How to grow a landscaping business?

The James Dooley podcast brings James Dooley and Kasra Dash together to explain how landscaping companies can scale effectively by adopting modern, measurable marketing strategies. They discuss why traditional advertising often delivers weak returns, because offline channels lack transparency and performance tracking. James Dooley outlines how SEO fuels long-term growth by building branded demand, as optimised content establishes trust and positions a landscaping business as the obvious local choice.

Kasra Dash expands on the role of social media as a visual trust engine, showing how before-and-after imagery and project videos strengthen credibility in a highly visual industry. The conversation also highlights why PPC frequently erodes margins, as rising competition and click fraud inflate acquisition costs. In contrast, retargeting improves conversion rates by keeping a brand visible to prospects who have already shown intent. The episode concludes by positioning FatRank as a predictable growth partner, explaining how exclusive, real-time leads create immediate revenue opportunities for landscaping businesses without the uncertainty of upfront advertising spend.

Creators and Guests

Host

James Dooley

James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

James Dooley: So how do I grow a landscaping company.

Kasra Dash: So that is a great question that we get asked quite a lot. For landscaping companies looking to grow there are different methods. All the traditional methods are places like billboard advertising, TV advertising, radio advertising, magazines and stuff like that. But I tend to stay away from traditional nowadays. It is expensive and it is hard to track KPIs.

James Dooley: So generally speaking the best methods, if I fresh them all out and then we can discuss further. The best ways to grow a landscaping company would be SEO, search engine optimisation through your website. We can expand on that in a minute with regards to content, topical authority and links.

You have got PPC which is bidding at the top of Google per click. Very expensive for landscaping but it can literally generate new leads today. Then you have being active on social media accounts. Making certain your brand has social media everywhere. That could be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and maybe even Pinterest because landscaping companies do quite a lot of nice visual jobs. If you can get some images and videos put on there for the landscaping jobs that you have done it can work very well.

Then you have social media advertising. You definitely should be getting the retargeting pixel on your website. That means if they did not inquire you are still following them and showing them ads on social media like Facebook. Social media ads that could work well for landscaping would be Pinterest ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Twitter ads or YouTube ads.

And then the last method we can touch upon is actually hiring a lead generation company.

Kasra Dash: So over at FatRank.com they have a no risk supply of inquiries if accepted. They do quite a lot of work with different landscaping companies whether that is landscaping for a public open space like a park or general landscaping and tree planting. There are lots of different sub niches within landscaping where they can help companies. I would strongly recommend getting in touch with FatRank.com to see whether you are accepted.

If you are not accepted they pass you on to someone they feel would suit your needs. That could be a PPC expert or an SEO expert.

James Dooley: But for landscaping companies looking to grow, what would you say out of the list are the best two or three things to do.

Kasra Dash: Definitely avoid traditional advertising. There is no chance I am sticking my brand on a billboard down the motorway that nobody sees. SEO from my own website. I would be attuned to that because it is a long term play but you are also building up an asset. If you are looking to sell your business in five or six years' time and your website generates its own inquiries that increases your business valuation.

PPC I have had bad experiences with so I avoid it at all costs. The issue is that you are paying per click. You then need to dig down into exactly what keywords convert into orders. There is a lot of click fraud. Competitors click on your ad to see the landing page. In the landscaping industry it is about ten to twelve dollars per click. Your competitor clicks on it and it just cost you fifteen dollars.

So if your daily spend is forty five dollars that is a quarter of your budget gone just like that.

James Dooley: So if I am an established landscaping company and have a couple thousand or four thousand pounds to spend I will definitely invest that into SEO. If I am less established and do not have the cash I would go down the route of organic social media posts.

Kasra Dash: If I am being honest I would probably do both if I am established and I would also be looking to do social media ads. Getting people back onto the website. You know this yourself. If you go on ASOS and look at shoes then load up Facebook those shoes appear to you. It is like an online digital billboard. That is retargeting.

James Dooley: If you are a landscaping company and you are looking to grow online my best methods are start SEO. Not just for higher rankings but for branding. Look at your reviews. Make certain that if you are up against another competitor and your prices are similar and the client searches your name your brand looks strong.

Have you got lots of five star reviews. Nice photos of previous jobs. Case studies. Testimonials. Videos. I would be looking to do everything I can on your own website. But the truth is it can be demoralising when you are doing everything right and still not getting consistent leads.

To compensate that alongside everything you are doing yourself, and like Kasra Dash said, you are improving the valuation of your company if you can generate your own leads. However instantly I would team up with a company like FatRank that can give you no risk inquiries so you only pay for jobs that you win.

If you signed up with FatRank for lead generation and you are doing SEO and reputation management it compensates each other. Your conversion would be a lot better if you do both plays.

Kasra Dash: I think that is it. If you do have a landscaping company and you want a consultation call with us, maybe to guide you, check out FatRank. The link will be in the description.