Many farm store owners know that they need a website, but might not understand why theirs isn’t bringing in new business. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in!
From our experience, SEO is one of the most overlooked aspects of farm store marketing. While social media platforms, for example, remain important, some farm stores spend too much time trying to get likes — and not enough on optimizing their website for local search.
We featured a discussion about this very topic way back in 2021, but a lot has changed (and stayed the same) in the world of farm store SEO since then.
That’s why we wanted to revisit SEO for farm stores so you can learn how to create a website that boosts sales, brings in more customers, and helps you stay competitive.
In this article, we’ll go over:
Any time you type something into a search engine like Google or Bing, it pulls up results in a specific order. These rankings are incredibly important, as most people won’t browse past the first page or two.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the processes a business uses to optimize its website’s content and formatting to rank higher in search engines.
Given the process of ranking websites is fairly automatic, you’d think there’d be a single, surefire way to get your website noticed. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Sites like Google are constantly changing ranking criteria, and new technologies like AI summaries are also shaking up what ranks and what doesn’t.
Don’t let that discourage you! Even as technology changes, the backbone of an SEO-optimized site is relevant content that customers find helpful. In other words, if you write informative pages that resonate with customers, you’ll be just fine.
You may be asking yourself whether optimizing your website is worth the effort, especially if the majority of your business comes from local customers.
The answer is a resounding yes.
Almost 90% of U.S. customers search for local businesses online before deciding to visit — and many of those searches directly lead to a purchase. In other words, if your farm store isn’t showing up in local search, they may miss it entirely.
The higher your farm store ranks for important keywords like “grass-fed beef near me” or “local farm-raised beef”, the more likely you are to stand out from grocery stores and other bigger competition.
Additionally, online sales (even if it’s only for local pickups or deliveries) are an excellent way for farm stores to connect with new customers and improve customer retention.
Talking about SEO can feel a little foreign when you haven’t engaged with the world of online marketing and sales, so let’s slow down and show you what we mean.
Let’s say your store sells grass-fed beef, and one of your more popular specialties is a boneless ribeye. People looking to buy one might search online for things like:
The bolded terms above would be called keywords in SEO, and search engines use them to find relevant results. Another important aspect to think about is intent. In other words, why a person might be searching for a specific term in the first place.
Put another way, a person searching for “What is a boneless ribeye steak” is likely to be linked to a blog or news article, whereas someone searching “Where to buy boneless ribeye” is more likely to be directed to a store page (and therefore, to you!).
In this example, to boost the visibility of your boneless ribeye (and your website in general), you might do these things to optimize for SEO:
All of these ensure that when someone searches for that term, you have your bases covered. Thinking about the intent behind a person’s search will help you write webpages that are helpful for customers, and therefore, rank higher in search — and if you do it well, you’ll only need to put in the work once!
Now that you understand the basics of SEO for farm stores, let’s dive into some practical ways you can boost your business’ visibility online.
Remember, when you create website pages for your farm store, you aren’t just competing with other farm stores, but with big-box retailers, small grocery stores, and butchers. Simply copying what they’re doing won’t be enough to climb the ranks in local search.
Instead, focus on what makes you different, whether that’s how you raise your animals or the specifics of the products you sell. Try to compete for quality-focused keywords like:
Also, make sure to create a mission statement on your homepage that tells people (and search engines) what you’re all about (e.g. “We’re a farm store based just outside of Longmont, CO, offering pasture-raised beef, pork, and lamb along with freshly-baked goods using fruits and vegetables grown right on our farm.”).
Last, highlight the aspects of your business that a typical grocery store can’t match, like farm fresh seasonal produce, farm tours, and other unique offerings.
Apply this mindset to every page on your website, but start with the most important pages:
While this may be a lot of work upfront, if you do it right, it’s work that you’ll only need to do once. So take a little extra time to write content that resonates.
People who mostly shop in grocery stores are used to having everything in stock year-round. This is something that farm stores can’t do — and while it might seem like a disadvantage at first, it can be a huge selling point.
Embrace the seasonal nature of your business, emphasizing the superior freshness and taste of your products.
Put any fresh items front and center in your store and on your home page. People who are in the know and searching for seasonal produce are more likely to find you, and people who don’t might be enticed to try you.
Also, if your farm holds any seasonal events like a pumpkin patch fair in the Fall or cooking courses in the Spring, create an event calendar with descriptions of each event.
Use a free SEO tool like Ahrefs and you’ll quickly notice that the results for generic search terms like “where to buy chicken”, “meat store”, or even “farm store” are dominated by bigger brands. On the other hand, some more specific terms like “farm store near (city)” or “local farm store” tend to point towards local stores.
In other words, when you think about your SEO strategy, you can’t afford to be generic. Make sure to load your pages with location-specific keywords and helpful information.
Use words like “grass-fed beef raised in (county name)” or “fresh produce right off of our farm in (town name)” in your product descriptions and key pages. These additional qualifiers will help your business show up more frequently when people search for a specific product and location together.
However, a word of caution: Location-based keywords are great, but don’t overdo it. Use them when it works naturally, but don’t try and use them where they don’t belong — search engines can pick up on what you’re doing and will penalize your page’s rank.
Many people start on Google when they look for new products and businesses. Creating a free Google Business Profile helps your store show up when people search Google Maps and in “near me” searches.
Make sure your business profile includes:
In addition to Google, it can be a good idea to update your information on other platforms like:
Setting up business pages doesn’t take much time, but can provide a big boost when it comes to SEO optimization for farm stores.
Related Read: 3 Meat Cuts You Might Overlook (and How To Sell Them)
As you appear online and get more customers, you’ll also start getting feedback. That’s great! Customers are more likely to take a chance on brands that have positive reviews.
Use contact information from your customer loyalty program to solicit reviews (you could even sweeten the deal by offering a discount for reviews).
If you sell online, you might want to hold off on getting reviews from first-time customers. Instead, use your farm e-commerce software to segment customers who have purchased from you multiple times and send out an email asking for a review. Again, it’s easier to incentivize a review by offering up a discount on their next purchase in exchange for a few minutes of their time.
Respond to any and all reviews you receive — that includes the bad ones. Quick responses show that your brand cares about customer feedback, and gives you a chance to address negative feedback proactively.
Imagine walking into a farm store or butcher and instead of a beautiful display case or shelves, there was just a long menu in tiny font with a list of items and prices. If the store didn’t have an established reputation, how excited would you be about buying something?
This is what it feels like when a website skimps on images or uses text formatting that’s not easy to read.
Images are great for SEO, and even better for your customers. Make sure your pages use high-quality photos of your store and your products to make the site more visually appealing and break up text.
High-quality images tend to be big and hard to load, which can actually hurt your SEO. So make sure to use tools like TinyPNG or TinyJPG to compress your images so they load quickly.
Also, try to avoid long, unbroken blocks of text. These can be intimidating to a new customer and make a website look outdated. Instead, try to keep paragraphs to a few sentences and cut out any unneeded information.
Last, use headings and bullet points to make the text on your pages easier to parse. A visitor should be able to skim the headings, bullets, and buttons on your website and still know what to expect without reading any of the longer chunks of text.
Experts estimate that over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets), making it essential for websites to be mobile-friendly.
Making a website mobile-friendly largely comes down to using the right tools. Create websites using mobile-friendly website builders to ensure browsing your website is smooth on both desktop and mobile.
Also, try to avoid text or images that are too small. They may look fine on a big screen, but may be impossible to see on a smartphone screen.
Most farm store owners we work with are very passionate about what they do — and most people who shop at local farm stores know that passion can be infectious!
Writing a farm blog for your website is a great way to share that passion, and it provides your site with regular updates (another factor search engines consider when ranking results). Blogs can cover topics like:
Try to stay consistent and aim to write a new blog every week or so. They don’t have to be long, but they can be great for building trust in your brand and SEO.
If you sell your products to local restaurants or grocery stores, make sure to link to those partners (and ask them to link back to your website).
Another way to drive more traffic to your farm store website is through social media. Create an account and post a few times a week about new products, the latest antics of your farm cat, or other topics you’re passionate about. Make sure to include links in your bio to your website and vice versa!
Related Read: Social Media for Farmers: 8 Tips & Tools for Attracting Customers
One frequent mistake we see farm stores make is splitting up their farm store from their online shop. What do we mean by that?
For example, a farm store might have a home page and about page on one domain and then use a third-party service to run the online sales aspect of their website on another site. Unfortunately, as far as Google and other search engines are concerned, these are two entirely different websites — and that can massively throw off or dilute search results.
This is why we highly recommend using an integrated e-commerce platform for your farm store website. This setup has some huge benefits for farm stores, such as:
That said, not all e-commerce platforms are created equal. Make sure you use a service that can handle the unique challenges of fresh food sales.
One last piece of advice: Be patient. Once you start optimizing your farm store website for SEO, you might not see results right away. SEO standards are changing all the time, and boosting your online visibility is a marathon, not a sprint.
But by following the tips in this post, your business will be picking up in no time — and once those new customers start coming in, they’ll expect the same modern and convenient shopping experience they get at big-name brands.
Luckily, platforms built for farm stores can help. GrazeCart was built by farmers to simplify how small farmers, farm shops, and butchers sell fresh food both online and in-store.
With farm-specific features like sell-by-weight, real-time inventory tracking, subscription support, and customer loyalty, our user-friendly solutions help make your daily processes more efficient while improving the customer experience.
Try your free 14-day trial of GrazeCart today to see if we’re the right fit for your business.