How to win local SEO for your garden center

The world of search engine optimization (SEO) can be confusing, yet SEO is one of the best ways by which garden centers can market themselves locally and how garden centers can appear high on Google search.

Many garden centers run into a scenario where they end up on pages two, three, or four of a Google search for “garden centers in [your city.]”  Yet, most people don’t click onto pages two, three, and certainly not four of their Google searches (can you remember when you clicked on page four of your Google search?).  So, how can garden centers appear higher on Google search? 

The answer lies in SEO.

 Here are some actions you can take to improve your garden center marketing and some tips on SEO for garden centers.

1. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business (GMB) Listing.

If you have not created or claimed your GMB listing, now is the time to do so.  Ensure that your GMB has the following information correct:

·       Business name

·       Address

·       Phone number

·       Website URL

·       Business Category

In addition to these basics, consider optimizing your GMB by adding high-quality photos and videos of your business.  This allows customers to see your business and visualize themselves shopping at your garden center.

2. Ensure that Your NAP Information is Consistent.

Your name, address, and phone number (NAP) information needs to be correct and consistent across all online directories, including your website, social media profiles, local directories, and other listings such as Yelp.

Google reads consistency in this information as a sign that you are legitimate and trustworthy.  Therefore, Google will be more willing to put your garden center higher on its search results if your NAP information is consistent everywhere it looks.

3. Look for Local Opportunities to Share Your Garden Center.

Some local opportunities include creating listings on local directories, Yelp, the Yellow Pages, Bing Places, and industry-specific directories.

Other opportunities for garden center marketing include reaching out to local news publications and community directories to advertise, ensuring that your contact information is correct, and inviting local news publications to check out your garden center. 

Also, think about a neat story that you could share with a local magazine or blogger.  What is your origin story?  Do you have a specialty?  What is your garden center really good at?  What lies near and dear to your heart?

Consider partnering with local bloggers and YouTubers to visit and hype up your garden center.  Look for bloggers and YouTubers who focus on landscaping, home improvement, gardening, community activities, and community businesses. 

Bloggers and YouTubers can then provide backlinks to your garden center.  Backlinks act as popularity votes in the world of Google, so the more backlinks you can get, the more you can signal to Google that people are talking about you and that your garden center is important and should therefore appear higher in its search results. 

4. Optimize Your On-Page Information.

Your on-page information—meta tags, headings, photo captions, photo tags, content, and URLs—should include relevant, local keywords.  Think about how you could mention your city and region in your content and on your website.  Search engines look for these keywords to provide the most relevant information for users.

Also, create location-specific landing pages if you have multiple business locations.

Finally, incorporate meta data (including meta descriptions and title tags) to provide search engines with structured data about your business.  Your web builder will likely ask you for this information.

5. Manage Your Online Reviews and Reputation.

Encourage customers to leave reviews of your garden center on your GMB profile and on other platforms such as Facebook, Yelp and industry-specific review sites.  The more reviews you can get from customers, the more likely your garden center will appear higher on Google search. 

Part of managing your online reviews and reputation is responding promptly and professionally to both positive and negative reviews.  This enables you to be an active participant in the public conversation about your garden center.  While responding to negative reviews may not feel super great, it demonstrates to others that you are listening to your customers, gives you the opportunity to clear up any misunderstandings, and shows that you care about your business.  Thus, responding to reviews is one of the best tactics for garden center marketing.  

Consistently and promptly responding to reviews also tells Google that you’re active and, therefore, your garden center should appear higher in its search results.

6. Create Local Content.

Creating locally-focused content may include developing and posting blog posts, articles, and guides that highlight local resources and gardening problems (who doesn’t need help with getting rid of aphids and garden slugs?).  Other topics may be local events or news related to gardening and garden centers.

You may even want to participate in local events, charities, clubs, or community activities to leverage these opportunities, reach out to your audience, and earn local links (meaning that you have local people link back to your website).  Remember, the more people—particularly authorities and influencers in your community—that you have linking back to your website, the higher your garden center will likely appear in a Google search.

To further improve your garden center marketing, consider guest posting on local websites or collaborating with other local businesses to cross-promote each other.

7. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly.

Did you know that 63% of Google’s traffic comes from mobile devices?  This means that many people who will be looking at your garden center website will be doing so via their phones, which makes it critical that your website be mobile-friendly.

To be mobile-friendly, ensure that your website loads quickly on mobile devices and looks how you want it to appear on them.  Google and humans will look kindly upon mobile-friendly websites.

Also, consider optimizing your website for voice search since many users are using voice assistants to search for local businesses.

8. Track and Analyze Your Results.

Part of optimizing SEO for garden centers is gathering data on your garden center’s marketing efforts and web presence, and then analyzing that data so that you can learn from it and adapt as needed.

It can take around six months to a year for SEO to produce significant results.  So, during this time you need to look at your analytics at least every three months to understand what worked and what didn’t work.  Doing this will help you to ascertain where you should focus your SEO and garden center marketing efforts.  It will also help you to stay up-to-date with industry changes and trends. 

You can use tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your performance on the Internet, track your rankings, and identify areas for improvement.  Make sure to pay attention to local search-ranking factors including proximity, relevance, and prominence to optimize your strategy.  Ultimately, though, anything that is good for general SEO will likely lead to better local SEO results as well.

9. Stay Consistent and Be Patient.

SEO is an ongoing process with constant effort, evaluation, and adaptation.  It’s not easy!  But if you follow these steps consistently and if you’re patient, then you will soon appear higher than many of your local competitors on Google search results pages.  You will also ensure that more locals in your region will discover you online and subsequently visit your garden center.  You can turn your neighbors into your fans!

Need Search Engine Optimization for Your Garden Center? Reach Out to McCusker’s Marketing for Garden Centers!

If you need help showing up on your community’s search engines, guidance on SEO for garden centers, or direction on garden center marketing, then feel free to call, text, or email us.

McCusker’s Marketing for Garden Centers provides high-quality, custom marketing to family-owned, independent garden centers.  We specialize in getting our garden centers more foot traffic, helping you compete with big box stores, and telling your unique story. 

We at McCusker’s Marketing for Garden Centers love garden centers, we love making America more beautiful by uplifting local garden centers, and we’d love to help you in your garden center marketing journey.  We can’t wait to meet you!

Phone: 440-822-9260

Email: Rebecca@McCuskersMarketing.com