Interest in green, sustainable goods has risen steadily over the past decade - particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
This is encouraging - for the longevity of the environment and for businesses looking to connect with a wider audience…
…even if your business doesn’t have green products or services.
Yes, that’s right.
You can authentically rank for keywords like “eco-friendly,” “green,” “sustainable” or “zero waste,” without having specific green products or services.
To be clear, I’m not talking about “greenwashing” (throwing green keywords on your site only to rank on Google).
There are a variety of steps you can take within your own organization, or by working with external brands.
In this article, I’ll cover strategies that you can use to bring green keywords into your online marketing strategy, including:
Adopt a green mindset. Walk the walk!
Partnerships
Education
Community focus
Donate
Search engine optimization (green SEO)
Online searches for sustainable goods rose by 71% between 2016 and 2020. Overall, sustainable products matter to the majority of purchasers (including a whopping 75% of millennials!).
Google Trends reveals that terms like “solar installation” have more than doubled within the last 5 years and, for over 2 decades, Oregon has been one of the top 5 states leading online searches for keywords like “sustainability.”
For green businesses, this represents a huge opportunity.
With this strategy, your organization truly “walks the walk” - an approach that consumers appreciate and notice.
So take the plunge:
Switch to green products.
Make supply chain improvements.
Earn eco certifications and display badges.
Develop green programs (a circular economy or buy-back programs).
Patagonia’s sustainability-focused values are clear from everything they do - from their products to their marketing initiatives. But their 2011 Black Friday ad titled “Don’t Buy This Jacket” really drove the point home.
Don’t buy our jacket - instead, reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, reimagine.
What do you think Patagonia’s sales were like after this ad?
That ad campaign was one of their greatest successes in 2 years, leading to a 30% increase in sales, to $540 million the following year!
There have been cases where companies incorporated environmentally-friendly messaging into marketing content and were instead met with lawsuits, such as with Windex.
Windex customers felt misled by the label that touted, “Greenlist Ingredients. Same Great Product!” It read as though a third party company had rated the ingredients as good for the environment, when that reviewing body was actually internal.
Patagonia’s campaign worked only because it was central to the company’s value proposition.
With a mission statement like “we’re in business to save our home planet,” it isn’t misleading to say to consumers “don’t buy this jacket.”
Patagonia’s ad was accurate to who the company is. They really do want you to reuse and recycle and not just because other people are saying it.
tldr; Honesty & transparency are crucial in sustainability initiatives.
What if green initiatives internally are challenging to execute and you don’t have the bandwidth currently?
Explore partnerships that make sense - partnerships where you can build off of each other by focusing on your strengths.
You work as a hospitality manager at a ski resort and want to attract eco-friendly clientele.
Your website already includes optimized content for your resort and the surrounding PnW area but you aren’t sure how to reach your new target market.
You might consider a local partnership with a ski equipment rental company that has sustainable products.
You - and the ski business - would benefit from greater exposure through cross-promotion.
You might offer the ski shop exclusive product placement in your lobby’s shop, offer rental discounts for guests arriving by public transit and highlight the ski shop’s backcountry tour offerings.
This is a start - it will allow you to easily incorporate natural sounding, green-focused keywords for eco-conscious consumers on your website (such as “fair labor products PnW,” “recycled plastics snow,” “plant-based materials,” “natural fibers,” “renewable energy use,” “energy saving factories ski equipment”).
This can fuel a marketing campaign, wherein you:
Publish a “Green Gear Guide” landing page (structured-data FAQ + blog posts)
Host a Patagonia Worn Wear event (free clothing repair)
Co-write blog posts
Co-write backcountry guides
Generate user-generated stories to earn backlinks
Generate a buzz from local media from your collaboration
This initial, sustainability-focused marketing push can lay the groundwork for future initiatives.
For example, to demonstrate that sustainability matters to your organization for the long haul, start tracking and reporting your annual eco-metrics and implement an impact dashboard like Vail Resorts’ “Commitment to Zero by 2030” initiative.
Then use that data to fuel case studies and outreach to local reporters who are interested in cover green initiatives.
Publish transparent impact reports.
Create educational green content hubs, including blogs, dashboards, infographics.
Co-author white papers or webinars.
Host or sponsor green events.
Leverage user-generated eco stories.
Pledge 1% of revenue to environmental nonprofits.
Integrate giving into every product sold, such as planting one tree for each product.
Publish donation dashboards to include metrics such as # of trees planted.
To execute search engine optimization effectively, you first need to understand your audience and then implement that into your content.
Understand. Strategize. Implement.
Successful SEO starts with knowing your audience. This section advises business owners to research what eco-conscious customers in the PNW are searching for and how to align their content with those interests.
Consumers often look for local, sustainable options (e.g., “zero-waste stores in Seattle” or “organic products PNW”). By identifying these keywords and search trends, eco-friendly brands can tailor their website content to match user intent.
For instance, a local vegan café might target “organic coffee shop Seattle”, while a sustainable fashion e-commerce store might use “ethical clothing Pacific Northwest”.
The key point is to choose specific, relevant keywords that reflect both sustainability and local context, rather than generic search terms alone.
Develop a basic list of keywords to explore. Include a wide range of keywords to explore, including natural questions a user might ask regarding your products or services:
Solar panels
Best solar company Seattle
Problems with solar panels
How to increase my home value
Explore communities on reddit and social media to learn what users are searching for and the language they use to search.
Use tools like Amazon Suggest / Semrush / Google Keyword Planner to discover keywords.
Use simple Google searches or Google Trends to uncover keywords, such as:
Eco-friendly brands + [city] (e.g., eco-friendly brands Seattle), sustainable [product/service] + PNW (e.g., sustainable home cleaning services PNW), or organic products Pacific Northwest.
For product-based companies, include green products and services keywords related to what they sell (i.e., organic skincare Pacific Northwest)
For service-based companies, include service + location + sustainability (i.e., green architecture Seattle), such as:
Sustainable goods Seattle
Environmentally friendly
Organic products Pacific Northwest PnW
Eco-friendly brands
Green products and services
E-commerce SEO
Don’t relate all of your keywords directly to your product or service (“solar panels”).
You will reach a wider range of potential customers by also targeting adjacent keywords such as “how to increase my home value.”
Although many of these Googlers aren’t looking to buy solar panels, you accomplish a few key points by integrating this into your strategy:
Build Google’s view of you as a subject authority. More eyeballs reading for longer = great authority.
Boost brand recognition.
Shares on social media.
Broad vs. Niche Keyword Focus
You have an e-commerce website for outdoor gear & apparel, a big focus of which is sustainable product lines.
Do you focus on the PnW angle or broader searches like “sustainable clothing brands”?
Decide on a mix of low competition keywords (local search terms such as “sustainable clothing store near me”) and broader, high competition search terms.
Low competition will help in the short term, while high competition sets you up for maximum success in the long term.
Pillar & Cluster Pages
A pillar page is that top-level menu item (such as “Services”) and cluster pages are the sub-pages underneath (“green cleaning,” “deep home cleaning,” “car cleaning”).
Each cluster page reinforces the themes and keywords that go into strengthening that hub of content.
That’s why I typically recommend that clients take advantage of my Starter SEO pack or Premium, containing 4 or 8 optimized webpages, respectively.
This pillar and cluster page model shows Google that you have deep knowledge in a particular subject, such as “green cleaning services” - and that is the key to your success.
Here comes the fun part! Take all of the research and strategizing you did in the previous steps and draw in that target market through a green SEO plan!
For all businesses:
Implement green FAQs (with schema markup). “Is your packaging recyclable?”
FAQ results have the highest click-through rate of any SEO activity and are relatively quick and easy to incorporate.
Consider tech improvements.
Reduced page speed improves Google rankings and reduces carbon emissions. Test your site’s carbon footprint.
For products:
Include 1000+ word descriptions on your product pages.
Optimize every product for Google Image Search.
Foot Locker saw a 220+% increase in organic visits after implementing image thumbnails.
Optimize your products on Google Business Profile.
Use schema markup for e-commerce products on your webpage with:
Price, availability, ratings and sustainability attributes.
Offer carbon-neutral or low-impact shipping (and mark it up with Shipping Details schema).
Sustainability is a mindset that connects your product design, partnerships, community work, donations and SEO.
By adopting a genuine green stance, publishing transparent proof and structuring web content for both humans and crawlers, you can connect more easily with your target customer.
Authentic impact matters - especially when it comes to our environment.
But if Patagonia can boost revenue by 30% with a “Don’t Buy this Jacket” campaign, you can also move the needle by integrating your own unique spin on what sustainability means to you. Customers appreciate an open dialogue and honest approach.
Follow the Understand → Strategize → Implement loop.
Share your wins and let the compounding effect of a green mindset, partnerships, education, community, donations and search engine optimization drive long-term growth.
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