Online digital marketing should be a part of any landscaping business marketing plan. Having a comprehensive business page and great reviews and ratings should be on the checklist for your marketing efforts. Below are five strategies to take your company’s marketing plan into the next year.
1. Take Advantage of Google My Business (GMB)
This is free and is a must for creating an online presence. Check to see if your business has one online and claim it. Also make sure the information correct. If you don’t have one, create one. Having one of these pages is a necessary step to building up your business reviews. Social proof is gold for your business. People want to be able to search for you online and see how people’s experiences are with your business.
In addition, people have the ability to ask questions and anyone can answer them. For this reason, you will want to keep an eye on your page. As the owner, if you respond, that response will appear at the top of the answers. Google also created a way for businesses to create posts on a GMB page. With this, you can post business updates and share offers and events.
2. Make sure you have a mobile friendly website
If you want Google to rank your site, you need to make sure it is mobile-ready. This means you have a responsive website that automatically adapts to whatever screen size it is displayed on. It also responds to screen rotation. These are the sites that will get priority. So take the time to see how your site looks on a smartphone and how easy it is to navigate. You should also be able to easily read the text without zooming in.
Another important step to take is to make sure your site is secure by getting it SSL certified. Users want to know they are accessing a secure site so you definitely don’t want to skip this step. It will also boost your SEO, which is an added benefit. This will require an out of pocket cost of about $100 per year. There are some providers that will offer it for free but if anyone is asking for several hundred dollars, you can assume it’s probably not a legitimate offer.
3. Try your hand at display ads
Online advertising is always evolving and has come such a long way. You now have the ability to really hone in on who it is you want to display ads to. If you want to reach people who have never visited your website, you can do that. When a user types in keywords related to your business that you have selected, your ad can be displayed to them. Just be sure your ads are in line with your other marketing efforts. Your image, brand, colors and logo should be the same across the board.
4. Check your website loading speed
The time it takes for your website to load is another important feature when it comes to Google prioritizing your site. They use their PageSpeedInsights to see how long it takes your website to load on a desktop or phone. This is a step not to skip, slower pages will be penalized. This tool will also give you tips on how you can improve the speed.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind that will help you improve your loading speed:
- Limit banner images to three photos or less.
- High-resolution images are not needed for web.
- Auto-playing videos will slow down your site.
5. Try Google’s local service ads
Google now has a pay-per-lead advertising model and it can be very useful for your business. Local Services ads help connect your business with people who are searching for your service. The ads are shown to customers in your area, and you only pay if the user contacts you directly through the ad.