Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term often shrouded in mystery for those outside of web development and tech industries. If you ask your friends or colleagues, I bet many will have heard of or be familiar with the term. But few, if any, will be able to confidently (and correctly) tell you what SEO actually is.
Even if you had experience in SEO in the past, the ever-changing landscape of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and constant updates to Google and Microsoft search algorithms makes defining what SEO is today no less challenging.
But, despite more than two decades of constant change in what SEO means, one thing has always been true: SEO is the most often overlooked marketing practice for businesses outside of traditional tech sectors.
So, what is SEO?
SEO is not any one specific thing. Like tending a landscape, there are multiple factors that allow your business website to grow and thrive on the web. It’s a process that requires upkeep and maintenance.
Broadly, SEO is an umbrella term for a set of tactics and strategies to help search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing better understand the content and structure of your website, so that they can deliver relevant results to users based on their organic search queries. The ultimate goal of SEO is for your site to rank high on the first page of results for terms relevant to your market, which drives qualified customers to your business.
These practices often include technical optimizations that allow Google and Microsoft crawlers to easily navigate and index your pages, as well as content optimizations to ensure that the information presented on your site is up to date, accurate and relevant to your market and your users.
But SEO is constantly evolving. What search engines, customers and the market is looking for is always in flux. Content and information go out of date.
Since none of the major search engine companies explicitly outline the factors used for ranking, what differentiates bad SEO from “best practices” today is usually determined by SEO industry leaders through testing and observing the results on the SERP and in site traffic patterns.
Getting started close to home
Optimizing your site for Google or Bing search doesn’t have to be a full-time job. It takes relatively little effort to get ahead. Even a few hours a month of tending to your site can put you ahead of your competition.
One of the easiest places to start is with Local SEO. Here, the goal is to become more visible for local searches like “landscaping contractors near me” by managing your business listings and getting real reviews from customers.
Start by listing your business on platforms like Google Business Profile, Facebook and other web directories. Make sure you include an accurate address, phone number, business hours and a website URL, and make an effort to ask new and past customers to leave good reviews.
Some platforms even allow you to add a list of services offered. Your goal should be to add as much relevant information about your business as the platform allows.
Back on your own website, you can create an “About Us” page with detailed descriptions of the services you offer along with a profile of your business and staff that highlights relevant expertise.
Don’t forget to also include the same accurate contact information that you used for your business profile or include that information on a dedicated “Contact” page.
Another tactic is creating guides and how-to articles on your site with specialized information for your area.
If you’re a landscape operator in Dallas, an article like “Best Ways to Keep your Lawn Green in Texas” will be highly useful to potential customers, and search engines will be more likely to recommend your website when a local user searches for tips on their lawn care.
Coding optional (but not always)
You don’t need to be an expert in web code or have a degree in computer science to make the most of SEO for your business.
If you are using a ready-made platform like WordPress or Shopify to host your site, much of the under-hood optimizations are handled for you and no extra engineering is required.
But you can also add user-friendly SEO tools like Yoast directly to your site through plugins.
Tools like these can help you evaluate your content for readability and usefulness on a topic, add structured data markup to help search engines better understand context, speed up your site’s loading time or even audit your site for broken links and duplicate content.
One of the most useful and underrated features of Yoast is the capability to automate the creation of XML sitemaps, which are like a directory of your site pages, specifically to help crawlers navigate the structure and content.
If you’re not using an off-the-shelf platform and instead have a custom-built website, ensure your content highlights your experience and expertise in your field, authority in the market and trustworthiness to your customers.
Free analytics tools like Google Search Console can help you find the queries and terms that bring users to your site and can give you insight on how to tailor your content. You can also find third-party tools from companies like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and others that can make recommendations for your site and provide competitive analysis.
If you are facing technical issues with your custom site like slow loading speed, broken traffic analytics or on-page assets that won’t load, an SEO professional is recommended.
If adding staff isn’t an option for your business, you can often contract with one of the many agencies offering SEO that specialize in your particular market.
Digging deeper
SEO is important for every business, but it doesn’t have to be difficult for yours. Like maintaining a landscape or garden, even a little bit of work yields better results than just letting nature take over.
Managing your local business listings while making sure your content is relevant and informative for your clients should be your first steps and will go a long way toward giving you the edge over the competition.
If you’re ready to dig in and maximize the potential of SEO for your landscaping business website, there is a wealth of information out there, freely available and accessible to all skill levels, novice to expert.
SEO industry publications like Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal publish guides and tutorials to educate, as well as the latest news to help you stay on top of search trends.
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