SEO for Landscapers: Guide to Trimming Up Your Local Marketing Strategy

Time to read: 7 minutes

Are You Actively Tending to Your Landscaper SEO Strategy? Or Leaving It to Get Overgrown By Competitors?

We often see landscapers seeking help with their marketing but not knowing what they actually need. Most just want more leads but don’t realize that improving your rankings on Google is the #1 way to do that.

As a landscaping SEO company, we know that your strategy must focus on incorporating an array of localized strategies that target the areas you serve. But it’s far more than just setting up a Google Business Profile and calling it a day; you need to do what it takes to help improve your authority and expertise in the eyes of search engines and AI answer platforms.

What Landscapers Often Do Wrong in Their SEO Approach (And How to Fix It)

Before we start working with any client, landscapers included, we take a hard look at what is currently working for them and against them. Here are a few of the things we often see that they aren’t succeeding at:

Not Pivoting to Seasonality Changes

To ensure your business stays in tune with the weather, you will need to adjust your SEO strategy based on the season, depending on where you live! For instance, if you are a landscaper in Buffalo, you will need to shift gears for brutal winter, but if you do business in San Diego, winter really isn’t going to impact you.

So if you do change your services with the seasons, you should be switching your main category on your Google Business Profile as well. Below is a list of available categories you can choose from on Google Business Profiles, and when you may want to choose them:

• Spring/Summer
  • Lawn care service
  • Landscaper
  • Tree service
• Fall/Winter
  • Snow removal service
• Year-round/All seasons
  • Landscape architect
  • Landscape designer

Overlooking Local Directory Listings

As potential customers search for terms related to your offerings, you’ll need to show up in the vaunted Google Local Map Pack, which you’ve likely seen if you’ve done any local searches yourself. But that’s not the only place humans and AI platforms are looking. Doing a quick search for yourself will show you just what sources search engines value to gain information and determine your authority. Take a look at what this search for “landscaping companies near me” shows:

You’ll see now only the traditional local 3-pack, but right underneath, Google is telling you exactly which directories are most important to this query.

But not only will these be important to Google, but AI applications will be as well. The thing most people don’t know about AI is that these apps are also using search engine results to get their information. So the next logical step would be to make sure you are on these lists!

Pro tip: These lists are also a great place to go to for some competitor research. Take a look at their profiles and then their website, and ask yourself, “How does my business stand out against them? And what can I improve on?”

Inconsistent Business Information (NAP)

Going even further on what we just shared above, here’s the kicker: on top of not having directory listings, when you make profiles on these directory sites, or you are going in and making updates, it’s vital that you are checking for information consistency. It all comes down to these three factors: name, address, and phone (this is called NAP in the local SEO space).

If you have conflicting information surrounding these key details all over the web, it will confuse search engines and AI crawlers, which can impact your trustworthiness.

Targeting the Wrong Terms

If your site is already targeting “[City] landscaping company,” “affordable lawn maintenance in [city],” or “hardscaping services [region],” you are already doing more than most. But that shouldn’t be where it stops! Trends are shifting yearly for home service companies, and this includes landscapers. If you notice leads start to slow down, or your rankings start to decrease, that means it’s time to evaluate 1) what terms you are targeting and 2) if those terms are matching the intent of what Google is showing.

Something you can do is use Google Trends, which is a free tool by Google that allows you to do keyword research for your specific area. It can help you get a glimpse at what people in your area are in need of and what terms you may want to start sprinkling into your content. Take a look at some rising queries in the United States in the past year:

Google Trends is a great place to get an idea of not only what services people need the most, but also what content you can write on your blog to attract people at the beginning of their search. And when they start to notice your website is appearing in the results for the various things they’re looking for, who do you think they’re more likely to call when they’re ready to get started?

Lack of Online Reviews

During SEO campaigns, especially localized campaigns, we highly encourage the businesses we work with to ask customers to leave feedback on their Google Business Profile. This is especially important for landscaping companies serving their local area, since 82% of consumers read reviews of local businesses.

Evidence shows that not only does having more reviews than your competitors help your rankings, but Sterling Sky has reported that what is actually more important is how frequently you are getting reviews. Google loves freshness, so getting reviews more often that are new shows them that you’re still in business and doing business well.

Pro-tip: Make sure you properly respond to all of your reviews and address the feedback you receive. And to help get more positive reviews, link to your GBP in your email signature, add a QR code to your business card and signage, and come up with some other creative ways that can help influence customers to leave reviews.

Website Load Time Is Too Slow

Did you know that 83% of individuals expect a website to load in 3 seconds or less? This is hard for most landscaping companies to accomplish, as you’re in a visual industry, meaning your website needs to act as a virtual portfolio of the work you do.

This doesn’t mean you need to go delete all your slideshows or videos you have embedded on your site. You absolutely need to keep those to improve your conversion rates, but what you need to do instead is look into the plugins or add-ons your content management system offers to improve your page speed. We’ve listed some popular website builders landscapers use and what they offer to help.

Don’t Stop Here: Keep Learning About What Works for Landscaping Companies

We have more articles that can help you learn what it takes to dominate local search results and further your reach on other platforms:

• AI Search for Beginners: What to Know
• Guide to Reporting Spammy Competitors on Google Maps
• How to Properly Have a GBP If You Don’t Have an Office
• Statistics on Local SEO You Should Know About

However, if you’re experiencing information overload and are ready to explore outsourcing your marketing, we’d love to talk!

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New Case Study: How We Helped Stockman Lawnscape Get 5.8x ROI