Why Landscapers Need a Good Website

Your landscaping company needs sales to stay in business. That is just a fact. Another indisputable fact is that you need leads to generate sales. These can come in the form of referrals, or through inbound traffic from your website.

Competition between landscapers is fierce. In an industry worth over $120 billion, the market is filled with more than 60,000 landscape companies in the US alone. And it's grown at an average of 5.3% per year between 2017 and 2022. Having a competitive edge in the form of a landscaping website is more important than ever.

Since the pandemic started, the amount of people using mobile devices for extended periods of time has increased dramatically. In order to take advantage of the extra screen time and increase the chances that people see your business, you must have a mobile-friendly website.

More so than desktops or laptops, mobile devices and interactive elements like “click-to-call” allow website visitors to quickly convert into interested prospects. The bottom line is that missing out on these key opportunities can cost your business money.

Boost Inbound Search Traffic by Educating Your Clients

In order for people to visit your website, first they will need to find it. To increase the likelihood that they do, you'll need your website to rank higher in the SERPs or search engine results page. You can achieve this with good SEO practices and patience. SEO, or search engine optimization, is a process that makes improvements to your website that go according to search engine algorithms

As mentioned above, Landscaping SEO can help your website attract more clients. You can increase your website's rank with Google or any search engine by providing original, reliable content. You can come up with ideas for generating this content by thinking about important topics related to your industry, such as local lawn care tips, native plants you regularly install, how to get rid of common local pests, and so much more.

With original content, you'll be able to persuade your readers that you are a knowledgeable professional. With this perception of you, they will likely want to know more about your services and how you may be able to help them. Your readers will also be more likely to share your website with others because of the valuable content on your website.

Local Landscaping Price Listing

While some contractors shy away from giving prices up front as a way to engage with would-be customers; sometimes this approach can be counter-productive. If you spend all day haggling with unqualified clients, your chances of actually landing a paying qualified customer diminishes.

Having pricing information available on your website (or at least listing price ranges) can help prequalify your customers and ensure their expectations align with the level of service you want to be known for. While you may get fewer calls, the ones that see your pricing and still want to work with you won’t have sticker shock once you give them your official estimate.

If you present yourself as just another landscaper, with no pricing available, customers will feel empowered to ask for lower prices because they won’t yet value your services. By providing “typical cost” pricing on your website you can demonstrate that you are a professional that knows what it costs to get the job done right and won’t try to rip them off.

Google reviews and other review sites allow customers to tell the world about their experience using you as their landscaper. This is why reviews remain one of the most powerful forms of social proof available to showcase on your website. Seeing positive comments from other customers greatly increases the chance that a new customer will do business with you. Showcasing high-scoring reviews on your website is an excellent way to generate more sales.

Apart from the helpful content on your website discussed earlier, you can also include more detailed, personal information about yourself or your company. Things like your background in the industry, the humble beginnings of your company, or the origins of your company name are all great topics you can use to tell your story to visiting audiences and add a personal touch to an otherwise anonymous landscaping company. The more people feel like they know and trust you, the more likely they are to do business with you.

Every landscaping service or company has its specialties. Spelling out these specialty services on your website will allow you to separate yourself from other landscaping companies. This is true in both the eyes of the website visitor and for the Google web crawlers that will be analyzing your website content and generating search results with relevant recommendations. With that said, here are some services or niches to consider highlighting:

• Commercial Landscaping
• Residential Landscaping
• Lighting
• Tree Felling
• Hedge Trimming
• Gardening
• Lawn Maintenance and Care
• Landscape Design

Open All the Time

A lot of brick-and-mortar businesses maintain standard baking hours during the middle of the day. Although closing times and rest are essential, the potential to cater to more clients is lost for these types of business locations once the lights are turned off.

Since a website doesn't close or follow the 9-5 cycle, having a great site live and conducting automated processes 24hrs a day means you'll be able to cater to queries that may lead to more work - even while you sleep.

Common questions such as:

"What are the services you offer?" 

or 

"How much for this service?" 

can easily be answered using automated replies through messenger chats using bots.

A well-developed, informative website with easy-to-use contact forms will be the gift that keeps on giving year after year. 

Aside from content and contact numbers on your website, you can also post pictures of your past jobs that you are particularly proud of. With these types of portfolio photos and videos, you'll show how effectively you are able to provide landscaping and lawn services. 

Some lucky landscape service providers even have awards they have won from local competitions or other events. These types of certificates or badges can make great visual compliments to standard landscaping pictures. 

If you use an online web editor tool like Adobe express or Canva, you can even pretty easily place an overlay graphic on top of your original images to ensure they aren’t posted online somewhere else. When potential clients see your work and accolades, they'll be more comfortable hiring your company for their needs.

Aside from making it easy to contact you, your website can also make it easier for your clients to do business with you. Advanced websites with custom-developed portals, or those integrated with CRMs like Thryv can make common operations like approval of estimates and payment of invoices easy to handle. 

Having online options like this available to customers means that if they want to pay upfront, you have a secure payment method option to offer. No need to go to a physical office to process payments or sign documents these days with everything being done virtually. 

With just a few clicks and an exchange of messages, your client just has to sit back and wait for your team to arrive at their property. A well-refined and easy-to-use payment process will give customers increased confidence in your company, very often resulting in repeat business or new business from referrals later.

When it comes to landscape labor recruitment, there is simply no substitute available today for a good website page dedicated to available jobs at your company. Your workers are what drive your company’s success and without the bodies available to get the work done, you just won’t be able to continue the expansion of your business. Having a career or jobs page detailing your expectations for new hires and providing a form for candidates to fill out will greatly increase your chances of stealing away local landscaping talent from your competitors.

Another lesser-known way you can use your website to strengthen your workforce is through the use of online training and educational resources. Building an internal company wiki or operational checklists can reduce accidents and mishaps on the job that could otherwise delay work being done. 

You can also more easily retain top performers by drawing out a career path for them to advance, learn new skills, and eventually make more money for themselves. Showing your employees that they have a future with your company will boost morale and productivity. Neglecting your workers and taking them for granted is one of the fastest ways to lose workers and find yourself scrambling to find help.

Key Takeaways

No matter what business you're in, today’s digital economy has only been accelerated by recent events and it's best to take advantage of a website's benefits. In a competitive industry such as landscaping, you should follow the proven steps that successful companies have used to separate yourself from the rest of the pack. 

Having a website that's easy to navigate and find useful information on can do wonders for your business. If you need more convincing, just refer to thousands of failed landscaping businesses out there that have decided it wasn’t necessary or worth the investment.

If you are curious about how much a landscaping website costs and the different pricing options available, contact VRDigs and schedule a no-obligation consultation with industry pros that exclusively specialize in landscaping websites.

Zippia. "20 Budding Landscaping Industry Statistics [2022]: Landscaping Industry Trends, Market, And Projections" Zippia.com. Nov. 15, 2022, https://www.zippia.com/advice/landscaping-industry-statistics/