Online Marketing and SEO for Landscape Design Firms

Online Marketing and SEO for Landscape Design Websites

When searching online for landscape design firms in your area, what do you get for results from search engines? Coming up in search engine results should be an intentional practice and cornerstone of your online marketing. Landscape design companies that incorporate keywords people use to search for landscape services within their written content are the ones that are given a high page rank on search engine results pages. The key to success is creating website and blog pages that contain well-written content and includes highly searched keywords. Moreover, recent algorithm changes from Google means that accurate local business information is an important part of the decision whether to show your pages or not. 

Where to Begin Online Marketing?

Your website, your blog and your social media posts are how people come to perceive your brand and consequently, your company. Any owner of a landscape architecture or design company considering online marketing should know that consistency and frequency are the most important factors in getting results. When developing an online presence start with a content marketing plan and a keyword strategy. The basis of this plan is a list of online platforms where you want to publish - Houzz, Facebook, Blog, Landing Pages and what words you want to be known for - landscape design, landscape architecture, pool design, garden design etc. The content on your website is where you should concentrate the bulk of your efforts. Write blog articles on your site that are helpful, relevant and engaging. Keep the saturation of your keywords to 1.5% or no more than nine words for a 600-word article. Research keywords your prospects frequently use and try to find keywords that are less competitive than others. To learn which keywords are best use a keyword tool such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool, MOZ or Wordstream. These tools require a little practice but keep inputting variations of keyword phrases you think are being used and use the tool to offer suggestions. A good number to aim for is a list of 1000 words. This list will allow you to spread your choices over a variety of website pages, and blog articles that promote service offerings and target potential customer types. 

What pages landscape firms must have on their website?

About Us Page - Why will your landscape design services help local customers?
Contact Page - Be sure to include social media links and all forms of contact.
Services Page - Identify what you do and show pictures that have appropriate alt tags, metadata and descriptions!
Home Page - A visitor’s first impression of your business, make it count.
Gallery or Portfolio area - Show off your best work with client testimonials and photos.

What to blog about?

Begin by choosing a keyword that ranks high in search engine optimization so you get the greatest amount of traffic to your site. 
Prospects love "how to's", tips, and money saving ideas.
Educate customers on design trends, hardscapes, types of walls, pools and annual priorities such as when to begin maintenance before a seasonal change. 
Show off customer results by taking them step-by-step through the process. Include three or four pictures. It works for This Old House.
Discuss community related news & events that have something to do with your expertise. A renovation of a city park or landscape surrounding a downtown are good examples.
Make a calendar and start with one blog post every week. 

Build Your Reputation Using Visual Marketing

Think of your website as the center of a wheel with many spokes, each representing a social media platform and think of your blog as the awareness engine of your landscape design business.  Most firms find the majority of their clients through word of mouth, but the very next step will be to conduct a search for your firm online. Here is where keyword-rich descriptions and examples of your work are important. Many more people are using Google Images as a search tool. This is an important reason you should be using keywords in your image alternative tags, descriptions and as the titles of the portfolios. Posting images on Facebook, Houzz, Pinterest, Flickr and Instagram on a regular basis will help drive prospects back to your website. Keep in mind that content marketing without proper tags, metadata and descriptions, your images cannot be found by search engines. Google, Bing and Yahoo work on text and keywording. 

Enter Social Media and Local Search

Social media takes the word of mouth marketing to the masses - start a Facebook business page and invite your customers to connect. Concentrate on posting about once a week to start off with, with lots of the same topics you would use for your blog. Always think about giving, not taking - you are not selling on social media, you’re a helpful, easy to work with landscape design company. Present quality photography of the work you've done for customers and help them learn more about landscape design by sharing tips, tricks and news. If you don’t have any email addresses of your existing customers, make sure you start collecting them with a signup form or landing page. Pretty soon you’ll start building a prospect list you can nurture with email marketing.

Get Found When People Search Online

Aside from websites, blogs, and social media, we must consider that search engine optimization is the foundation on which you grow traffic. At the beginning of this article we recommended you perform a search for your business, what words did you use to search? Those were your keywords, and you want your keywords to be relevant to the content on every single page of your website and blog. Landscape architects and design companies that get found online understand the return on investment can be high when wisely applied toward a balanced multi-channel marketing approach.