What Happens If We Stop Blogging?
Green Industry Content Marketing Case Study

You're gaining ground, even passing your green industry competitors. You've created hundreds of insightful blog articles. They're ranking well in search results. They're bringing in traffic and leads for your lawn care or landscaping company.
It begs the question, "Can we let our foot off of the gas?" When is enough blog content enough? Do we need to continue blogging?
Today, I have 3 real-life examples to share. I'll show you what happens when you A) stay consistent with content marketing B) stop completely, and C) get started again later.
Case 1: Faithful Content Marketing
Let's get started with some examples from our clients.
Here's what will happen if you create thoughtful content over a period of years. This lawn care company went all-in back in 2018. Together, we've been creating new articles each month for six years.
They've been crushing it when it comes to organic traffic. Creating quality articles to answer people's questions in an in-depth manner is driving steady growth. Likewise, we've also witnessed that:
- Leads continue to grow
- Search ranking has drastically improved (for hundreds of terms)
Clear signs of success. That green monster of organic traffic is helping this client win.
So what would happen if they stopped blogging?
Case 2: Giving Up on the Blog
This next example is from a past client. We rebuilt their website in mid-2016 and it launched that fall.
Over the next 3 years, we published approximately 4 monthly articles and a few longer content resources.
In the fall of 2019, they told us they wanted to try other tactics and invest less in their marketing efforts.
Turns out blogging was no longer a priority (we've been watching for new articles and the blog has gone radio silent).
The graph above shows a typical "sleep, creep, leap" trend for green industry content marketing. 2017, 2018, and 2019's articles made their traffic explode. Another thing we're particularly proud of is how this content continues to bring in future traffic and leads.
As the challenging times of 2020 and 2021 unfolded, their website's content kept generating quality traffic.
But that doesn't last forever. You can see that 3 years later and their traffic is gradually declining.
Ignoring content marketing for your green industry company comes with a cost. So what happens if you fire the ol' blog machine back up?
RELATED READING: How Long Does It Take For Content Marketing To Work?
Case 3: Resuming Content Marketing
Time to be honest and vulnerable. We broke our own rules.
When founder, Chris Heiler, first started Landscape Leadership® back in 2008, he was a content marketing pioneer in the green industry.
He faithfully created content for 10 years. When I joined the team in 2016, I pitched in as well. We both love writing and educating our industry peers. We consistently published 2-3 articles a month.
Then life got busy. You know the story. Change the characters but the plot is the same.
From 2020 through 2022, we sporadically created new content. In 2023, I dug my heels in and recommitted. I even had our team write some content from time to time.
But this big ol' beast of a machine takes a long time to build momentum. We're growing and doing great work while publishing 2 new articles per month.
Overall, I'm happy with the gradual improvement I'm seeing with our traffic. I'm committed to the process and want to ramp up our efforts in the next year (3rd article this month for the win).
We're breaking sales records and always seem to have a good pipeline. The momentum is growing. The 5,000+ blog subscribers are becoming more active as we've increased consistency. Our socials are full of great content and interaction.
It's working again. Steady as she goes, captain.
Foot on the Gas & Max-Out Performance
A lot can go wrong in a race. You may lose your lead in the flash of an eye. You need to gain every bit of a lead as you can on competitors.
New articles are only part of winning the content marketing race.
I recommend aiming for at least 1-2 quality pieces of new content each month when you get to this advanced stage of creating hundreds of articles. And focus on quality not quantity.
Double down on optimizing your old content. Not every article will be a home run. You may need to re-optimize old posts, changing the title, headings, and keywords used. You may want to add more content to expand sections.
You may even want to rewrite some articles, depending on the topic. You won't have the rapid changes we see in the marketing industry. But some green industry topics you've addressed in the past deserve a fresh take.
Google wants to see you creating content. They don't like irrelevant, quiet brands.
Stomp on the gas and win. Leave your competitors in the dust.
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