--- title: "The season calendar: which website fix to pitch a landscaping company, month by month" status: published date: 2026-10-15T16:10:00Z author: clikiti-research excerpt: "Only 15% of the 189 independent landscaping, lawn care, hardscape and pool websites we scanned show any price. Here is a year of pitches for an agency, one fix a month, each timed to the trade's slow and busy seasons and tied to a number from the study." featured_image: /research/landscaping/2026-q4/hero/hero-1-1600.webp featured_image_alt: "A garden designer in a waxed jacket walks a couple along a gravel path between new planting beds after rain" featured_image_caption: "The work happens in season. The decisions about the website are easier to win in the months between." og_image: /research/landscaping/2026-q4/og.jpg category: landscaping tags: [pitching, pricing] type: finding cites: - landscaping/2026-q4#price - landscaping/2026-q4#plans - landscaping/2026-q4#quote - landscaping/2026-q4#reviews - landscaping/2026-q4#insured - landscaping/2026-q4#lcp summary: - "Only 15% of 189 independent landscaping, lawn care, hardscape and pool company websites show any price: a visit, a package, a square foot or a project (Clikiti Research, October 2026)." - "The gaps line up with the trade's year: 51% name a seasonal plan (71% of lawn care companies, 29% of hardscape firms), 77% take a quote request online, 44% show reviews and 29% say they are licensed and insured." - "Pitch the content jobs, prices and plans, in the slow months when the owner has time to write them; pitch quick fixes and build work while the crews are out." pitch_line: "\"Roughly what will it cost?\" is the first question a homeowner has, and your site makes them wait for a site visit to hear it." audio: src: /research/posts/landscaping-website-fixes-season-calendar/episode.mp3 duration: 208 transcript: /research/posts/landscaping-website-fixes-season-calendar/episode.txt --- A landscaping company runs on two clocks. One is the work: mowing, planting, patios, pool openings, all of it outside and all of it in season. The other is the booking: the weeks before each season when homeowners decide who to hire. An agency that pitches the website on the work clock gets told to call back in November. This calendar uses the booking clock instead. It is built on [The State of Independent Landscaping Websites 2026](/research/landscaping), our scan of 189 independent landscaping, lawn care, hardscape and pool company websites in the US, read against eight questions a homeowner asks before inviting someone to quote. **Only 15% show any price: a visit, a package, a square foot or a project.** That is the least-answered question in the study, and it is where the calendar starts. ::stat{ref="landscaping/2026-q4#price"} ## How should you read the calendar? Each month pairs one fix with one finding. The order follows two rules. Content jobs, where the owner has to supply prices, plans or paperwork, go in the slow months, because they need the owner's time more than yours. Quick fixes and build work, which you can do with little input, go in the busy months. The months assume a temperate US climate; shift them a few weeks for the South and the mountains. ## Winter, the slow season: the jobs that need the owner **December: the full read.** Open the prospect's site on a phone and check the eight questions. The typical site in the study answers five of the eight (mean 4.7), and the median overall score is 79 out of 100. Send the owner the questions their site leaves open. Nothing to sell yet; this is the list the rest of the year works from. **January: prices.** The big one. 85% of the sites show no price at all. Lawn care and hardscape companies are lowest at 10% each; pool and irrigation companies lead at 27%. A starting price for weekly mowing, a typical range for a patio per square foot, the price of a pool opening: the owner knows these numbers, and January is when they have the hours to agree on what to publish. **February: the seasonal plan.** 51% of the sites name a seasonal plan or maintenance package. The split by kind of business is the widest in the study: 71% of lawn care companies against 29% of hardscape and outdoor living firms. For a lawn care company, write the plan page now, before the first round of spring work is sold. For a hardscape firm, the question is whether they offer upkeep at all; if they do, the site should say so. ## Spring, booking season: quick fixes that catch the calls **March: the quote request.** 77% of the sites take a quote request online; the other 23% leave a phone number. Design and build firms trail at 67%. A short estimate form on every page is a build job you can ship in days, and it starts working the week it goes live. **April: the service area.** 74% name the towns, counties or ZIP codes they cover. Design and build firms are lowest again, at 63%. One section on the home page, a list of places, linked from the footer. It answers the question a homeowner two towns over has before they call. **May: reviews.** 44% show reviews on their own site, through markup, a widget or quoted customers. Lawn care companies are at 39%. Spring's finished jobs bring new reviews in; put a review widget on the home page while they are fresh. ## Summer, the crews are out: work that needs little of the owner **June: the gallery.** This one is mostly answered: 86% show a gallery or portfolio of their own work, and design and build firms reach 96%. The gap is with lawn care companies at 76% and pool companies at 77%. Ask for photographs of the spring jobs, and add the town and one line on what was done. **July: speed.** 91% of the sites fail to load in under 2.5 seconds on a phone, and pool and irrigation companies fail at 98%. Compressing hero images and project photos is build work the owner never has to sit through. Show them the load time on their own phone before and after. **August: contrast.** 83% have text that fails the WCAG contrast minimum of 4.5:1, rising to 91% for pool and irrigation sites. Text laid over garden photographs is the usual place to look. A theme change, done in an afternoon. ## Autumn, the second booking window: trust and structure **September: licensed and insured.** 29% of the sites say the business is licensed and insured, or name a licence or certification. Hardscape firms are lowest at 21%. Autumn is a busy time for patios and planting in much of the country, and a homeowner letting a crew dig up the yard wants this answer. It is a line in the footer and a sentence on the about page. **October: structured data.** 46% of the sites carry no LocalBusiness structured data. Add it with the address, phone, hours and service area. While you are in the code, check that the pool closing or sprinkler winterisation service has its own page: 64% of pool and irrigation companies name a seasonal plan or service. **November: image descriptions.** 16% leave images without text descriptions, and hardscape sites are highest at 23%. A quick fix to close the year, and a reason to book the December read for next year. ::chart{ref="landscaping/2026-q4" highlight="price"} ## The year on one page | Month | Fix | Share of sites that miss it | | --- | --- | ---: | | January | Prices | 85% | | February | Seasonal plan | 49% | | March | Online quote request | 23% | | April | Service area | 26% | | May | Reviews | 56% | | June | Gallery | 14% | | July | Phone load time | 91% | | August | Text contrast | 83% | | September | Licensed and insured | 71% | | October | Structured data | 46% | | November | Image descriptions | 16% | :::pitch{title="How do you pitch it?"} 1. **Lead with the price question in the slow season.** Show the owner that 85% of the companies in the study publish no price, then ask which of their jobs they would be comfortable pricing on the site. 2. **Sell the year, not the page.** A fix a month is easier to say yes to than a redesign, and it keeps you on the owner's calendar through the busy season. 3. **Do the build work while they are out.** Speed, contrast and structured data need almost nothing from the owner. Deliver them in summer, with a before-and-after on their phone. ::: The March fix has its own spec: [the quote request form, field by field](/research/posts/landscaping-quote-request-form-spec), including how to offer a budget picker without hiding the company's prices. For the price conversation itself, the [talk track we wrote for independent repair shops](/research/posts/auto-repair-shop-prices-talk-track) answers the same objections an owner raises about publishing a number.