How to Get More Landscaping Customers: The Complete 2026 Growth Guide for Landscaping & Lawn Care Companies

If your phone isn’t ringing as often as it used to — or you’re tired of relying on word-of-mouth and hoping the slow season doesn’t kill your cash flow — you’re not alone. Most landscaping companies are sitting on enormous growth potential they’re simply not tapping into.

This guide covers every proven strategy to get more landscaping customers: from quick wins you can implement this week to long-term systems that will keep your schedule fully booked year-round. Whether you’re a solo operator looking to hire your first crew or a multi-truck operation trying to scale past $1M, these tactics apply directly to you.

The Opportunity at a Glance:

• 97% of consumers search online before hiring a local service — if you’re invisible online, you’re losing jobs daily
• $153 Billion was spent in the U.S. landscaping market in 2024 — and most companies in your area have weak or no digital presence
• ~80% of landscaping businesses haven’t invested in real SEO — a massive window of opportunity
• 76% of local mobile searches result in a business visit or call within 24 hours

1. Nail Your Google Business Profile (Free, Highest ROI)

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single highest-leverage free tool available to you. When someone searches ‘landscaper near me’ or ‘lawn care [your city],’ the businesses that appear in the Map Pack — those top 3 results with the map — get the overwhelming majority of calls. This is where the phone rings.

What to do right now:

• Claim and verify your profile at business.google.com if you haven’t already
• Choose the right primary category: ‘Landscaper’ or ‘Lawn Care Service’ — not a generic option
• Add every service you offer as individual services with descriptions and prices if possible
• Upload 20+ high-quality photos: before-and-after transformations, your crew in action, equipment, finished projects
• Set your service area to every city and ZIP code you actually serve
• Post weekly updates — jobs completed, seasonal offers, tips — Google rewards active profiles
• Actively solicit reviews from your happy clients
• Respond to every review, positive and negative, within 24 hours

💡 Pro Tip: The #1 factor in ranking in the Map Pack is the volume and recency of your Google reviews. After every job, text your customer a direct link to your review page. A simple ask at the right moment converts happy customers into 5-star reviews. Target at least 2–3 new reviews per month minimum.

2. Build a Website That Actually Converts

Most landscaping websites are digital brochures — they exist, but they don’t work. A high-performing landscaping website is built around one goal: turning visitors into phone calls and contact form submissions.

Core pages every landscaping website needs:

• Homepage: Clear headline stating who you serve and what you do, with a prominent phone number and call-to-action above the fold
• Individual service pages: One page per service (lawn maintenance, landscape design, sod installation, irrigation, etc.) — never lump them all together
• City/area pages: A dedicated page for every city or neighborhood you serve
• Gallery/portfolio: Before-and-after photos organized by project type
• Reviews page: Embed your Google reviews directly on your site
• Contact page: Phone number, contact form, and an embedded Google Map

Conversion must-haves:

• Your phone number in the top right corner of every page, clickable on mobile
• A clear, simple contact form (name, phone, service needed, ZIP code — nothing more)
• Load time under 3 seconds — slow sites lose customers before they even see your services
• Mobile-friendly design — 70%+ of your visitors are on phones
• Trust signals: years in business, number of projects completed, license and insurance badges

If you’re not comfortable creating your own website, let SEO For Home Service’s Landscaper Web Design and Development service build one for you. We even include a free website in select Landscaper SEO tiers.

3. Invest in Local SEO (Your Long-Term Lead Machine)

Local SEO is how you get your website ranking on page 1 of Google for searches like ‘landscaping company [city]’ or ‘lawn care [city].’ Unlike paid ads, Landscaping SEO builds over time and keeps generating leads long after you stop actively working on it.

The foundations of local SEO for landscapers:

• Keyword targeting: Build dedicated service pages around specific landscaping keywords — ‘lawn maintenance [county],’ ‘irrigation system installation [city],’ etc.
• City landing pages: Create a unique page for each city you serve with genuinely local content — never copy-paste the same page with a different city name
• On-page optimization: Every page needs a title tag, meta description, H1 heading, and body content that naturally includes your target keyword
• Content marketing: Publish blog posts answering questions your customers are actually searching for
• Backlink building: Get other local websites to link to yours — local chambers, supplier websites, local news coverage, and industry directories all count
• Technical SEO: Ensure your site loads fast, has no broken links, is indexed by Google, and has proper schema markup

✅ Realistic timeline: SEO typically takes 3–6 months to show meaningful results and 9–12 months to reach its full potential. Companies that start now will dominate their local markets by next season. Companies that wait will be playing catch-up while competitors collect the leads.

4. Run Google Local Service Ads (Pay-Per-Lead, Not Pay-Per-Click)

Google Local Service Ads (LSAs) are different from regular Google Ads. Instead of paying for clicks to your website, you pay only when a potential customer calls or messages you directly. You also get a ‘Google Guaranteed’ badge, which dramatically increases trust.

Why LSAs work well for landscapers:

• You only pay for actual leads — not wasted clicks
• The ‘Google Guaranteed’ badge converts skeptical customers faster
• They appear above regular ads and organic results — maximum visibility
• You can pause anytime during slow season or when you’re at capacity

Getting started:

• Apply at ads.google.com/local-services-ads — you’ll need to pass a background check and verify your license and insurance
• Set a weekly budget and choose your service categories
• Respond to leads within minutes — LSA rewards fast responders with more leads
• Mark leads as ‘booked’ to help Google optimize who sees your ads

5. Master Follow-Up and Lead Nurturing

One of the biggest leaks in most landscaping businesses isn’t getting leads — it’s what happens after the lead comes in. Studies show that contacting a lead within 5 minutes makes you 9 times more likely to convert them. Most landscapers call back hours later, or not at all.

Build a simple follow-up system:

• Respond to every inquiry within 5 minutes during business hours
• Use a CRM like Jobber or Service Titan to track every lead
• Send an automatic text confirmation when someone submits a contact form
• Follow up with un-booked estimates 2–3 times over 2 weeks — most sales happen on the 2nd or 3rd contact
• After a job is complete, send a follow-up asking for a Google review and offering a referral discount

6. Leverage Referrals and Strategic Partnerships

Word-of-mouth is still the most trusted form of marketing — but most landscapers leave it to chance. Building a structured referral system turns your happy customers into a consistent source of new business.

Referral tactics that work:

• Offer a referral incentive: $50 off their next service for every new customer they send you who books a job
• After every completed job: ‘If you know anyone who needs lawn care, I’d really appreciate the referral — here’s a couple of my cards’
• Partner with complementary businesses: real estate agents, pool companies, pressure washers, fence contractors, and roofers
• Join your local Chamber of Commerce and attend networking events — commercial property managers and HOA reps are gold
• Build relationships with new construction developers — getting on their preferred vendor list can mean dozens of jobs per year

7. Use Social Media to Stay Top of Mind

Social media for landscapers isn’t about going viral — it’s about staying visible to the people in your community who will eventually need your services.

What actually moves the needle:

• Post before-and-after photos consistently — these outperform every other type of content for landscapers
• Share short videos of your crew doing impressive work — time-lapse transformations get huge organic reach
• Post seasonal tips and reminders that build authority and trust
• Run a simple Facebook or Instagram ad targeting homeowners within 15 miles of your business — start with $10/day
• Join local Facebook community groups and participate genuinely — answer landscaping questions, share tips, build a reputation as the local expert

💡 The 80/20 rule for landscaping social media: 80% valuable content (before/afters, tips, behind-the-scenes), 20% promotional (offers, services, calls to action). Too much selling kills engagement. Too little and nobody calls.

8. Manage Your Online Reputation Aggressively

Your online reputation is your most valuable business asset — and most landscapers ignore it entirely until something goes wrong. The goal is to accumulate enough 5-star reviews that a handful of negative ones can’t hurt you.

Reputation building checklist:

• Set a goal of getting at least 2 new Google reviews per month — track it like any other KPI
• Create a simple review request text script and use it after every job
• Respond to every review: thank positive reviewers by name, respond to negative reviews with empathy and a solution
• Monitor Yelp, Facebook, and HomeAdvisor reviews as well

9. Upsell and Retain Your Existing Customers

Getting a new customer costs 5–7x more than keeping an existing one. The fastest path to growing revenue often isn’t finding new customers — it’s selling more to the ones you already have.

Upsell and retention strategies:

• Annual maintenance agreements: Offer a monthly retainer for recurring lawn care — predictable revenue for you, convenience for them
• Seasonal upsells: Spring cleanups, fall leaf removal, holiday lighting installation, mulch refresh
• Project upsells: During routine maintenance, note and quote on improvements you observe
• Annual review call: Call your top 20% of customers each year just to check in and ask about upcoming projects
• Loyalty discount: Customers who have been with you 3+ years get a small loyalty discount to dramatically reduce churn

10. Track Everything and Double Down on What Works

The landscaping companies that grow fastest aren’t necessarily doing more — they’re doing the right things more. That starts with knowing where your leads come from.

Basic tracking every landscaper should do:

• Ask every new lead: ‘How did you hear about us?’ and record the answer
• Set up Google Analytics on your website to see visitors, page behavior, and contact conversions
• Use Google Search Console to see which search terms are bringing people to your site
• Track your close rate: how many estimates do you send vs. how many jobs do you book?
• Review your numbers quarterly and reallocate budget from low-performing channels to high-performing ones

Your Priority Action Plan: What to Do First to Get More Landscaping Customers

Don’t try to do everything at once. Here’s the order that will generate results fastest:

1. This week: Optimize your Google Business Profile completely and send review requests to your last 10 customers
2. This month: Audit your website for conversion basics — phone number visible, fast load time, mobile-friendly, clear calls to action
3. Next 90 days: Build out individual service pages and city landing pages optimized for local search
4. Ongoing: Publish 2 blog posts per month, collect reviews consistently, follow up on every lead within 5 minutes, and post to social media weekly

✅ The bottom line: Most of your competitors are doing none of these things systematically. Consistency is what will beat the landscaper down the street. Start with your Google Business Profile today. Everything compounds from there.

Dominate Local Search in Your Market

SEO For Home Service specializes exclusively in helping landscaping, lawn care, and other home service companies get more customers through local SEO — with ZIP code exclusivity, so we never work with your competitors. We’re here to help YOU get more landscaping customers.