North Dakota · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The North Dakota Secretary of State licenses contractors, and landscaping work falls inside that definition. A license is required once the cost, value, or price of a single job exceeds $4,000. Four classes, A through D, set the ceiling on any one contract. Landscape architect is a separately protected title, and applying pesticide for hire needs NDSU Extension certification.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The North Dakota Secretary of State licenses contractors, and a landscaping business sits inside that definition. The office acts as registrar under North Dakota Century Code chapter 43-07. The statute defines a contractor as any person engaged in the business of construction, repair, alteration, dismantling, or demolition of structures, projects, developments, or improvements coming within the definition of real or personal property. Grading, retaining walls, paver patios and drives, drainage work, and planted installations fixed to the ground all read onto that language. The Secretary of State states the trigger plainly: when the cost, value, or price of a job exceeds $4,000, the person doing the work must be licensed as a contractor in North Dakota. The threshold is per job, not per year. Section 43-07-02 adds a second consequence that bites harder than the fee. An unlicensed contractor may not maintain any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state related to that person's business or capacity as a contractor. Install a $9,000 patio without a license and you have no court to collect in. The requirement reaches subcontractors, general contractors, public contractors, and nonresident contractors alike, so a crew based in Minnesota installing in Fargo needs the same license a Bismarck company needs. Chapter 43-07 exempts only two groups. The first is authorized representatives of federal, state, county, municipal, irrigation district, or other public bodies. The second is anyone furnishing a fabricated or finished product that is not incorporated into or attached to real property. Selling a pallet of block is exempt. Setting it is not. There is no separate state landscaping license and no separate hardscaping classification. The contractor license is the one that applies.
Sourcessos.nd.gov 1ndlegis.gov 2
North Dakota issues contractor licenses in four classes, and the only thing separating them is the dollar value of a single contract project. Section 43-07-07 sets the ceilings. A class A license carries no limit on the value of any single contract project. A class B holder may not engage in a single contract project worth more than $500,000. Class C caps a single project at $300,000. Class D caps a single project at $100,000. The Secretary of State publishes the matching application fees: $450 for class A, $300 for class B, $225 for class C, and $100 for class D. Renewal fees are much lower and are set in the same statute: $90 for class A, $60 for class B, $45 for class C, and $30 for class D. Notice what the class does not control. It says nothing about what kind of work you may perform. A class D landscaping company and a class A landscaping company may both build retaining walls, install irrigation, and set pavers. The class only limits the size of any one contract. That makes class selection a sales decision rather than a technical one. If your largest realistic single award is a $60,000 commercial installation, class D covers it. If you intend to bid a campus or a municipal park job in one contract, you need a class that reaches above the contract value before the bid date. Section 43-07-10 lets a contractor apply for a different class at renewal by paying the fee for the class applied for, so moving up does not require starting over.
Sourcessos.nd.gov 1ndlegis.gov 2
Pick the class by the largest single contract you expect to sign, not by your annual revenue. North Dakota measures the limit per contract project, so a company doing four separate $80,000 residential installations in one season stays inside class D on every one of them. One $150,000 commercial site package signed as a single contract does not fit class D. Public work makes the timing strict. Section 43-07-12 says a contract may not be awarded to any contractor unless the contractor holds a license in the class within which the value of the project falls, and the contractor must hold that license at least ten days before the date set for receiving bids to be a qualified bidder. Upgrading the week of a bid opening is too late. The same section requires a copy of the license or the current contractor year certificate to be enclosed in the bid bond envelope, and a bid submitted without it may not be read or considered and must be returned to the bidder. Those rules are waived only for bids to the Department of Transportation, bids to the Public Service Commission, and work using federal aid highway funds. Private residential work has no bid envelope rule, but the class ceiling still governs. Section 43-07-06 also lets any public body that awards construction contracts impose reasonable extra requirements and conditions on top of chapter 43-07, so a park district or school board may ask for more than the state asks for. Read the invitation to bid before you decide your class is enough.
Sourcesndlegis.gov 1sos.nd.gov 2
The application is a paperwork exercise rather than a testing exercise. Section 43-07-04 requires an applicant eighteen or older to submit a sworn application on the registrar's form containing a statement of the applicant's experience and qualifications as a contractor, together with a copy of a certificate of liability insurance and a statement from North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance that coverage satisfactory to WSI has been secured. The Secretary of State adds the mechanical detail: the liability insurance must be in the same name you are requesting for the license, and the certificate must list the North Dakota Secretary of State, 600 E Boulevard Ave, Dept 108, Bismarck, ND 58505, as the certificate holder. If you have employees residing in North Dakota, a current WSI certificate of payment is required. If you do not, you supply a letter of good standing from WSI instead. Business registration comes first. A sole proprietor may need a trade name registration, a general partnership may need a fictitious partnership name, and any other structure must register with the Secretary of State before the contractor application goes in. Two things are absent. There is no state trade examination for a contractor license, because the statute asks for a statement of experience rather than a passing score. There is also no state contractor bond. Section 43-07-11, the old contractor's bond requirement, was repealed in 1995 and was never replaced. A bond may still be demanded by a city, a public owner, or a private client, but the state does not demand one. The registrar may require criminal history record information at the applicant's expense, and section 43-07-09 allows an investigation within fifteen days of application.
Sourcesndlegis.gov 1sos.nd.gov 2
North Dakota runs contractors on a fixed year rather than on your anniversary date. Section 43-07-01 defines the contractor year as March second through March first, and section 43-07-09 says an original license is valid until the expiration of the then current contractor year ending March first. An initial license issued in January or February is valid until March first of the following year. Everyone renews on the same deadline, so plan the paperwork around the start of the installation season. Renewal is not a single click. Section 43-07-10 and the Secretary of State both require the renewal application to list each project, contract, or subcontract completed in North Dakota during the preceding calendar year that exceeded $50,000, along with the nature of the work. The registrar forwards that list to the state tax commissioner. You also certify that all payroll taxes, including North Dakota income tax, Workforce Safety and Insurance premiums, and unemployment insurance premiums due at renewal have been paid, and you file a current certificate of liability insurance. Miss March 1 and the statute treats you as unlicensed. The license is classified as not in good standing and the contractor is deemed unlicensed within the meaning of section 43-07-02. The registrar notifies you by mail within sixty days after March first, and you then have until June first to cure by filing the renewal, paying the renewal fee, and paying a $50 penalty fee. After June first an unrenewed license is expired. Chapter 43-07 sets no continuing education requirement for the contractor license, so there are no classroom hours to track for this one.
Sourcesndlegis.gov 1sos.nd.gov 2
North Dakota registers landscape architects separately, through the state board of architecture and landscape architecture under Century Code chapter 43-03. The practice of landscape architecture is defined broadly in section 43-03-01 to include advice, consultation, planning, landscape architectural design, drawings and specifications, overall site plans, landscape grading and drainage plans, planting plans, irrigation plans, and construction details, plus contract administration as the owner's representative, where the safeguarding of public health, safety, or welfare is concerned or involved. Read alone that definition would swallow most design and build work. Section 43-03-02 is the reason it does not. Subsection 2 says the landscape architect registration provisions do not apply to an architect, professional engineer, or land surveyor acting within their own license, and it does not apply to a nursery worker, gardener, landscape designer, or landscape contractor in the course of preparing planting plans or installing plant material, to the extent those activities do not impact the public health, safety, or welfare. The same subsection exempts an irrigation designer, contractor, or service provider preparing irrigation plans or installing, repairing, or maintaining irrigation systems, and it exempts someone planning or caring for their own property. Section 43-03-02 also says chapter 43-03 does not supersede, override, or amend chapter 43-07 on contractor registration. So the two systems stack. A landscape contractor who designs the planting plan and installs the plants does not need landscape architect registration. The exemption is written with a limit, and the limit is public health, safety, and welfare. Grading and drainage that change how stormwater moves across a site, or structural retaining work on a public project, is where that qualifier starts to matter, and where a registered landscape architect or engineer belongs on the drawing.
Sourcesndlegis.gov
This is the rule most likely to cost a North Dakota landscaping company money in advertising. Section 43-03-10 says a person may not use the title or designation landscape architect, registered landscape architect, licensed landscape architect, any variation of those terms, or any other words, letters, or device to indicate that the person is a landscape architect authorized to practice in this state, unless registered under chapter 43-03. Section 43-03-09 goes further and reaches conduct, not just titles. An unregistered person may not advertise, represent, or in any manner hold that person out as a landscape architect, and may not, in connection with the person's business or name or otherwise, assume, use, or advertise any term, title, or description or engage in any other conduct that reasonably might be expected to mislead another to believe the person is a landscape architect. Soliciting landscape architecture services as an individual or corporation is also barred. The board's own rules call this out by name. Administrative rule 8-02-03-02 makes falsely professing to be a landscape architect an illegal practice, and 8-02-03-01 does the same for practicing without registration. Section 43-03-09 lets the board ask the attorney general to enjoin a violation, and the board is not required to prove irreparable injury to get that injunction. Practical consequence for your website and trucks: drop phrases like landscape architectural design and landscape architecture services unless a registered landscape architect is on staff and named. Safe wording describes what you actually hold. Licensed North Dakota contractor, landscape contractor, landscape designer, and certified commercial pesticide applicator are all accurate and all verifiable by a customer.
Sourcesndlegis.gov 1ndlegis.gov 2
If you want the title, chapter 43-03 sets the path. Section 43-03-13 requires an applicant to be at least eighteen, to be of good moral character, to pass an examination for registration, and to hold either a professional degree in landscape architecture from an accredited school of landscape architecture plus the practical experience the board establishes, or evidence of education and experience substantially equivalent to that degree and experience. The board sets the eligibility standards by rule, and administrative rule 8-04-01-04 says that beginning January 1, 2005, the qualification standards for landscape architects on education, training, and experience are the requirements established by the most recent CLARB standards of eligibility. Section 43-03-14 lets the board administer its own examination or recognize a board approved examination of a nationally recognized entity. The fees are capped by statute rather than published as a single schedule. Section 43-03-11 sets an examination fee of not more than $100 and a re-examination fee of not more than $100, which the board may waive in whole or in part. Section 43-03-18 sets a registration fee following examination of not more than $300, the same cap where examination is not required, and a renewal fee based on no more than $300 per year. An initial certificate expires June 30 of the year following issuance, and a renewed certificate is valid for two years under section 43-03-17. Rule 8-04-04-01 confirms registration is renewed biennially. Out of state applicants have a defined route: section 43-03-15 allows admission without examination from a state with substantially equal requirements, and rule 8-04-03-02 requires a landscape architect applicant licensed elsewhere to submit a council certificate furnished by CLARB with the application fee.
The moment you charge for applying a pesticide, a second credential attaches. Century Code section 4.1-33-01 defines a commercial applicator as a person who, by contract or for hire, engages in the business of applying pesticides for compensation. That covers broadleaf weed control on a client's turf, grub treatment, a fungicide on ornamental beds, and insect or disease treatment on trees. Section 4.1-33-07 says a commercial or public applicator may not purchase, use, or supervise the use of a pesticide without first complying with the certification standards and requirements of the chapter. Certification is handled by NDSU Extension, not by the Secretary of State. An individual is certified within a classification by passing an examination prescribed by the pesticide control board and administered by the North Dakota State University Extension Service or its designee. NDSU Extension runs the program and states that certification exams are administered by appointment through local county extension offices, with instructions supplied alongside the study materials. Section 4.1-33-06 lets the board classify commercial certificates, and classifications may be split by ground, aerial, or manual method. The 2026 commercial request package published by the NDSU Extension Pesticide Program lists the categories, and the one that matches most landscaping work is Ornamental and Turf. Right of Way and Home, Industrial and Institutional appear on the same list. That package sets a $75 base fee for ground or aerial plus $25 per category selected. Renewal is on a longer cycle than the contractor license. Section 4.1-33-08 expires a certificate on the first day of April following two years from issuance, and a certificate is renewable every three years on April first, by completing a board approved seminar or passing an examination, or both if the board requires it.
North Dakota does not require a bond for the contractor license, but it does require proof of financial responsibility before it will certify a commercial pesticide applicator. Section 4.1-33-10 says a commercial applicator certificate may not be issued unless the applicant furnishes proof of financial responsibility, and that responsibility must be maintained in the amount of $100,000. The statute gives three ways to show it. You can supply a notarized letter from an officer of a financial institution or from a certified public accountant attesting to net assets of at least $100,000, you can post a performance bond, or you can carry a general liability insurance policy. A bond or policy used for this purpose must contain a provision requiring the issuing company to notify the agriculture commissioner at least ten days before the effective date of cancellation, termination, or other modification. Most landscaping companies satisfy this with the general liability policy they already buy for the contractor license, but the notification clause is easy to miss, so confirm the endorsement with your agent rather than assuming it is there. Enforcement is immediate rather than administrative. The agriculture commissioner may demand proof of compliance at any time, and if the applicator cannot produce it the commissioner may stop a pesticide application and refuse to allow it to resume until proof arrives. The commissioner shall immediately suspend the certification of a commercial applicator who fails to maintain the standard. If there has been a recovery against the applicator, continued compliance must be demonstrated again, and a reinstatement application must be accompanied by proof that any judgment previously rendered has been satisfied. Narrow exceptions exist for federal grasslands lessees, grazing associations, right of way category holders, and noxious weed control on non annual crop land.
Sourcesndlegis.gov
If your installation contracts include the plants, read chapter 4.1-22 before the spring order lands. Section 4.1-22-06 says a person may not sell nursery stock without a license issued by the agriculture commissioner. Nursery stock is defined in section 4.1-22-01 as all trees, shrubs, woody vines and their parts capable of propagation or growth, except seed, and only plants intended for outdoor planting count. A nursery means any place where nursery stock is propagated, grown, or offered for sale, and a place of business means each separate location from which nursery stock is being offered for sale. Licenses expire December 31 each year unless revoked earlier. The renewal application plus a $50 fee is due on or before December 31. A separate license is required for each place of business, and a $10 fee applies to each additional license beyond the principal location. A license may not be issued to a grower unless the grower has first been issued a certificate of inspection. Section 4.1-22-05 requires all nursery stock offered for sale in the state to come from officially inspected sources, and a copy of a certificate of inspection from the state of origin must accompany each commercial lot or shipment brought into or offered for sale in North Dakota. Labeling matters too. Section 4.1-22-07 requires the complete correct botanical or approved recognized common name, and all nonhardy trees and shrubs as determined by the commissioner must be labeled nonhardy in North Dakota. Section 4.1-22-08 bars misrepresenting name, age, origin, grade, variety, quality, or hardiness. Violations are a class B misdemeanor and carry a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation under section 4.1-22-11. Section 4.1-22-10 lets the commissioner exempt noncommercial growing and conservation district sales.
Sourcesndlegis.gov
North Dakota has no standalone state irrigation contractor license, and chapter 43-03 says so twice over. Section 43-03-02 exempts an irrigation designer, contractor, or service provider from landscape architect registration when preparing irrigation plans or installing, repairing, or maintaining irrigation systems. What governs instead is the plumbing side of the connection and the local authority having jurisdiction. Century Code section 43-18-01 defines plumbing as the installation, maintenance, extension, alteration, and removal of all piping, plumbing fixtures, plumbing appliances, and other appurtenances in connection with bringing water into, and using the same in, buildings, and removing liquids and water carried wastes from them. The state board of plumbing licenses master plumbers, journeyman plumbers, and apprentices against that definition. Administrative rule 62-02-01-01 sets the credentials: four years of experience as an apprentice under a licensed master plumber to sit for the journeyman examination, or a screening test route after five years and 9,500 hours with four supporting affidavits, and two years plus 3,400 hours as a licensed journeyman to apply as a master, with a minimum age of twenty-one. The fees in that rule are a $50 application fee, a $50 examination fee, a $100 journeyman license fee, and a $200 master license fee. Backflow protection is where irrigation touches drinking water rules. Administrative article 33.1-17 on public water supply systems prohibits cross connections except when and where, as approved by the authority having jurisdiction, suitable protective devices are installed, tested, and maintained to ensure proper operation on a continuing basis. A system must be designed, installed, and maintained to prevent nonpotable liquids, solids, or gases from entering the water. The practical answer is to confirm with the city inspections department who may make the potable connection and who may test the device.
North Dakota puts the license number into the permit record rather than onto your truck. Section 43-07-24 requires a contractor applying for a building permit to supply the permit issuing official with that contractor's license number, and the official shall enter the number on the permit. The same section reaches owner builders. A person performing general contractor's work on that person's own property, even if exempt from the licensing requirements of chapter 43-07, shall supply the permit issuing official with the license number of each subcontractor engaged on the project and doing work covered by the permit, as soon as it is available, and the official enters each number before inspection of the work. So a homeowner acting as their own general contractor has to collect your license number anyway, which makes it worth putting on every estimate you hand out. On public work, section 43-07-12 requires a copy of the license or current contractor year certificate inside the bid bond envelope, and the bid cannot be read without it. Section 43-07-25 requires the registrar, on request, to provide city and county enforcement officials with a list of licensed contractors, and to provide similar information to permit issuing officials. Enforcement does not depend on a complaint reaching Bismarck. Nothing in chapter 43-07 that was fetched for this page requires the license number to appear in print advertising, on vehicles, or on a website, so treat that as a city question rather than a state one. Section 43-07-26 does impose a disclosure duty on a different point: a contractor must give the purchaser or owner written notice of the warranty repair notice requirements at closing or, for an improvement, at the time the improvement is completed.
Sourcesndlegis.gov
The state license is the floor, not the ceiling. Fargo runs a separate license for tree and landscaping work through its Forestry division. The city states that a person or business compensated for tree and shrub removal, pruning, cabling and bracing, stump removal, planting, and treatments to manage insects, disease and plant health inside Fargo city limits is required to obtain a license from the City of Fargo. The city issues that license after confirming the contractor has liability and workers compensation insurance, has obtained a performance bond, possesses a North Dakota contractors license when required, and possesses a North Dakota commercial applicators license when required. The license is renewed annually and the contractor is responsible for renewing it. Fargo maintains a published list of licensed tree contractors, updated through the year, and tells property owners to ask a contractor to show the license before work starts or if services are being sold door to door. Separately, the Fargo Inspections Department enforces the adopted heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing and building codes and handles permits through its inspections web portal. Bismarck handles this differently. Its Building Inspections Division covers building code and zoning enforcement, permitting, plan review, inspections, floodplain management, and mechanical contractor licensing, which means there is no general contractor license to buy at city hall. Two Bismarck permits matter for planting work. Property owners may plant street trees only by obtaining a Permit to Plant Trees on Public Street Right of Way from the Forestry Division, and those permits are free of charge. Any work inside city rights of way, the strip between opposing front property lines, requires a right of way permit. Check both before a boulevard planting or a driveway approach.
Every credential a North Dakota landscaping company holds is checkable by the customer in a few minutes, which is why naming them specifically beats claiming to be licensed and insured. The contractor license lives in the Secretary of State's FirstStop portal, and the office tells the public to search contractors registered in North Dakota to see whether a license is in good standing. Good standing is a defined status, not a figure of speech. Section 43-07-04 lets the registrar classify a license as not in good standing when the contractor fails to maintain the required liability insurance, fails to file or renew a fictitious name certificate, or fails to keep a corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or limited partnership registration active. A contractor notified of that status must cease soliciting or entering new contract projects. Section 43-07-13 backs the search with a statutory duty: the registrar maintains a complete indexed record of all applications, licenses, current contractor year certificates, revocations, and expirations, open to public inspection during office hours. Pesticide certification has its own public search. NDSU Extension runs an applicator search engine that returns name, city, identification number, status, and the categories an applicator holds, and it also builds filtered lists by certification type, expiration year, category, and county. Fargo publishes its licensed tree contractor list through Forestry. The Secretary of State also accepts certain complaints against contractors, so an unhappy customer has a state route as well as a civil one. Put the class letter, the license status, and the applicator categories on your estimate and your website, and link the two search tools. A competitor writing licensed and bonded with nothing to check cannot match that.
Sourcessos.nd.gov 1firststop.sos.nd.gov 2ndlegis.gov 3ndsu.edu 4pesticide.ndsu.nodak.edu 5fargond.gov 6
North Dakota treats contracting without a license as a crime, not a paperwork lapse. Section 43-07-02 makes any person acting in the capacity of a contractor without a license guilty of a class A misdemeanor. Regardless of whether criminal prosecution follows, and in addition to the license fee itself, the registrar may assess a civil penalty after written notice of intent, in an amount not to exceed three times the amount set out in section 43-07-07. Any civil penalty must be assessed and collected before a license is issued, so the cheapest route to a license is never to work ahead of one. The same section defines construction fraud. It covers receiving payment for a project by intentionally using deception, receiving payment for materials and willfully failing to pay the supplier, and willfully abandoning a project after payment. Abandonment is defined by clock: failing substantially to commence work within sixty days of a written start date or ninety days of the contract date when no start date was written, or failing to complete within ninety days of a written completion date or one hundred eighty days of the contract date when none was written. The grade follows the money. Payment under $10,000 is a class C felony, more than $10,000 but not more than $50,000 is a class B felony, and more than $50,000 is a class A felony. Separately, section 43-07-15 lets the registrar suspend or revoke a license and order a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 plus restitution of not more than $5,000. Pesticide violations run on their own track: section 4.1-33-20 makes a knowing violation by a commercial applicator a class A misdemeanor and allows a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each violation.
Sourcesndlegis.gov 1ndlegis.gov 2
These are common details other guides publish about North Dakota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Secretary of State requires a contractor license once the cost, value, or price of a job exceeds $4,000, and the threshold is measured per job. A $6,500 paver patio clears it. Working without the license is a class A misdemeanor under section 43-07-02 and blocks you from suing to collect.
Choose by your largest single contract. Class D caps one project at $100,000, class C at $300,000, class B at $500,000, and class A has no cap. Fees are $100, $225, $300 and $450 in that order. Annual revenue does not matter, because the limit applies per contract project.
No. Section 43-03-10 bars anyone not registered from using landscape architect, registered or licensed landscape architect, or any variation. Section 43-03-09 also bars any term or description that reasonably might mislead someone into thinking you are one. Describe yourself as a landscape contractor or landscape designer instead.
The contractor license attaches when a single job exceeds $4,000, so small maintenance visits usually fall below it. Treatments are the catch. Applying pesticide for compensation makes you a commercial applicator under section 4.1-33-01 and requires NDSU Extension certification regardless of how small the invoice is.
Not for the state contractor license. Section 43-07-11, the contractor bond requirement, was repealed in 1995 and was not replaced. You do file a certificate of liability insurance and a Workforce Safety and Insurance statement. Cities and public owners may still require a bond, and Fargo requires one for its tree contractor license.
The contractor year runs March second through March first, so every license renews on the same date. Miss March 1 and you are deemed unlicensed. You then have until June 1 to renew by paying the renewal fee plus a $50 penalty fee. After June 1 the license is expired.
Section 43-07-10 requires a list of each project, contract, or subcontract you completed in North Dakota last calendar year that exceeded $50,000, with the nature of the work. You also certify payroll taxes, Workforce Safety and Insurance premiums and unemployment premiums are paid, and file a current liability insurance certificate.
Ornamental and Turf is the category on the NDSU Extension Pesticide Program commercial request package that matches most landscaping work. Right of Way and Home, Industrial and Institutional appear on the same list. The 2026 package sets a $75 base fee for ground or aerial plus $25 for each category you select.
Section 4.1-33-10 requires $100,000 maintained continuously. You may show it with a notarized letter from a bank officer or a CPA attesting to net assets of at least $100,000, a performance bond, or a general liability policy. A bond or policy must require ten days notice to the agriculture commissioner before cancellation.
Yes. Section 4.1-22-06 prohibits selling nursery stock without a license from the agriculture commissioner. Renewal plus a $50 fee is due by December 31 each year, with $10 for each additional place of business. Stock must come from inspected sources and nonhardy material must be labeled nonhardy in North Dakota.
That is a local call. Article 33.1-17 prohibits cross connections unless suitable protective devices are installed, tested and maintained as approved by the authority having jurisdiction. North Dakota has no separate state irrigation license, and chapter 43-18 covers plumbing. Confirm with city inspections who may make the connection and test the device.
Yes. Fargo requires a city license for anyone compensated for tree and shrub removal, pruning, cabling and bracing, stump removal, planting, or plant health treatments inside city limits. The city checks liability and workers compensation insurance, a performance bond, a state contractor license when required, and a state commercial applicator license when required.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.