Guide to Landscaping Company Website Content

Here’s why Contractor Marketing Network loves website content and you should too. It is money in the bank, over and over again.

If any of these things are on your mind.

  • Not getting any or enough customers from your website?
  • You feel, you haven’t got your money’s worth out of your landscape company website?
  • Your website is not ranking or listed on Google and people aren’t seeing it?

If so, then you’re going to want to read every word of this article. You’ll see, you are not alone.

As a landscape web design, content and SEO service we have auditing hundreds of landscaper’s websites over the years, and found there is a website content problem amongst landscape company websites.

Maybe you can relate.

See if any of these sounds familiar to you:

  • You really want to more customers from your website, but you don’t understand SEO or content marketing.
  • You look around and other landscape company websites are ranking on Google and you don’t know why.
  • You really want to get more customer from your website. You’ve thought about it, but didn’t follow through or know where to start.

If you can agree to any of the above points, then I have some wonderful news… Now you too can, get more customers, get ranked on Google and convert more customers – guaranteed!

It is called content marketing.

The way to get ranked in search engines, guide more customers to call you and be seen as the industry lead in your area.

All you need is understand what website content matters and why.

Understanding Website Content

The saying “Content is King”, has been used so much it has lost its meaning.  But what I want you to do is look at it like this.  Without content your website would be blank, same with your social media or any other piece of marketing material from the truck wrap to a brochure. 

Content is the one thing that HAS TO BE PRESENT in order for the different marketing medias and channels to work.

 

With that being said, let’s look at what types of content your website must have to compete and rise above the rest of the hundreds of thousand landscaping company websites out there. 

Hundreds of thousands.  Most likely a hundred or more in your local area.  

 

Yes, I have done the research. Each of you competing for the same customers.

 

This is why content marketing and good website content is paramount to digital marketing success.

 

It is why HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List out rank your website, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You have an advantage, your local.  That person who searches “Landscaper near me”. Well, that is you and those other nationwide websites can’t compete if you have good content.

 

What you need is a website content strategy.

 

Let’s look at the types of website content you need to succeed.

Hardscape Website Ranking with Content Marketing
This is a 3 year old website we started working on in Mid-November. Way after peak season. But, getting a jump on the 2021 season.

BASIC LANDSAPING COMPANY WEBSITE CONTENT

For most landscaping websites, the basic content they have is home page, service page, contact page, about us page and maybe a few blog posts. Nothing more.  In todays world, that is not going to get you anything of value out of your website.

 

This is the entry point, the beginning of the content plan for your website and it is what those $299-499 website packages include.

 

Doing audits on client’s websites, we put a value on the website. It may surprise you to know some of our client’s websites are worth $100s of thousands of dollars a year in business. But these websites have hundreds of pages. Going far above the basic website pages for content. The website value is in the content and the owners see that value and keep us adding more content as they grow.

 

If your website is thin on content, keep reading. 

 

You will see how content is king and a cash cow for your business.

LOCATION SPECIFIC WEBSITE CONTENT

When I first audit any website, the content is the first thing that is important to me. Because the company is most likely local, I hope to find location specific website pages.

 

Nine times out of ten, there are no local pages. When a landscape company has their website built the web developer creates the basic pages mentioned above and normally, that is it.  Then the landscape contractor wonders why their website doesn’t get the results they thought a website would get.

You need location specific content pages, period.

When I onboard a new client part of the process is getting a list of at least 10 towns they serve at minimum.  Then I do my research of each of those towns and break them down.

 

Example:

I have a tree service company in New Jersey.  His business location is Vauxhall, which is Millburn, NJ. His website gets between 10,000 – 12,000 website impressions a month. Content on his website did that.  Before he was under 3,000 impressions a month.

 

You can’t get customers from your website, if you are not in the search query.

 

Well, according to the postal zip code Vauxhall is considered Millburn. But, also in Millburn is Short Hills, New Jersey.  So, he has three web pages for those three areas inside of one zip code. And by doing so, he now ranks page one on Google in all three of those areas, instead of just Vauxhall. 

Without those additional location specific website pages, he would not have ranked page one in the one area (Short Hills) that he wanted.

 

Note: he ranked page 3 before.  It did take 2 or 3 months to get that page ranking on page one and get him in the Google Map pack there, but it has been worth 10’s of thousands of dollars a year to him.  And that is just one example.

Without any question, your website needs more location specific website pages for your landscaping company website.

Content ranking in search engines
Without specific pages you have no chances of ranking for those areas or services.

LANDSCAPING SERVICE SPECIFIC WEBSITE CONTENT

Going deeper into the website content needs for your lawncare or landscaping business website, you need service specific webpages as well. 

 

If you have 5, 6 or any number of services, each service needs a page.  When I get deep in a website for a client, they not only have a service specific website page, they have a service location specific website page.

 

Think of all the services you provide.

  • Spring Clean-ups.
  • Mulch
  • Plantings
  • Edging
  • Pavers
  • Trimming and Pruning
  • Irrigation and Drainage
  • Grading, Sod and Seeding
  • Lawn Thatching & Aeration
  • Over Seeding
  •  

You need pages for each of these services.

 

Example:

Say you plant trees.  You should have a website page that is specific to only planting trees. Yes, separate from planting flowers, plants and shrubs. Trees only. 

Now from the list above of the location specific pages, you should have a tree planting page for each area you service. It would look like this.

 

Tree Planting (main service page for tree planting)

  • Tree planting in town A
  • Tree planting in town B
  • Tree planting in town C
  • Tree planting in town D
  • Tree planting in town E
  • Tree planting in town F
  • And so on.

Your website URL would look like this.

https://mylandscapewebsite/tree-planting/town-a

https://mylandscapewebsite/tree-planting/town-b

And so forth.

 

Most landscape contractor websites content is thin.  You may only have 5-10 website page, when really you should have hundreds when your website is built out properly.

 

Each service needs a page and each service page needs a location-based service page.

 

How else is Google or any other search engine supposed to know that you do tree plantings and do tree plantings in a specific town/area unless you tell it you do? 

ATTRACTION & AWARENESS WEBSITE CONTENT

This is where your blog comes into play.  Most people search a topic long before they ever search for a landscape contractor or company to do the project.

 

Let’s stay with the tree planting topic.

 

You plant trees, you have a tree planting website service page and all the location specific tree planting service pages. These are your money pages.  They are the top of your website pyramid.

 

Now what your website and those pages need is supporting content.

 

You use your blog and linking to create the web and attract visitor to your website to turn into customers.

 

Landscape Blog Post Content Examples

 

Blog titles and topics for trees to have on your website.

  • 21 small trees for (area) homes.
  • 3 trees with red leaves to add some color to your yard in (area)
  • How big will a Japanese Maple get?
  • What trees are good for making a privacy wall?
  • When is the best time to plant a tree?

 

These are simple titles as an example, but you can use them if you need to start somewhere.

 

You need website blog content for you landscape website that answers question people have.

 

They call it a search engine because it is for people to search for things they don’t know. They are looking for answers and that is what your website is for to answer they searchers query.

 

Now, you can spend a weekend and write a bunch of blog posts, publish them and be done with it.  But that is not nearly as effective as dripping blog posts to your website consistently over the life of your website.

 

Search engines like to see activity on a website. The web crawlers can see when a website has added a page, when a page has been updated, etc.

 

If you look at your Google Search Console, you will see how often and what pages are being indexed and crawled and when. This is something your Search Engine Optimization service provider should be monitoring and reporting to you in their monthly reports to you.

Bottom line, your blog is a great way to attract more visitors to your website and prop up those other money pages like your service pages and location pages.

 

You need to start posting blog posts yesterday.

 

Each blog post is money in the bank. This simple tree service blog post landed one of my clients a $42,000 project, plus many more and it ranks #1 in the state.

Blog content is your key to website success.
As of this article this one blog post has earned over $50,000 in tree service projects.
Your blog is your secret to your landscape company website success.

LEAD NURTURING CONTENT

Once you get someone to your website, you need to guide them to the next step.  In a perfect world, they would land on a page, read it. Then click contact us and the rest is history, they are a customer.

 

But it doesn’t work like that.  Most landscape websites convert at like 1-2%. So, how can you get a better conversion rate out of the other 98% of your visitors?

 

You need next step content on your website. Plus, a lead magnet or some kind of opt-in trigger to get the contact information of your website visitors that don’t’ “Call Now” or contact you. Getting just few out of every hundred visitors doubles your conversion rate and can be big numbers in your yearly revenue.

 

Let’s look at next step content. From the example blog posts above we can use “What trees make a good privacy wall?”

 

After someone reads that article, they will surely have some more questions.  You don’t want to answer everything in one blog post. It would be too long.  So, think of the other questions the website visitor has and have content ready for that.

 

For our example, they may want to know how big those privacy wall trees get or how long does it take to reach a certain height or how big around do they get, etc. You need content for that on another page or as a lead magnet, an opt-in to your email list.

 

This is how you take visitors to customers.  It is your content sales funnel.

Content as a lead generation method
A simple pricing download can mean the difference between a visitor and a lead for your landscape company.

Conversion Content for Your Website

In your lead nurturing website content, you will want to have mechanisms built in so you can capture website visitors contact information. You need to have a way to entice website visitors to opt-in to your email list.  The last thing you want is to do all the writing of information (value) and not get the person to convert.

 

Small conversions get the conversation started and are how you sell your services and the reason a website can be a sales machine 24/7.

 

Example lead magnet using content.

 

A price list for privacy tree planting is a great way to get the contacts information.  People don’t know what it costs to have landscape company plant a tree. 

The cost of something they would need to know.

 

So, for their name and email address, you will send them you price list.

 

Now don’t think you have to have an exact number, it can be ball park and with exemption or other information that would educate the prospect.

 

A landscape company website content needs a plan, it needs the content to guide and convert visitors into opportunities, leads, prospects and customers.

OTHER TYPES OF LANDSCAPE COMPANY WEBSITE CONTENT

There are many types of content you should be producing and publishing to your website. Your goal is to make your website the authority on the service you provide in your area.  This goes a long way in helping it rank, getting backlinks from other websites and growing not only your web presents but your business.

 

As landscaping contractor or company, you want to write content that is also industry specific. Not all your content needs to be sales oriented.

 

If your local area news and community is let’s say banning leaf blowers.  You will want to have content on that from your perspective.  Now you don’t want to rant, but you would want to explain the pro’s of using a leaf blower, in time savings and other pro points. These types of articles get linked to or even covered by local news.  Which gives you exposure. Don’t worry about pissing people off, you are going to do that anyway, you can’t please everyone.

 

Other content you can write about is trending topics.  Earth Day, Arbor Day and other topics that are trending in the community or the world that pertain to what you do. 

 

Examples:

  • Water saving plants.
  • Carbon cleaning trees
  • Eco-pavers
  • Native plants

And other topics that are trending or meaningful to a small group of people. 

 

How to use your website content

 

Your website content needs a little help. Meaning you have to spread it around and distribute it to your other digital media channels. Your blog posts should be posted on your social media channels and your Google My Business. It also makes great content for your newsletter or email marketing campaigns.

 

Your content can also act as a landing page for your Facebook and Google ads. The process is research, create and distribute.  The more content you have that is valuable to your customers and community, the more value you can extract in revenue for your business.  A content marketing plan is something that helps all other marketing you do.  It is the content that attracts people, no matter if it is to your website, social media or any other marketing asset you have.

 

Plan, research, create, publish and distribute.  Rinse and repeat…consistently and your income will rise consistently.

 

You will want to give your new content anywhere from 60 to 90 days to start pulling in traffic to your website.  That is why a content marketing plan for your website is so important.

 

Look at it this way.

 

If you are busy doing mulching projects in late March and April, you want to get your mulch content produced by no later than late January.  Yes, a service page for each location you serve and several blog posts talking about mulch. It is worth $10s of thousands of dollars to you.

Conclusion

Content marketing and website content takes time and is a long game when it comes marketing, but the effects are long lasting and like any good investment pay off more and over a longer period.

The reason 9 out of those 10 websites I audit don’t have enough website content. Because it takes time, money and planning. Those 9 websites don’t produce the results because the owners either didn’t understand website contents value, were lazy, are cheap or all of the above.

Just like “Content is King”, so is the “Cash” that follows the content.

 

If you are looking to get the value out of your websites and its content, get in touch. 

 

We will audit and give you a sound website content plan for your website completely FREE.