How to create a landscaper website: projects, pages and the tax credit

What should you gather before contacting a provider?

A provider cannot invent your projects, your service area or the way you split garden creation and maintenance.

Your activities, sorted by type of client

Creating a garden, a terrace or a fence is a one-off project that clients choose based on images and the trust they place in the team. Maintenance is a contract that comes back every season, chosen on the town, the frequency and the price. Note now which services fall on each side, and add any business audiences you have (residential block managing agents, companies, local authorities): a grounds maintenance contract for a residential site is not sold like mowing a 400 m² garden. If you do tree pruning or felling, plan a third entry point, because a tree weakened after a storm is an urgent request, which comes in by phone more than through a detailed form.

Your projects and their photos

Choose the projects you would like to do again and sort them by type of landscaping: timber or stone terraces, fences and privacy screens, beds and hedges, turfing, automatic irrigation, ponds, paths. For each one, look for the photo of the plot before the works, a few images of the build, then the finished garden, and if possible a photo taken a season later, once the plants have established.

Ask clients in writing for permission to publish photos of their garden, and show neither the address nor a recognisable façade. How you present your completed projects as before-and-after depends heavily on this sorting, and a badly framed "before" shot cannot be fixed at the design stage.

The proof you actually hold

Gather your QualiPaysage qualifications (the French landscaping trade certification), awarded per activity (landscaping, maintenance, tree pruning, automatic irrigation…) and verifiable in the organisation's public directory, along with their renewal date. Add your insurance policies and the activities they cover; for terraces, low walls or ponds, have your insurer specify the cover required for the type of structure and your role. Also keep the client reviews already published.

Watch your wording. Since the French biodiversity law of 8 August 2016 and decree no. 2017-673, the title of "paysagiste concepteur" has been reserved for people authorised by the ministry responsible for the environment, notably holders of a recognised landscape degree. The design activity itself remains open to all: you can talk about garden design, plans or landscape studies. The title, however, only appears on the site or the Google profile with the authorisation.

The same caution applies to treatments. If the site presents phytosanitary treatments at clients' properties, check whether your activity requires the approval for applying plant protection products as a service provider, and that you hold it. Only advertise chemical-free management if your teams genuinely practise it.

Your eligibility for the tax credit

The French tax credit for home employment covers 50% of spending on small gardening jobs, including clearing undergrowth, up to €5,000 of spending per year per tax household, according to the conditions of the tax credit for home employment published by the French administration.

For your clients to benefit, the business must be registered as a personal services provider (services à la personne, declared online on the NOVA portal) and meet the exclusive activity condition. Since 1 January 2025, an exemption from this condition is possible for certain micro-entrepreneurs and businesses with fewer than 11 employees whose main activity falls within personal services, subject to conditions and with separate accounts. A business that mainly does garden creation rarely qualifies as it stands, and creating a garden or major works do not count as small gardening jobs. Have your eligibility confirmed by your accountant before mentioning it on the site.

Checklist before consulting

• Services sorted into three groups: garden creation, maintenance, urgent call-outs.
• Service area written down in black and white: towns, cantons or a radius around the depot.
• Ten to twenty-five selected projects, with before, during and after photos and client permission.
• Qualifications, insurance policies and activities covered, all up to date.
• Personal services status checked with your accountant.
• Access to the existing domain name and Google profile recovered.
• One person appointed to write the texts, or their writing entrusted to the provider.

Which pages and user journeys should you design for a landscaper website?

A landscaper's website usually fits into around ten pages:

1. Home: the trade, the area, two visible entry points (create a garden, have yours maintained) and the phone number.

2. One page per service you actually provide: landscaping, terraces, fences, planting, automatic irrigation, tree pruning, maintenance.

3. Completed projects sorted by type of landscaping, each page linked to the corresponding service.

4. Maintenance and contracts: frequencies, seasons, audiences, prices.

5. The business: team, qualifications, working method, from surveying the plot to follow-up after planting.

6. Site visit or quote request, with phone number and opening hours.

7. Legal pages: legal notice, privacy policy, contact details of the consumer mediator for private clients.

On the price row, the French order of 17 March 2015 provides that personal services providers give clear information on their website when they have one: prices excl. and incl. VAT, hourly or fixed rate per service, additional charges, and tax benefits presented separately, in smaller characters than the price. Displaying only the "after tax credit" price in large type therefore goes against this presentation.

Project pages linked to services

A useful project page describes the initial state of the plot, the constraints (slope, clay soil, being overlooked, narrow access for machinery), the choices made with the client, the plants and materials installed, then the result, stating the season of the photo. Each page links to the relevant service, and each service page displays the completed projects of the same type.

A form that qualifies the enquiry

A free-text "Your message" field produces "quote for my garden" requests that force you to call back. For garden creation, ask for the type of project, an approximate area, the intended uses (playing, entertaining, vegetable patch, low maintenance), the town, a few photos of the plot and the preferred period. For maintenance, the town, the area and the frequency are often enough. State what happens to this data (address, garden photos) and how long you keep it.

Also decide where the enquiry lands: the manager's inbox, a branch manager depending on the town, or the quoting and scheduling software you already use for maintenance rounds. A form that generates usable quote requests depends as much on this handover as on the fields themselves.

From the design stage, plan to count calls and enquiries by type (garden creation, maintenance, emergency), by town and by source. Call and form tracking quickly shows which pages attract enquiries outside your area or target, such as mowing quotes for 50 m² when you are looking for landscaping projects.

Which solution should you choose to publish your projects yourself?

Your clients look at galleries on their phones, often from the garden they want to transform. So have the mock-ups approved on mobile first, with lightweight photos and a form that accepts a photo taken on site.

Then think about the person who will add finished projects. An online website builder, a WordPress website build or custom development can all work. Compare how easily you can publish a completed project from a phone, who manages hosting and updates, and who owns the site and its content.

How much does it cost to create a landscaper website at Gemeos?

The budgets below are Gemeos figures for a landscaping business. As for the cost of a landscaper website, a new build comes to between €5,000 and €15,000 excl. VAT, a redesign between €6,000 and €12,500 excl. VAT, and improving just the enquiry form on a site already online between €1,200 and €3,500 excl. VAT.

Photo shoots, plans, 3D design and scheduling or project tracking tools are priced separately. A migration to another CMS while keeping the current design is quoted separately, from €6,500 to €19,000 excl. VAT at Gemeos. If your visual identity needs redoing at the same time as the site, ask for the branding agency work to appear on a separate line of the quote, so you can compare what relates to the site and what relates to the brand.

The timeline depends on the scope, the time needed to gather photos and texts, and your approvals: ask for a step-by-step schedule. The quiet winter season leaves more time to sort photos and proofread pages.

What should you check on launch day?

Send a real enquiry through each form and check that it reaches the right recipient with the photos attached. Test the phone number on mobile, HTTPS and, for a redesign, the redirects from old URLs. Make sure backups are scheduled and that the business keeps its own administrator access.

Many enquiries go through the Google Business Profile before reaching the site. It should show the same services, the same area and photos of your projects.

How do you keep a landscaper's website alive through the seasons?

Add finished projects as you go and return to photograph a garden a season later, once the perennials have established. Highlight maintenance before mowing and pruning resume, clearing undergrowth before summer, tree pruning in autumn and winter. Once a year, reread the pages that mention your qualifications and your personal services status.

For local SEO, a page per town is only justified if you have enough to fill it: projects in that town, local constraints (chalky soil, sloping plots, fence rules in the local urban plan, the PLU), a team that goes there every week. The work of an SEO/GEO agency on a landscaper's website focuses precisely on these service and area pages, and on the clarity of the information that Google and AI assistants pick up to cite you.

Gemeos designs websites for landscaping businesses based on their projects and how they are actually organised (garden creation, maintenance, areas, teams), and handles the design, page copywriting, local SEO and enquiry measurement.

FAQ

How much does it cost to create a landscaper website?

At Gemeos, €5,000 to €15,000 excl. VAT for a new build, depending on the number of pages, completed projects and areas, and on how far enquiries are qualified. A redesign costs €6,000 to €12,500 excl. VAT, and improving just the enquiry form on an existing site €1,200 to €3,500 excl. VAT.

Can you create your landscaping business website yourself, for free?

Yes, an online website builder lets you publish a few pages with no upfront budget. The limits come quickly: the time it takes in the middle of the season, photo quality, local SEO and sometimes ownership of the site on a subscription.

Should garden creation and maintenance be separated on your website?

Yes, as soon as the business does both. Two entry points and two forms stop a mowing request from arriving with the questions for a terrace project, and let you track what each activity brings in.

Can a landscaper promote the tax credit on their website?

Yes, but only for small gardening jobs and if the business is registered as a personal services provider (services à la personne) and meets the conditions. Creating a garden or major works do not qualify. The tax benefit must appear in a separate notice, in smaller characters than the price.

Can you present yourself as a "paysagiste concepteur" on your website?

No, unless you hold the authorisation of the French ministry responsible for the environment, granted notably to holders of a recognised landscape degree. The title is protected, not the activity: you can freely present your work in garden design, plans and studies.

Should a landscaper display their prices on their website?

Yes if the business is registered for personal services: it must show its prices excl. and incl. VAT per service. For maintenance outside this framework, check the rules that apply to your offer. For garden creation, ranges accompanied by the factors that make the cost vary (area, access, earthworks, materials) are more honest than a price per square metre that will not hold up at the quote stage.

Should you completely rebuild a landscaper website that no longer generates enquiries?

Not necessarily. An SEO technical audit of the existing site first shows what is blocking it (poorly indexed pages, galleries too heavy on mobile, broken redirects), and improving just the enquiry form costs €1,200 to €3,500 excl. VAT at Gemeos. A redesign, at €6,000 to €12,500 excl. VAT, is justified when the page structure itself no longer matches your activities.

Should you create a page for each town?

No, unless you have real content for each one. A service area page listing the towns served, with a map and the projects completed in the area, plus an up-to-date Google profile, covers most needs.