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This is the Branded Bull Podcast, a show dedicated to helping take your business to the next level with winning marketing and branding tips and strategies built for today's competitive world. Ready for your business to make its mark and stand out from the competition? Let's get into it.

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Welcome back to another episode of the Branding Bull Podcast. Hey guys, Adam Fullerton here. I'm your host for this episod. And this is the show built for lawn care and landscaping businesses who want to stand out, get found, and win more work. And chances are, if you do run a lawn care or landscaping business and you're tuning in, then you've probably heard the term SEO or search engine optimization thrown around quite a bit. And maybe someone's told you just like on this podcast, that it's important and something to pay attention to and something you need for your website or your Google business profile to rank higher. And inside the world of SEO, there's one term that confuses a lot of green industry business owners. And hey, today we're going to break that down for you guys. That is the term backlinks. So what are backlinks? Why does Google care about them? And most importantly, how can you guys listening actually get them to improve your ranking? That's what we're going to be breaking on breaking down today. So first and foremost, what is a backlink? Let's start simple. A backlink is when another website links to your website. That's it. It's that simple. For example, if you have a local chamber of commerce that lists your landscaping or lawn care business on their website and links to you in your website, that is called a backlink. If a supplier mentions your company on their website and links to your homepage, that's a backlink. If a local blog writes about top landscaping companies in your city and includes your website, that's a backlink. So basically, think of backlinks like votes of credibility on the Internet. When another website links to your website, Google interprets that as a signal that your business is legitimate, it's trustworthy, and it's relevant. And the more quality backlinks that you have, the stronger that signal becomes. So let's talk about why backlinks matter for you guys listening, right? Let's expand on that. At the end of the day, Google has one main objective. Deliver the best and the most trustworthy results. When someone searches for something like lawn care near me or landscaping company in whichever city or best landscaper for best patio installation, the list goes on and on, right? And Google has to decide which businesses Deserve to show up first or not a big fan of the word deserve, but have earned the right to show up first. Earned is a better way. Because it's not like backlinks just pop out of nowhere. You have to earn those backlinks. You have to work for them. And backlinks are one of the signals that Google uses to make that decision. So if two landscaping companies or two lawn care companies have similar websites, similar services and similar reviews on their profile, but one of them has 10, let's say, reputable websites or backlinks linking to theirs, Google will usually see that company as more credible. So in simple terms, more quality backlinks equals more authority, which equals better chances of ranking higher. And for businesses doing under a million dollars, you guys listening? That is huge. This matters a lot because you're competing locally, right? Not regionally, not nationally. Locally, that's massive. That means even a handful, just a handful of strong local backlinks can make a noticeable difference for your website, for your Google business profile, and where things rank. Now that said, keep in mind, not all backlinks are created equal. And here's something important to understand. Not all backlinks carry the same weight in terms of impact. A link from a random, low quality website might do almost nothing. But a link from a trusted local organization can be very, very powerful. And for lawn care companies, for landscaping companies, some of the most valuable backlinks typically come from your local chamber of commerce, community organizations, local news websites, suppliers or vendor websites, local business directories, sponsorship pages for events or sporting teams. I mean, the list goes on and on. And Google tends to again, trust these types of websites because they are real organizations connected to real communities. And that's exactly the type of credibility that Google is trying to measure. So here's some actionable ways that you guys listening can get backlinks. Let's talk about first a few practical ways, right? The best thing to realize, I guess is you don't need a crazy expensive SEO agency to do these for you, but they do exist out there. You just, you can do this yourself and you can be very, very intentional. First, join your local chamber of commerce. This one is by far one of the easiest wins and most chambers of commerce's, most chambers of commerce, I should say, have a member directory on their website. And when you join your, your business usually gets a listing that includes a link to your website. That's awesome. That's legitimate. And that local backlink to Google or that's a legitimate backlink that Google will recognize, right? Number two, get listed on local business directories. So your Google business profile, Yelp, Angie's List, Houzz, next door, local city directories. I mean, many of these include the opportunity to get your business listed or your website listed, which would then, of course, like I said, create a backlink for your business, for your website. And while each individual link may not be, you know, a massive, massive impact together, all of this works to strengthen that trust signal to strengthen your online presence in Google's eyes. Another thing you can do is partner with local businesses. You know, think about businesses that serve the same customers you do. You know, maybe, maybe there's pool companies, fence installation companies, tree service companies, irrigation specialists, hardscape suppliers. I mean, the list again goes on and on. You can Google any of these things or chatgpt just to find examples of companies that might be relevant to you. And I mean, honestly, some of the times these companies have partner pages and recommended contractor lists on their own websites. And if you can get on their website, that again, is huge. And it's as simple as starting with a simple conversation with those companies. And hey, maybe you guys can get backlinks for one another and turn that into a partnership, right? Another option is to sponsor local events or teams. Little league teams are, you know, all over the place. We hear about it all the time, community festivals, charity events. I mean, many of these organizations list sponsors on their websites and those sponsor pages often include again, links to the businesses supporting the event or the team or the, the, the activity, whatever it might be. So this is a good way to get involved and it's a good way to boost your SEO with the backlink. So I guess it's kind of two birds with one stone. Another option, like I said, suppliers, you know, ask your suppliers. Some landscaping suppliers highlight contractors they work with. And if you buy materials from a local supplier regularly, ask if they have a contractor directory or a partner page that you can get listed on. And if they do, like I said, ask to be listed on it. That's another great way to get another backlink. One important rule though I want to talk about just very quickly before we wrap all this up, is that you want to make sure you're avoiding spammy backlink services that promise hundreds of backlinks overnight. Google is smart enough to detect those and they often come from low quality websites that can actually hurt your ranking. And if you're trying to cheat the system, so to speak. So for you guys listening, for lawn care landscaping business owners, the goal isn't hundreds and hundreds of links it's to make sure you have a handful, at a minimum, a handful of legitimate local backlinks. 10 strong local backlinks can be far more valuable than hundreds and hundreds of junk backlinks. And so again, listen to the podcast if you're looking for ideas on a way to generate backlinks. But it's extremely, extremely important. It's something that you pursue and use to your advantage because a lot of your competitors don't know what backlinks are, how to generate them or how to get them. And if you're trying to rank higher, it's one of the biggest ways to do that. So I know backlinks might sound technical, but the idea is actually pretty darn simple. They're just signals of trust that Google uses utilizes when determining which businesses are legitimate. And when other websites again link to your landscaping website or link to your lawn care website, Google sees that as a sign that your company is again, credible and trustworthy and worth showing in the search results. So that's what I've got for you guys. Again, if you start with things like the local chamber of commerce or local partnerships, supplier relationships, you're already going to be ahead of most of your competitors and that's a great place to begin. And if you do want to learn more about the local SEO service we offer, which we work on backlinks with you, citations, posting to your Google business profile, optimizing your profile, giving you a robust dashboard. To learn more about where your local SEO is or how it's performing in the areas of opportunity, including backlinks, sign up or check it out@brandable.com but guys, that's what I've got for you. Soft plug there. If you want to learn more, you can always contact us, reach out brandable.com but yeah, backlinks are super important for your SEO, for your local visibility and can definitely help you stand out from the competition. And so yeah, that's what backlinks are. Make it simple. Get listed on other websites that are credible and drive those websites to your website or get that link from their website to your website. You get the idea. So anyway, that's what I've got, guys. Hopefully this is valuable. And as always, if you do like listening to the podcast, subscribe for new episodes every single Tuesday. And then if you like what you hear as well you find it valuable, consider leaving that five star review wherever you're listening. But hey, that's us. That's it for this week. That's what backlinks are all about. And how it can impact your growth and your SEO. So thank you again for tuning in. And as always, guys, I'll catch you on the next episode. Take care.