4 reasons why local SEO marketing matters to your garden centre

Did you know 46% of the search queries on Google are to look up “local” information? Interesting figure but it might be a bit abstract. So think about it yourself: how often have you gone to Google to look up something like “coffee shop nearby” or “floristry in my area”? It’s so common to do this most people aren’t aware of it! 

The process of getting local consumers from Google to your website or, even better, to your garden centre, is called local SEO marketing. 

In this blog, we’ll share 4 reasons with you why local SEO marketing is important for your garden centre and, of course, we’ll give you tips on how to apply local SEO marketing.

 

1. How to find a store to buy products?

How do you find a store to buy fruit trees? You might remember you’ve read something about a store promoting grow your own fruit a few months ago in a local newspaper. Or perhaps you can call your friend to give you some tips. 

How often have you been called by friends looking for a place to buy a fruit tree? And when was the last time you read ads in a newspaper?

Exactly. 

So the most obvious option is to go to Google and to search for “Fruit Trees Nottingham” if you are looking for fruit trees in Nottingham. 

In fact, 86% of the consumers do this and 72% of them pay a visit to a store after finding it on Google. For every 100 customers looking for a place to buy a fruit tree, 86 will end up on Google. 

That’s a lot of fruit trees you could sell if you would rank well. 

 

2. It’s not all about online shopping

Yes, online shopping is very convenient. You order something and within hours (Amazon Prime!) or a day, it’s delivered to your home. 

But people using Google aren’t necessarily always looking to buy online. 

It’s important to understand the intention of the user before making these assumptions. (As online marketers, we know assumptions are the mother of all ****-ups anyway since many people make decisions based on ideas and not on available data!).

What would the intention be of someone searching for “buy apple tree”? Most of the time, they want to buy an apple tree online. Otherwise, the would search for “apple tree Nottingham”. 

Although people are using Google, you can’t conclude they are not interested in visiting your garden centre to buy an apple tree. 72% of the consumers who were looking for a local business decided to pay a visit to one of them within a 5-mile radius. 

So even if people live close to your garden centre, they still will probably use Google to find you. 

It sounds odd, but the truth is not all consumers will know all businesses in their area by name. Nor will they understand what all these businesses are offering. 

 

3. Target your regulars!

Even your regular customers are using Google to find products and information. They aren’t aware you’re selling brand A or you just opened a new shop for brand B. 

So local SEO marketing doesn’t only bring in new customers, it will also help to stay in touch with your regulars.

An average garden centre has over 10,000 products on the shelves so it’s easy to see how customers might not be aware of everything you’re selling. 

Having a proper local SEO marketing strategy helps you to get both new and regular customers to your website & store. 

 

4. How to do proper local SEO marketing?

If we could pick one part of online marketing that should be more transparent, we would definitely pick SEO. Search engine optimisation is a long-term process with a lot of pitfalls. But also with a lot of options and choices to make. 

And some complicated aspects.  

This can be confusing since we might advise you to follow one strategy, another agency will burn this to the ground and advise a different local SEO marketing strategy. 

This makes it hard to find a partner to perform local SEO marketing but there’s always a solution: focus on the results and not on the process. Contact their existing customers, have a chat, and see what they think about it. 

Set out guidelines and goals and let the professionals do what they have to do. 

SEO is a job on its own, just like growing plants. Everyone can grow plants but professionals grow the best plants. Everyone can do SEO and will have an opinion about it, but down the line, only the results matter.

With 46% of the searches related to local businesses, local SEO marketing matters a lot to your garden centre. At Garden Connect we spend a lot of time, efforts and research on how to rank garden centres well on Google. 

You can contact us via info@gardenconnect.com for more information or take a look at our Local SEO Marketing page. Feel free to contact our customers to learn more about the way we work.

Either way, we look forward to hearing from you soon!