Repositioning a client in Google and a new market space

When Oxfordshire landscape gardener Charles Hoare contacted me to work with him and his partner Rebecca, the idea was to professionalise the company's online presence so it reflected the nature of the business more accurately. Charles and Rebecca had a simple Wordpress site made up of very little content (a paragraph about the business, a gallery of previous projects and a contact form), which was fine when the business was just getting off the ground, but now the company had grown and needed a website to demonstrate that it wasn't just Charles doing the work; there's a team of professional landscapers supporting him. Furthermore, as the website had not been touched for a couple of years, it had gradually slipped off the Google radar and was positioned on page 5 or lower for the primary search terms. In addition to designing and building the new site, I worked with Rebecca on the site structure and copywriting with search engines (and humans!) in mind, reviewing the content and making recommendations for tailoring the content to fit common search terms in their area.

I also set up and configured their Google Business page, to ensure their business was appearing on Google Maps, and to allow sharing of content, gathering of reviews, and communicating with customers.

We used Squarespace for their website, with quite a few design customisations, and the results can be seen here:

Charles Hoare's Oxfordshire landscape gardening website

Design-wise, Rebecca and Charles wanted to reposition themselves as a polished, trustworthy, professional company, so we used a muted colour palette with a stone texture in the background, accompanied by some visual trustmarks in the footer of each page, to emphasise the company's exceptional reputation. The overall impression is one of sophistication and quality, which chimes with the company approach.

The website now includes a lot more content, making it easier for potential customers to see the full range of services that Charles and his team can offer, and it also includes a place for Charles and Rebecca to publish gardening tips, not only as a means of giving free advice to demonstrate their expertise, but also to help communicate their personality as a family-run business. After all, who can help but fall in love with Monty the dog?

We're all quite pleased with the site, but the important thing is that I can now report that the Charles Hoare website is on Google page 1 for many important search terms, such as "oxfordshire landscaping" and "commercial gardening oxfordshire". They're still on page 2 for some highly competitive terms - some of their business competitors have the advantage of a longer history and richer content - but I'm sure that Charles and Rebecca will be able to move ahead even further should they apply some of the recommended techniques I suggested for boosting their "Google juice" with great content, social media and reviews.

If this kind of project sounds like something you've got in the pipeline, feel free to get in touch to discuss your needs.