Mowing, paver patios, decks, fences and tree work

Landscaper means different companies, and two different boards

A site that says landscaper, and does not say weekly mowing or a paver patio with a retaining wall, does not tell Google and ChatGPT which one you sell.

The site has to say which number is which, so a buyer opens the right board. In Oregon the Landscape Contractors Board licenses landscaping construction, separate from the CCB. Decks, fences, patios, walkways, driveways and retaining walls sit in both boards' scopes, so either license covers them.

Outdoor work is not all searched in the same months. One page called services competes for every line of it at once, and a check in June says nothing about February. We read each line of work in its own window.

What people ask

We type questions like these into Google and ChatGPT for landscaping, deck, fence and tree companies.

• “Who should I hire to redo my backyard landscaping in Portland?”
• “Can you recommend a licensed fence contractor near Beaverton?”
• “Who builds composite decks in Clackamas County?”
• “Who does landscape maintenance for apartment complexes in Vancouver, Washington?”
• “Who does tree removal or pruning in Washington County?”

A page called landscaping services does not answer any of them.

Where a buyer checks the license and the badge

• Oregon Landscape Contractors Board. The record a buyer checks for planting, including trees, irrigation or drainage. A CCB number does not stand in for it on that work.
• Oregon CCB. One of the two licenses that covers decks, fences and patios, and the record for work on the house itself.
• Tree removal and pruning. Put the number on the removal and pruning pages, with the board named. A tree crew can work under a CCB or an LCB license, so a buyer may look in either board's lookup.
• Washington L&I. The record a buyer checks for outdoor construction work in Clark County, including decks, fences, hardscape, drainage, irrigation and tree removal.
• Oregon Landscape Contractors Association. Its Find a Landscaper directory of members is public. An OLCA logo does not show a buyer your license.
• Trex and TimberTech. Name your TrexPro or TimberTech The Board tier in text, not only as a logo.
• Home Building Association of Greater Portland. A loose fit for deck and fence builders who work alongside home builders, with a public member directory.
• ISA's Find an Arborist. For a tree crew, the public directory where a buyer can verify an ISA-credentialed arborist.
• Portland and Vancouver tree lists. Portland's Local Tree Care Providers list and Vancouver's list of companies with a Street Tree Worker License are public city pages that name tree companies. A Vancouver buyer checks the second one for major pruning on a street tree. If you are on either, say so in text and link to it.
• The listings every contractor needs. Google Business Profile, Apple Business, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, BuildZoom, Angi and Thumbtack.

Belgard lists Authorized Contractors and Master Craftsmen by zip code, and Aquascape, Unilock and Techo-Bloc run similar programs. If you hold one, link to your listing.

A gallery with no towns, and no LCB number

• A gallery with no service area. Strong project photos and not one word about which towns you work in, so a search naming a town has nothing on the page to match.
• A missing LCB number. An Oregon site advertising planting, irrigation or drainage, and the landscape contracting business license number is not on the homepage, the footer or the contact page. That is where the LCB requires it.
• A design page with no design. Finished patios and nothing about the consultation, the plan or the drawings, so a search for landscape design has nothing to land on.
• Decking badges with nothing behind them. A Trex or TimberTech logo with no license number and no link to your listing on the locator.
• The wrong Google category. A fence or deck builder listed under a landscaping or general contractor category, which can keep it out of the searches for exactly the work it does.
• Maintenance and design-build on one page. Weekly mowing and full backyard projects sharing a page and a form, so the buyer has to work out which one you are answering.

Show the right license, then split design-build from mowing

An Oregon landscaping design-build company shows its LCB number. If it also holds a CCB license for work on the house itself, show both and say which work each covers. A deck and fence builder shows the CCB number, or the LCB number if that is the license the work is done under. A company working both sides of the river shows its Washington L&I registration beside the Oregon license, with the state named.

The fence page needs the number too. A website is advertising, and in Oregon advertising voids the CCB's $1,000 minor-work exemption.

Split the pages by the work. Design-build pages show the consultation and design process and projects by type. Maintenance, if you sell it, gets its own page and its own form, written for property managers too if you hold contracts on apartments or commercial sites. Decks, fences, concrete and tree work each get a page if you do them. Caption the base, drainage and irrigation photos you already take, so the page carries the words a buyer searched for.

How the report reads for outdoor work

• Who you are. The LCB, CCB or L&I record, which work that license covers, and whether the number the site shows matches the work on each page. For a tree crew, that includes the removal and pruning pages, and whether the ISA credential is named in text.
• Site basics. Whether project pages and captions read as text for Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and whether a photo-heavy gallery still loads quickly on a phone.
• Pages for the jobs people search. Separate pages for design-build, hardscape, irrigation, maintenance, decks, fences, concrete and tree work as you offer them, and town pages where you really work.
• Google Business Profile. A primary category that matches the work, such as Deck builder or Fence contractor for a builder, with services, service area and your own project photos.
• Map results. Where you show for landscaper, deck builder, fence or tree service searches in your towns.
• Search results. Which pages come up for jobs such as a paver patio or a composite deck in your towns, and who holds the first page.
• AI answers. Whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overview name you for the kind of outdoor work you actually do.
• Reviews. Count, recency and spread, including Houzz, and whether reviews name the project and the neighborhood. We read the dates against your season, so a quiet winter for a deck or patio builder is not a dead company.
• Listings, associations and brands. One name, phone and address everywhere, the right license on every profile that shows one, and your OLCA, HBA, Trex, TimberTech or paver-brand listing where you hold one.
• Phone and estimate form. Whether the form asks the kind of project, deck size or fence length, material, city, and whether it is a one-time project or ongoing maintenance.

We test from one location on one day, and the report says which, so nobody reads a single check as the whole county.