Carrying on from the detailed Updated Marketing Guide For Florists I wrote several months ago, I am specifically looking at why SEO is crucial for florists.
Your website visibility is of paramount importance for your floristry business. If it’s not visible to people searching for a florist to send flowers to, then you aren’t going to get any business. It’s like having the most beautiful store but closing the shutters and not encouraging people to enter.
SEO is the modern equivalent of a town crier telling everyone your store is open.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you read the updated florist digital marketing guide https://www.flowerstoreinabox.com.au/blog/marketing-guide-for-florists-2022/.
What is SEO in real terms?
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is making your website relevant for specific keywords and encouraging the search engines to show your site results to potential customers.
SEO is mainly achieved through the use of content and a well-designed website.
SEO is not one thing; it is the overarching term for a variety of different but related activities. These help “tell” the search engines (in particular Google) that your website and often specific pages are relevant for exact search phrases and terms.
SEO is achieved through:
- A well-designed website that is easy to navigate and use
- The unique content of high quality and relevant to the terms people are searching
- Good social reach IE well-trafficked Instagram and Facebook pages
- Quality links to your site from other high-quality websites
- Updated Google Business Listing
- Social Proof IE google and other reviews of your business.
Good SEO will save you money in the long term.
You will not need to spend as much on advertising if you rank highly for relevant search terms such as your delivery locations and the words flowers or florists. It also means that if you stop doing Adwords or other paid advertising, you will still get traffic to your site.
Good SEO will result in more sales.
If your website and pages are “relevant” for the search terms, then it’s likely that the traffic you get to your website will result in an online purchase.
SEO is important for ALL florists
There is a myth that I hear all the time that SEO is not relevant for florists. This could not be further from the truth! No matter how small or large your florist is, SEO always has a place for you.
The higher your rankings are, the more clicks you will get and the more sales you will generate.
It can be as simple as optimising your homepage for people searching for a florist in your specific location!
SEO is not too complicated or too expensive
You don’t have to have a degree in astrophysics to optimise your florist website for SEO; you can create your content too.
Some basic fundamentals of SEO are:
- Research keywords for your florist
- Analyse your competition
- Update your headings, meta titles and meta descriptions
- Create SEO suburb landing pages
- Set up and gather more google reviews
- Acquire Backlinks
- Update your Google Business Listing
Research keywords for your florist
You first need to choose the keywords people use to search for florists in your area. When researching your keywords, you can use a tool like SEMRUSH or the Google keyword planner in Google Adwords.
Most traffic to florist websites is based around the locations/suburbs with flowers/florists. To target these, you create SEO Suburb Landing Pages.
Analyse your competition
Once you have created a list of your keywords, go to Google, type in the keyword, and look at the search results, taking note of where they rank. Click through the pages and look at the page's quality. You can also use a tool like https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker to see who links these pages.
Update your headings, meta titles and meta descriptions
On-Page SEO is optimising your pages with the keywords in specific locations, including:
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- Headings
You should ensure that every page of your website has each of these elements and that you are using the keywords from your task one in these.
Create SEO suburb landing pages
To appear in the organic search results for these terms, you need to create unique landing pages known as SEO Suburb Landing Pages for each suburb you deliver to. These pages must be written to include high-quality, unique content about the suburb and targeted content that contains the most important search terms in headings and metadata.
I cannot stress enough that each of these pages must have high-quality and unique content. Content that is the same on every page with the suburb name changed will not rank well and can damage your SEO rankings.
Set up and gather more google reviews
Reviews Reviews Reviews!
It would be best to ask your customers for a review after the order has been delivered. You can also automate the process with your Flower Store In a Box website!
Google reviews are one of the most critical factors in local business marketing for a florist!
Acquire Backlinks
Backlinks are hugely important for a website’s SEO ranking, but they are the most difficult to achieve.
We always start with the lowest hanging flower *sorry, joke.
For a florist, these are the local business websites, florist directories, shopping centres and community blogs and pages.
Email the contacts and ask them to add your website
Update your Google Business Listing
Your Google Business Listing is the way you can tell Google about your business, and it’s the
“social proof” that google uses to verify your business details.
You can quickly add a new image to your business listing, maybe of a current arrangement that was particularly interesting!
SEO For Florists
As you can see, SEO is for every type of florist and is hugely impactful for your business. Following the basic steps in this guide, you will have a tangible impact on your business!
We offer limited SEO services, including creating high-quality SEO Suburb Landing Pages. Get in touch and see how we can help accelerate your SEO!
