traffic sources, top search queries driving action, calls, direction requests. Optimize accordingly.
- Update service options – Expand services yearly. Add fresh photos annually. Keep your listing dynamic to prompt GMB re-crawling.
GMB feeds customers to you when done right! Spend time perfecting your profile with complete accurate business information and reviews.
Design a Mobile-First Website
With over 60% of searches being mobile, having a fast, mobile-friendly site is non-negotiable. Core elements for mobile optimization include:
- Responsive design – Ensure your site reflows for all devices without horizontal scrolling or elements spilling off-screen.
- Page speed – Locally host images, compress files, and optimize code to allow sub-2 second load times on mobile.
- Call-centric design – Include your phone number in the site header with click-to-call functionality prominent. Many still call for estimates.
- Short forms – Conversion forms should take under a minute to complete on phones. Reduce fields to the essentials.
- SSL certificate – Encrypt your site with HTTPS to build trust and comply with Google’s mobile-first indexation.
Create Location-Focused Content
Publishing blog content with locally-focused keywords helps searchers find you for hyper-specific needs. Useful topics include:
- Lawn care, hardscaping, planting for local climate and soil conditions
- DIY guides for regional gardening and landscaping
- Lists of native plants ideal for yards in your zone
- Local plant nurseries or stone/brick suppliers reviews
- “Average cost to sod a lawn in [City]” and related service pricing guides
- Videos showcasing local project examples
This geo-centric content offers tremendous local SEO value when optimized effectively.
Build Local Links
Earning links from directory listings and regional publications helps establish domain authority and relevance for the SERPs. Useful local link prospects include:
- Local business directories like Cylex, CitySearch and regional Chamber sites
- Local event calendars and community pages
- Garden writer blogs and magazines
- Home advisor sites if you offer design services
- Online yard and garden shops located in-region
- Native plant societies and gardening groups
Pursue 2-3 new local links monthly. Pitch relevant sites content ideas that provide value for local readers in alignment with their own.
Track and Boost Rankings
Measure the impact from your optimization efforts with rank tracking for core keywords. Some key metrics to monitor include:
- Local pack rankings – Your GMB listings’ placement for critical local keywords like “lawn care near me”.
- Local SERP impressions – Estimates for your GMB profile’s visibility on local keywords each month.
- Organic rankings – Your site’s rankings for non-map listings on Google.
- Site traffic – Traffic to your site from organic search.
Compare traffic between local and general search terms to identify new opportunities to target.
Adjust page content, links and SEO title/meta tags to align with your highest-potential keywords. Refine until you claim page 1 local pack dominance!
The local search landscape offers ripe opportunities for landscapers to capture customers ready to buy. Are you leveraging these tactics yet?
