Search Engine Basics For Landscaping Companies

The field of search engine optimization can be complicated for those of us who are not technically savvy or even computer literate. It is a process that involves some website programming knowledge and other computer know-how that not every one possesses. So how can someone with little knowledge of web programming get their website optimized? In this article, I will explain the basics of search engine optimization geared toward the green industry. You should come away with a good idea of changes you need to make to your website to get better rankings in the search engines.

Many SEO professionals (people who will optimize your site for money) charge thousands of dollars to work with and optimize a website. Let's be honest, most landscaping companies don't have thousands of dollars to spend on something like SEO. If you can just learn the key basic principles, you will improve the rankings of your website and help your business grow.

The reason SEO is so important is because when your website is optimized and people are finding your site through the search engines, it doesn't cost you a dime. It is free advertising.

There are 4 key principles to good SEO. They are:
1. Titles
2. Content
3. Key Words (Localization)
4. Links

1. Titles
The Title of a page is the phrase that shows up at on the top bar of the browser window. The title is placed in the header tag of a page. For example, the title of this page is "Search Engine Optimization Basics for Landscapers | Landscaping-Business.com". If you look at the html the coding for the title looks like this, <title>Search Engine Optimization Basics for Landscapers | LawnCareDirectory.com</title>. When a search engine finds your website, one of the first things it looks at is the Title of your pages. The title should tell a search engine and anyone visiting your site what that page is all about. So if a page of your site is services you offer, a good title would be "Landscaping Services in Florida - ABC Company" You'll notice that I added "in Florida" to the title, we'll talk more about that on the 3rd principle. So the title should be a short descriptive message describing the main purpose of that particular page. Keep in mind that every page of your site should have a different title. You should also keep in mind that the title is what people will see when they do a search with a search engine and your site shows up in the results which is why it is important that the title is very descriptive.

2. Content
Any SEO professional will tell you that content is key to a well optimized site. What that means is you need to have actual text on the pages of the website. For example this page is full of nothing but content. Paragraphs and paragraphs of pure content. On the other hand a website that just has pictures of lawn mowers but not many words is considered to not have much content. You need to have words on the page, the more the merrier. Search engines love to see lots of words. When optimizing a website for your landscaping company you may find it hard to add much content your site. You may want to consider adding lawn care tips or something to your pages for more content. Make sure as you add content it goes with the flow of your website and is related to the theme of your site. You don't want to add a paragraph about elephants when your site is about hedge trimmers.

Important: You want to have at least 3 pages on your site. If possible have more but you need at least three. Each page should be a different theme. For example your home page introduces your company and has at least one picture. Then you could have a services page that lists all of the services you offer. A good third page would be a contact us page where all of your contact information would be listed. If you want to add more pages feel free. The more the better.

3. Key Words
Key Words are the phrases that people type into search engines when they are looking for something. For example, if I want to find out tips on how to keep my garden in top shape I would go to Yahoo and type in "gardening tips". As a website owner you need to reverse that process. What are the words that people will type in to find your site? As I stated earlier, if you are a landscaping company in Florida, then you want people to find your site if they type in "landscaping in florida" or "landscaping companies in florida". Well in order for your website to show up in the search engines for the phrases you want, those exact phrases have to show up on your website several times. For example, I would make the Title of my home page "Landscaping in Florida - ABC Company" and then have on the page the same phrase "landscaping in florida". You could work it into a paragraph like "ABC Company has been providing landscaping in Florida for 5 years." The more times you have the phrase in the content of the page the better, just remember to keep the flow of the content normal. You don't want it to sound strange because you're trying to put the phrase in too many times. You also need to place the key phrase near the top of the page. Search engines look first at the title for the key phrase and then at the content at the top of the page to see if its found again.

You should not try to optimize a page of your website for more than 2 or 3 phrases. If your website is for your landscaping business then I wouldn't try for more than 1 to 2 phrases per page. Important: Never try to optimize your website for a generic phrase like "landscaping". It is far too competitive and your website will never show up. You can however localize. By optimizing for the phrase "landscaping in florida" you have immediately cut down your competition to websites that offer landscaping in Florida. Your chances of getting ranked higher are much better. The other advantage of this is that you only want people in Florida finding your website if you offer landscaping in Florida. It doesn't do you any good to have someone in Arizona find your website when they are looking for a landscaping company. I would recommend putting your state and possibly the major city you are near on every page. For example, "Landscaping in Orlando Florida". This will help drive very targeted visitors to your website.

4. Links
The last basic principle to learn is link popularity. What link popularity means is how many other websites are linking to your website. The important thing to know about this principle is that other websites that link to your site need to be related to the theme of your site. For example, it would be good to have a website like Landscaping-Business.com link to your website because it is the same industry and the site has many pages dealing with landscaping. On the other hand it would be bad to have a site like BobsFishingRods.com link to you because they have nothing to do with landscaping and it won't help your rankings. You want to get as many links to your website from similar website as possible. If you can get 100 quality links, do it.

Important: Be careful of free for all links pages and link farms. Setting up links with these will hurt your rankings. Just make sure the websites are related to your site and your rankings should improve.

These are the four most important basic SEO principles that you can apply to your website for better rankings. As you make the necessary changes to your site you should see improvements in your rankings and the amount of traffic to the site. Remember that you need to be patient, it can take as little as a few weeks and as much as months for the changes to really take affect. Unfortunately with search engines, there is never any guarantee that your site will ever show up in the top rankings for the phrases you want. You can work for months trying to optimize a site and it still may not work. If you apply this basic principles however, your chances of getting top rankings greatly improve.