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Small Biz Seeking Adventurous SEO Partner - Must Value Local & Sustainable

Writer's picture: Kyle KearnsKyle Kearns

Let's put it out there! Ajna Stonescapes is looking to start a new business relationship in 2025. We want to find an SEO firm who will partner with us to help advance our mission of sustainable landscaping.


Why we – a small, local, sustainable business – are looking for a special SEO partner?


Since starting my business, I have been aware of the complicated digital marketing arena in which we are all forced to compete. It would be easiest for us, Ajna Stonescapes, to simply identify which tier we might thrive in and successfully execute a digital marketing strategy that is within our budget, and which includes basic SEO and minor to moderate ad spending. Arguably it would be even easier to just throw our hands up, waive the white flag, and stick solely to posting on Facebook town pages and a variety of other free social media platforms. Of course, our company does not stand for doing only what is easiest. We stand for quality.

 

By engaging absent mindedly in standard practice SEO tactics, we would join the digital marketing “rat race” with our fellow peers. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing services are, at their core, simply a bidding war. In general, the rule that I have observed is that the more highly competitive the market is for these digital services, the higher the price tag. That is because of consumer behavioral trends regarding online search, combined with Google search reducing available page one real estate for organic content choices (The Shrinking SERP). Thus, unfortunately the SEO firm’s business model has firmly attached itself to the Google search function asset, which tends to increase in value as the market demand for that asset grows, versus offering SEO as a service, which tends to decrease in price as the supply of that service increases.


 

In our industry, Landscaping Services, the reverse has become the standard rule despite all efforts to the contrary by the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). We would love to link our services more concretely to the rising asset value of the residential home, business, or organization, or the piece of real estate that we perform the specialized work for. But best efforts by large regional landscape firms and national organizations have been thwarted by over-saturated markets inundated by landscape contractors that either dilute or completely fumble that message entirely.

 

The worst part of this dilemma for a small, local, sustainable landscaping business like Ajna Stonescapes, is how utterly hopeless the situation becomes when the market incentive for SEO firms aligns with the market incentive for large, regional landscaping firms looking to consolidate the industry. When the Landscaping Industry does manage to link their services to home asset values, it becomes part of an intersubjective bubble that is disconnected from the real environmental value of the land on which the house occupies. When SEO/SEM link their services to the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) asset, or the click count statistic, or user engagement volume, it then becomes part of a digital intersubjective bubble that is disconnected from the real community value of local commerce. Yet, on the flip side, when the Landscaping Industry frees themselves from home values, it theoretically obliterates their anchor for pricing. And the same goes for SEO/SEM when they free anchors from their digital asset.


 

There is of course an alternate path. Perhaps not a path that Consumerist behemoths like Google, Amazon, or Facebook will appreciate, but a significant path forward for innovative, adventurous, and ambitious market makers. If the real environmental value, or the vitality of our ecosystems could be tangibly captured and assessed then it could serve as a realistic asset swap for landscapers to anchor their pricing, rather than just remaining tethered indefinitely to artificially inflated home values. Throw out the idea of budgeting 20% of your home’s value towards landscape installation and maintenance and instead examine the quality of water, system brittleness, and the robustness of biodiversity. It is difficult to assign a monetary value to healthy ecosystems, nutrient rich soil, and a robust supply of contaminant-free freshwater. Nevertheless, conjuring and defining that new intersubjective asset is quite an exciting prospect for an entrepreneur within that space.


 

Similarly, what if SEO/SEM firms parlayed their influence on page one search results or clicks into influencing better quality markets? For example, rather than SEO/SEM firms allowing the Google algorithm and keyword bidding war to dictate what clients they can or cannot take to meet their own bottom line, why not measure success by the market opportunity created for new clients that are underrepresented in the current digital marketplace? Or counter to my previous thought, why not measure the success of a SEO/SEM firm by their overall ability to reduce the stranglehold of unfair business participants, such as by those in the marketplace who are quite obviously greenwashing? That is to say that, surely there are some ethical boundaries that a private firm may have to consider when taking on new clients for SEO/SEM services, therefore these firms do have an ability to amplify or muffle voices on their own accord, or to promote or obscure specific brands. Those same companies who claim to have the ability to elevate your brand in the digital marketplace ultimately have some responsibility in that online market which consumers engage with on an hourly basis. It does not fall exclusively on Big Tech to self-regulate because there is an entire super structure of dependent middle agents who share some burden in content proliferation and dissemination. I hope they at least recognize that.


Link to charitable SEO firm donating services to specific groups underrepresented in the digital marketplace - sorry, NOT FOUND. 

 

Let’s imagine this in terms of a Hollywood talent agency. The job for the talent agency is to find and represent talent that will catch the eye of casting directors and be cast in great roles for high grossing blockbuster films. The agency has a secret weapon. Using inside knowledge and massive data collection they have created a proprietary algorithm to determine with great statistical confidence the key physical attributes a person must possess to gain favor with most casting directors for specific role types and film genres. Like I have been told by many SEO firms, the trick is to meet the audience where they are and then take them the rest of the way, but don’t chase. But what if the audience is being pulled, then aren’t I being pulled? If Hollywood is pushing to perpetuate stereotypes, aren’t agencies and viewers being pulled too?

 

The problem is that institutional bias and discrimination do exist, and they exist in algorithms. As Charlie Munger once said, “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome”. It stands to reason that if the talent agency has the incentive to benefit from the institutional bias and discrimination that is systemic within Hollywood, then such an outcome would present itself. And if they are keenly aware of how they benefit, as would be apparent in the case of utilizing a proprietary algorithm, then they would be complicit in perpetuating these systemic issues rather than assisting in correcting them. Algorithmic Fairness is a well-documented issue. The talent agency should not be able to just throw their hands up, waive the white flag, and blame Hollywood and the entire industry for flagrant underrepresentation of specific demographics.



To continue the comparison to a Hollywood talent agency, here is the scenario that most SEO firms have presented to us. We, the SEO firms, can't know the exact algorithm for sure, but we have our methods in determining what crucial factors will work, and which do not. The inability to fully nail down the search algorithms keeps the door ajar for new market participants. If the Hollywood talent agency was too efficient in determining and producing exactly what the casting director was looking for it would create too much rigidity in the process. The leading algorithm would increasingly win out, there would be fewer actors and actresses willing to apply, and the creative process would suffer. So, in order to tweak the volume of participants and engagement, from actors to agencies and so on - to cast a wider net - the Hollywood producers must alter their requirements and thus restore the competition amongst talent agencies by tasking them in figuring out the new model. A new model means collecting more data and means scouting more talent and putting that talent in front of more casting directors. Google modifies its search algorithms to inflate revenue from paid ads and sponsored ads, and also to create the illusion of a more competitive, dynamic SEO market. The reality is more opaque.


For example here are a list of SEO factors that I am aware of that are simply "pay to play":

  • Longevity of site: Young sites perform worse than older sites. But obviously you can't change your time setting to dog years so that you can catch your mature competitors. You must pay to compensate.

  • Near me: You must optimize to get on the map, but you are selling out your brand for convenience. Convenience ultimately helps Google win, not you. That map puts you in a SERP silo. Sure, you get put top of page, but is that really representing your brand or is it representing proximity? If you live in an affordable area and market your company to higher income residential or commercial areas, then your business may win the "near me" battle but lose the "relevance" war.

  • Sponsored ads: Don't need to explain this one.

  • Keywords: Bidding war.

  • Ongoing maintenance: Time is money. I might be able to learn how to continuously monitor and update the back end of my site, but is the value propisition worth it to me? And if this practice is routinely farmed out by competitors, can I compete with that?

  • Content: Do I have to write for an audience? Says every author ever. Sounds like a conformity tax to me.

  • Cross-linking or cross-referencing: Establish trust by associating your brand with other reputable brands. That is as bonkers as trickle down economics. Doesn't that ensure that more reputable entities will keep increasing their weight in proportion to less reputable ones?

  • Market Bullies: What major entities in each industry are setting these rates? If I want to use the digital marketplace to present my small business in a rural area, why am I automatically in the same arena with some far away mega-Goliath? Not really good enough to be relegated to Local mapping only. We never get the chance to actually compete on terms that make any sense. The only real option is to locate your business physically in the consumer area you want to compete in. That is problematic yet again.

 

Today Artificial Intelligence is quickly hoisting novel and complex digital intersubjectivies that escape the understanding of humans. In many areas and fields of expertise, algorithmic ranking or risk assessment scoring are increasingly out of grasp for human comprehension. In areas such as, but not limited to, stock market trading, criminal justice, monetary and fiscal policy, credit scores, social credit scores, search results, social media influence, and so on and so forth. A passive, liberal approach to the exchange of information will not be enough to regain autonomy in the coming wave of AI planning and super structures. This would be the naïve view of information, as discussed by Yuval Noah Harari’s book Nexus.


 

It is my opinion that digital marketing firms offering SEO/SEM ought to be better shepherds and they ought best to emphasize representing clients that create better quality markets. They must be the digital market makers of tomorrow.

 

So, choose us, Ajna Stonescapes – a small, local, sustainable landscaping company. Show us that you’re up to that challenge!




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