Is it worth my time getting to the top of Google?
How do I get on the map?
How much does it cost?
I can’t really beat Jims Mowing and the other guys, can I?

 

Lawn Mowing SEO

 

These are questions I commonly hear from lawn mowing professionals. Actually, I’m asked these questions from any kind of business.

I’ll answer them first. Yes. It’s worth your time getting to rank at the top of Google. You could pay over $10,000 a month to advertise at the top of Google. Yes, unaffordable and unlikely to get a return on investment in the lawn mowing industry. You can get to the top of Google in the lucrative free listings with SEO. If you do, you should see free leads coming through, without having to pay for them. The Google map is vitally important for lawn mowing businesses and as you’ll see below, it’s fairly easy to do, if you’re consistent and stick with it.

The good news is, it is free! Ranking at the top of Google in the free results only costs your time and effort. Same with the Google Maps.

The best news is, you really can beat the big companies. Read on to find out how!

 

Okay, so what do I need to do?

 

That’s easy! Just do the following 4 steps.

1. Hook up on Google Maps for free.
2. Content. Publish some new content on your website every week.
3. Get links to your website.
4. Repeat 2-3 until you’re better than the competition.

That’s it. There’s no secret. 

There are, however more important details in each step so here they are…

 

Hook up on Google Maps

 

 

This is by far the easiest thing to do for an independent lawn mowing company with potentially the greatest impact. Just go to https://www.google.com/business/ and follow the instructions. Be sure to do the following:

• Include your real address. Google will be sending you a postcard in the mail to verify you.
• Include high quality photos (including a photo of yourself). Hopefully some of you mowing lawns as well.
• Answer EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. Don’t shortcut. A complete profile is more trusted by Google.
• Update often. This is really important for Google to see that you are active. I suggest updating your availability, when you’re on holidays, any specials you have going, your times, new photos and so on. Try to update at least once a month. Once a week would be even better.
• Once it is active, link to it from your Facebook and webpage and any other page you can.
• It’s free. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be on Google Maps.

 

Content

 

Your first lawn mowing article

 

Before we just jump in and start writing any old thing, we need to decide what it is to write about. Start with the following….

YOURSUBURB lawn mowing by YOURCOMPANYNAME

or any similar combination.

Here’s some suggestions…

• Aspley lawn mowing by Rob Smith
• I’m Peter Jackson and I mow lawns in Ashgrove
• Lawn mowing services in the Gold Coast
• Geebung Lawn Mowing Prices. (see the GreenSocks example)

In the article, you should include anything you can think of about yourself and mowing lawns in your suburb, such as:

• How long you’ve been mowing lawns in SUBURB;
• Why you enjoy mowing lawns;
• Equipment that you own (include photos);
• What’s included in your price;
• How long you’ve been living in the area and why you like the area;
• Photos of your own lawn, plus photos of as many lawns as you can;
• Before and after photos of lawns in the suburb;
• List all the parks and sporting grounds and how much you’d charge to mow them if you had to;
• Example prices;
• Statistics on your area;
• Your favourite mowing job so far;
• Neighbouring suburbs;

 

Other lawn mowing content ideas

 

Once the article about you and your suburb is done and published, try these ideas for additional content on your site…

6 lawn mowing tips by YOURNAME

10 of the nicest lawns in YOURSUBURB

10 of the nicest lawns in NEIGHBOUR SUBURB

How I price my lawn mowing services

Here’s what’s involved in maintaining lawn mowing equipment

What I love about mowing lawns in CITY

What I love about mowing lawns in SUBURB

Here’s what I’ve learned about mowing lawns for X years

My music playlist while mowing lawns

 

How to write an article?

 

Personally, I write down the heading and sub headings first. I think about the main topics I want to talk about and write them down in dot point form. Then I just fill out each sub heading and heading until it’s complete.

 

What is good lawn mowing content?

 

Unique content
You can’t just copy and paste from other websites or you WILL BE BANNED FROM GOOGLE.

Unique ideas
If you just “re-write” an existing article, Google will kinda know about it. Even if you use a thesaurus. Google wants to see unique ideas with unique answers.

Include photos
Readers love photos to help break up the content.

Creative headings
Try coming up with 5 different versions of a heading and ask friends and family to choose which one they are most interested in. Here’s an example….

Mowing a lawn in Aspley
OR
You’ll never guess what I found while mowing a lawn in Aspley

Use BuzzFeed.com for creative ideas on excellent article headings.

Where to publish?
Usually I’d publish an article on my own website, but it is also an advantage to publish your hard work on a different website. See links for more information on this.

How often?
As often as you can. Once a week would be ideal if you are starting out, until you are beating your competition. Then once a month should be fine to keep your ranking for a particular suburb.

What about home page content?
Your home page needs content too! Update this content at least once a month.

What about keywords in my lawn mowing content?
Can I just mention words I want to rank for all the time? NO NO NO NO. This is called keyword spam and will have you banned by Google. It’s good to mention important words that you want to rank for, but they need to flow naturally in your content. For example…

BAD: I was mowing a lawn last week in Aspley for a lawn mowing customer and I found an old shoe in some long grass that I was mowing. Luckily my lawn mower made by Victor mowers missed it. I stopped my lawn mowing and inside the shoe was a lawn mowing wallet with $500 in it. Mowing paused while I returned it to John, the lawn mowing customer who left me a $20 reward for mowing his lawn. I was very happy mowing lawns that day for lawn mowing in Aspley.

GOOD: I was mowing a lawn last week in Aspley and I found an old shoe in some long grass. Luckily my Victor mower missed. Inside the shoe was a wallet with $500 in it. I returned it to John, the owner who left me a $20 reward for the job and the shoe. I was very happy.

Lots of meta tags?
These don’t matter anymore. Words in your content are what matters.

 

Links. What are they? Do I need them? How do I get ’em?

 

Links are those what makes webpages work. Anything you click on that takes you to another page, is a link. They are important because Google uses them to measure how good a website is. Better links = better website. You don’t need 1000’s of links. If your competition doesn’t have many, you may only need a few good ones.

Older is better
 
If someone is linking to you for a year, Google will like this much more than a link that has existed for only a week. Like a fine Scotch Whisky, older is better. Google does this as a mechanism to fight link buying and selling. Moral of the story… 1. A link will become more valuable over time. 2. NEVER BUY LINKS.

Where to get links?

• Ask everyone you know to consider linking to you from their website.
• Go to networking events in your industry. Maybe a gardening meetup? Sponsor one of the events with a free lawn mow and they might link to you.
• Ask a gardening website if you can write an article for them about 3 tips to a green lawn, in return for a link back to your site.
• Ask friends, families, partners, associates and customers who own websites. Maybe your local mower repair shop?
• Facebook. Gumtree, your Google Maps listing. These may not help directly, but they are easy and can’t hurt.
• Local newspapers. Offer free lawn mowing to their readers for as a prize?
• Negotiate with competitors. What can you do for them? Send them a short two sentence email.
• Pay it forward. Ask what you can do for others. They may want to link to you if you hint at it.

 

Varied link text is important

You don’t want all of your links to be “lawn mowing”. Google expects it to be varied. For example:

• YOURBUSINESSNAME (this can be as often as you like)
• YOURWEBSITE.com (this one can be as often as you like)
• Lawn mowing (don’t overuse)
• Lawn mowing with YOURBUSINESSNAME
• Cheap lawn mowing in SUBURB (don’t overuse)
• Click here (yes, if you have 100 links, Google would expect some of them to be “click here” because that is natural)
• If you need to get your lawn mowed, check out COMPANYNAME (yes, websites naturally link like this sometimes)

 

Links within relevant content is the best kind of link

The best kind of link is in the content on a page that’s about lawn mowing.

The worst kind of link is on a links page on a page that isn’t about lawn mowing.

 

Spy on your competition’s links, for ideas

You can spy on your competitors links by visiting sites such as: http://OpenSiteExplorer.org

 

Suggested Reading about SEO

 

http://moz.com

http://inbound.org

 

You don’t have to be perfect.

You only have to be better than your competition.

 

 

Questions?

If you have any questions about lawn mowing SEO, please leave them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer them for you.