Garden centers: The search is on for your Web site

Steve Cissel is founder and CEO of 10-20 Media, an Internet publishing company with specialized knowledge of the green industry. He also writes the blog Dot Common Sense. Today he discusses a way to be recognized by search engines.

At the ANLA Management Clinic in February, I reviewed more than 150 web sites for search engine optimization (SEO) structure, and all failed.

Is it any wonder that our green industry businesses are not showing up in the search engines? We are not being found. When consumers can't find the information they're looking for about our lawn and garden businesses, they pursue other things -- like doing research on buying a big screen TV. This information can be found online easily.

Now I'm not saying that you did anything wrong when you built your Web site initially. Everybody (OK, almost everybody) is in the same ‘lame Web site’ boat. What I am saying is that it's time to upgrade your site accordingly with sound SEO structure.

Data from many sources tells us that an Internet search -- or research on the Internet -- influences 70% or more of consumer purchases, and these dollars are being spent locally. Here is a graph that explains it.

So what does it mean to SEO your site? It means that your site needs to have pages for specific search terms. One of the most glaring weaknesses for the garden centers and nurseries that I reviewed was the lack of a page dedicated to the keyword ‘plants.’

Use any keyword suggestion tool and you will find that the keyword ‘plants’ is a jugular vein for traffic.

Another component of SEO is the geographical parameters of a page. More than 40% of searches have a geographical qualifier as part of the keyword. For example, if I do a search for ‘plants 54321’ (54321 = ZIP code). Will you be found? Most the time I see geographical information on the ‘contact us’ page only. Big mistake. People don't search for ‘contact us 54321.’

Bottom line is that a Web site needs to be constructed with individual pages that represent profit centers of the business, and each of those pages needs to be optimized for keywords that get traffic. Then, geographical information needs to be blended into the pages so that your business shows up in the search results covering the geographical reach of your business -- the areas beyond your immediate ZIP code.

If you decide to SEO your Web site sooner than later, you'll have first-mover advantage. The majority of green industry businesses have not awakened to SEO.

Wait? No telling what the price will be to play catch-up.

-- Steve Cissell