Farmers’ Guide to Understanding SEO
Cultivating Digital Growth for Modern Farms
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is used by many businesses to rank high in search engine result pages to attract more organic traffic. Using tactics to make your website easy to navigate and specific to your geographical area and products, your Farm can use SEO to become more visible online to Buyers - reducing your costs to acquire more customers.
It is crucial to keep your website information up to date and relevant, such as your contact page, schedule for markets or on-Farm events, product mix, image and video descriptions (known as alt-text), and any blogs or recipe pages. Share your agricultural practices and where your business is located to improve visibility in searches when Buyers search for information about local Farms. SEO does not have to be a daunting task, and it is important to understand its role, as well as misconceptions.
Here are 3 things to understand about SEO for your Farm:
1. Why SEO Matters for Farms
Investing in an SEO strategy is important in helping your Farm connect with local customers. Consider that when you are researching for a business or service in your area, you typically will type in ‘Product’ or ‘Service’ in ‘City’ or ‘State.’ For example, Honda Mechanics in Nashville, TN, or Barbershop in Savannah, GA. This is the same for your potential Buyers, who may be researching ‘Grassfed Beef in Minneapolis, MN’ or ‘Pastured Poultry in Charleston, SC’. This is why it is crucial to have this information up-to-date on your website.
A higher ranking on the search engine results page will increase your Farm’s visibility and brand authority. As a result, Farmers on page 1 or 2 are likely to attract more organic, unpaid traffic, versus a Farm on the 5th page of Google search results. Typically, we trust businesses that have greater visibility, as opposed to a business that is buried in an obscure location. When Buyers are researching a product or service, they will typically select one of the first 5 - 7 options they discover. Ranking well in search engines can help drive direct sales to your online store and foster community engagement for your Farm.
However, as an Independent Farmer, you do not need to stress over the exact spot of your Farm website in search engines (e.g., you do not have to be number one). Nor do you need to spend hours of your time and money to improve your SEO placement. Using simple, practical tactics can help boost your exposure with local Buyers, spurring more traffic and sales.
2. Misconceptions About SEO
There are many misconceptions about SEO that may cause your Farm to lose time and money. Number one (#1), SEO is just one of many tactics to acquire customers; SEO is not the holy grail, and it does not guarantee specific outcomes. It is best to learn how SEO can help your Farm, and the ongoing efforts it truly takes to maintain your position. SEO can take a while to pick up attention on the results page (often 6 -12 months), so there is no need to check it daily. Instead, routinely refresh the content on your website to ensure it is attractive to potential Buyers and up-to-date.
Another misconception is that you must pay someone to run your SEO efforts. Most Farmers can manage their SEO strategy with routine efforts to update their website to help improve visibility in search engine results. Your website content, alt-text and backlinks are all free tactics that can be maintained and updated routinely. Instead of spending money with a digital agency, simply plan ahead to refresh your website assets quarterly or semi-annually to maintain accurate and relevant content.
Lastly, people believe the misconception that SEO will quickly bring hundreds of customers to their website. Improved search engine rankings are often a slow process and do not guarantee an influx of visitors. Instead, a good SEO strategy simply ensures that Buyers with good search intent should discover your Farm quickly, access your website, and increase the chances of a purchase. You want to attract your ideal local customer, not some random person on the other side of the nation. In the best case, SEO helps your Farm improve visibility among your ideal, local customers. Be sure to include your city name and state in content throughout all the pages on your website. Additionally, include any local businesses, Farmers Markets or other locations where your products may be featured or available (include hyperlinks to those other local businesses and venues).
3. Practical SEO Strategies for your Farm
To help improve your local search visibility, create a Google My Business Profile for your Farm. This will create a business listing for your Farm when it populates in the search engine, with photos, contact information, store hours (if applicable), map links, and details on your products. This is a free listing process offered by Google, and will help your Farm stand out to Buyers as a professional business, show up on Google Map results and directions, and enable Buyers to leave reviews and testimonials for potential customers to read.
When it comes to your most loyal customers, offer them a $10 promo code for a 5-star review of your Farm business and products. The more Google Reviews, the better for your business and authority. Always respond to reviews (positive or negative) with a gracious tone.
On your website, post high-quality content that captures your mission, values, story and products. Keywords that describe your operation will help your Farm rank higher in the local search engine results. Consider blogging about life on your Farm, and/or posting recipes for your products. You do not need dozens of pages; it is more important that the content on your Farm website is high-quality, authentic and valuable to potential customers. Be sure to include location details and or local landmarks in your website content to help improve indexing in local search results.
Always keep your contact information updated, including featured venues to access your products (restaurants, grocers), attendance at Farmers Market locations, upcoming events, and any other useful details for Buyers. If your information is outdated, it may lead to a non-ideal customer perusing your website, or a missed sales opportunity from a potential Buyer. During your website creation with Barn2Door, our design team helps optimize your entire website to help your Farm improve search engine rankings, access to target customers, and increase your visibility online.
Conclusion
SEO is an important tactic for your Farm business, but not something to stress over, spend countless hours, and / or throw money trying to ‘perfect’. It is a free tool that can help increase your visibility through valuable, updated content added to your website. Consider working with a team (like Barn2Door) that can help you optimize your website during the design process to provide a foundation for your Farm’s SEO strategy, and help make optimizing your website easy and stress-free. Start building your Farm’s robust online presence to connect with your local community across all digital channels.
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to create and promote their brand, sell online and in-person, and save time managing their business. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.