SEO for pest control

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile help). For the profile, that means the right primary category (Pest control service), every service you offer, accurate hours, photos of your trucks and techs, and reviews that keep coming in. For the website, remember that people search by the pest, not the trade: ants, termites, rodents, bed bugs, wasps. A page for each pest you treat, saying how you treat it and what the customer does before and after the visit, tells Google which searches to show you for. A home page that only says "we handle all pests" competes for nothing in particular.

Towns work the same way. Write a page for a town only when you have something real to say about it, like the pests common there and reviews from customers who live there. Google's spam policies warn against many near-copies that only swap the city name (Google Search Central, spam policies). In your profile you can list up to 20 service areas (Google Business Profile help).

Calls for ants, wasps and mosquitoes tend to climb in the warm months, and rodent calls often climb when it turns cold, so the pages, the ads and the people answering the phone need to be in place first.

Pages take months to rank, so the rodent page you want working in winter gets written in summer. Ads are the part you can turn up and down: raise the budget for the pests that are in season and lower it when calls slow down. And answer every call during a rush. Someone who just found droppings in the pantry calls the next company if you don't pick up. Victoria, our AI receptionist, answers several calls at once, in English and Spanish, and books the inspection.

A lead is a call or message from someone in your area about a job type you chose.

Google screens your business before the ads run, and depending on your state that can include background checks and proof of license and insurance. The ads rank partly on your rating, your number of reviews and how quickly you respond (Local Services Ads help), so the same reviews and fast answers that help your map listing help here too. Google also reviews leads and credits back the ones it finds invalid, like spam or a wrong number (Local Services Ads help). Choose job types with care: a one-time wasp nest and a customer who could stay on a plan for years are worth very different amounts to you. We set up the account in your name and keep an eye on the leads.

Explain the plan on your website in plain words: how often you come, what each visit covers, what happens if pests come back between visits and how to cancel. After a one-time treatment, send a short note that offers the plan. Before each season, remind past customers whose usual problem is about to return, like ants in spring. Get written permission to text on your service agreement or booking form, because marketing texts need the customer's prior express written consent under federal law (the Telephone Consumer Protection Act). Email reminders work too, as long as each one has a clear way to unsubscribe (FTC, CAN-SPAM Act).

Someone with a pest problem wants help fast, so the site has to load quickly on a phone and make calling one tap.

Many customers worry about kids and pets, so answer that on the page: what you use, what they should do before the visit, and how long to keep everyone off treated areas according to the product label. Show your license number. In California, structural pest control companies are licensed by the Structural Pest Control Board (SPCB). Add real photos of your techs and your reviews, and offer the site in Spanish if many of your customers speak it. Google mainly uses the phone version of a site for ranking (Google Search Central, mobile-first indexing), so check every page on a phone first.

Your Google Business Profile gives you that link to share (Google Business Profile help).

Service plans give you a chance most trades don't get: you see the same customers several times a year, so if one doesn't leave a review after the first visit, you can ask again after a later one. Ask everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy, and don't pay or give discounts for reviews. Google doesn't allow either (Google's policy on reviews). Reply to every review, the bad ones too, briefly and politely. A complaint that the pests came back is a chance to show how you handle a follow-up visit.