Without question, holding ownership of your very own tree service can be very financially rewarding. On the other hand, understanding the necessary methods in which to grow your tree care business can prove to be a whole different ball game. The former norm of billboards, radio advertisements and commercial television are becoming the way of the past. Even the former most tech-resistant consumers all over the country are putting their pride to the side to pick up their phone and grudgingly typing the search phrase “tree services near me”. The top rated examples that these users are seeing at the top of Google’s search queries are examples of local companies that have built a solid foundation of SEO for themselves within their niche market. Seeing these particular competitors rank ahead of your own business begs the question: “Can this form of marketing work for my tree care company as well?”
After years in the digital marketing industry, we can safely say that these strategies have worked well for the tree companies that have chosen to partner with us, and these same tactics can work for yours as well!
Understanding Your Audience
It’s safe to say that you can’t even begin to think about expanding your tree company without understanding what you want it to look like once it takes it’s full shape.
Think of some common search terms that you would look for when doing your own research for a tree company that you would want to use in your target area.
- What are your competitors doing that is making them so successful? What search phrases are you constantly seeing them appear for, that your company isn’t.
- What services are you offering that are yielding the highest return?
- How can you effectively cut out services that are not yielding a high return, as well as the unattractive customer-base that is always requesting them.
- Think critically about areas that other big-name competitors may be swarming to. It’s not uncommon for a service area on the outskirts to become “low hanging fruit” when everyone and their brother is swarming to the major market cities.
Once you have formed this understanding of your audience, you’re ready to shift gears into ways in which to reach said-audience!
A Professionally-Built Website Can Make A World Of Difference
Now that you’ve decided on your target area and narrowed down your target audience, it’s time to hone in on the focal point in which you will present yourself to your online shoppers.
A website, when built correctly with the intent of keeping SEO in mind, should contain service pages for each individual service that you plan to offer. This will help your customers understand what you provide, as well as everything there is to know about you as a company, and how to plan to perform that service. Here are some examples to consider:
- Tree Removal
- Tree Pruning
- Hurricane Preparation
- Storm Clean Up
- Land Clearing
- Stump Grinding
Think outside the box! Any and every service that you intend to offer to your online viewers should have it’s very own special place on your website, with unique pictures and content to help paint the picture.
Try and think of it this way: If I were my own customer, what would I want to see?” If the homeowners that you typically serve value customer service, present some witty verbiage to the tune of “Customer Satisfaction Fuels Our Passion!”. If you have stellar reviews, shout it loud and proud. Maybe you’re accredited by the BBB or have an outstanding presence on social media.
It’s important to ensure that your contact information, address, areas that you serve are clear and in an easy-to-locate area on your site. The use of a “Contact Us” form with a strong call-to-action is a necessary tool to ensure conversion of your web visitors and the capturing of leads.
There’s much more to be said about what can make your tree service’s website great, but we’ll leave it at that for now!
Using SEO To Outrank The Competition
Now that your website is live, it’s time to start thinking about the bigger picture: Using the powers of SEO to take your rightful place as the greatest tree service at the top of the first page of Google!
While it’s not quite THAT easy, consistent efforts place into your tree service’s SEO will gradually raise your placement among the competition until you can finally begin receiving organic traffic directly to your website without having to dump ungodly amounts of money into paid advertising.
The first steps that a professional digital marketing agency will typically take towards this is ensuring that your website is listed on every application, directory or site that your target audience finds themselves using. Upon a simple Google search of “tree service near me”, you may find several 3rd party listings towards the top of your search query (Yelp, Angie’s List, Facebook, ect). It will be necessary for your tree care business to be listed on these sites. An additional first step that will be taken is the creation of a Google My Business listing. This solidifies your business’ placement on Google as a whole, along with local maps.
Following these steps, the next course of action all depends on your competition. Backlinks, Meta Descriptions, keyword research, optimization of headings, on-site blogging and an abundance of other steps will most likely be needed in order to continue your surge to the top. An SEO expert or marketing agency will be able to assess your needs and what keywords should be targeted for optimal performance.
Make no mistake. SEO is a marathon; not a sprint. It can take months before a substantial lift is seen, but if executed properly, the fruits of your labor will be well-rewarded when you are receiving multiple leads per day through your website accompanied with frequent call-ins.
Try Marketing With Social Media
When the sometimes lengthy process of SEO proves to be too long to wait, social media marketing offers temporary relief in the form of paid ad campaigns.
Promoted posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Nextdoor are just a few of the channels available for this type of lead generation.
Your Facebook Business page serves as home base for these operations. An effective ad campaign can help to not only generate a consistent flow of leads, but also help build a following and likes to your page as well.
These ads should contain informative content, such as an answer to questions that are asked frequently about your business. Eye-catching imagery should also be displayed in the form of a picture or video. You know, something to get your target-market’s blood flowing! Keep in mind, the potential customers that will be seeing these ads are not as far down the funnel as someone actively searching for a business, so the ad has to reach out and grab their attention!
These ad campaigns should run off of a set budget, with a specific time frame in mind. Digital marketing agents will often encourage clients to run an ad continuously, while making frequent tweaks and changes to the targeting with the intent of improving the campaign over time.
This method of advertisement can frustrating without proper knowledge of social media marketing, so make sure that you contact a professional to make the process as easy as possible.
Expand Your Tree Business To New Areas
It’s one think to rank well in the vicinity of your storefront location – But once this happens, it’s time to start expanding your reaches.
What your professional tree care SEO expert will most likely recommend is creating specific pages, geared towards providing services to those cities. Fresh content for each page is essential for these service-area pages to do their job. Avoid lazy SEO “specialists” that use duplicate content for each of these pages that they plan to create for you. Some examples would include:
- Orlando Tree Removal
- Oviedo Tree Trimming
- Chuluota Land Clearing
- Winter Springs Arborist
- Winter Park Stump Grinding
After your pages have been launched, the long and tedious process of backlinking begins. Consider it like this: The more notoriety or mentions your site has, the more credible your site will appear to Google and other search engines. Off-site blogging or “guest posting” are traditional methods that your SEO expert should use when trying to build domain authority.
What To Do With All Of This New Growth?!
If all goes according to plan, your phones will be ringing off the hook and your email inbox will be overflowing with quality leads in a matter of months! Take advantage of this be actively pushing for positive reviews across any/all online review platforms.
Still confused after reading this article? Contact an SEO specialist that specializes in the tree service industry.