SEO for Pest Control Companies in Maryland - 6 Steps to Get More Leads

Nov 25, 2022

- by Kester Browne

Competition in the pest control industry is fierce.

To succeed, you need to make sure your pest control company stands out from the crowd.

But how can you separate your company from the other 30,000 pest control companies in the US?

One way to stand out is by doing SEO for pest control companies.

In this post, I'll show you six steps you can use today to grow your business with search engine optimization (SEO).

Let's begin.

Step #1. Set Up Tracking and Monitoring

But before you start SEO for pest control services, you must first set up the basics.

To measure your pest control SEO effectiveness, you'll need to track and monitor your website's performance, pages, and traffic. The best way to do this is to set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics allows you to track and monitor website performance, user behavior, page views, bounce rates, and more. It provides valuable insights that will help you understand how users interact with your site.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a tool that can help you track and measure your pest control website visibility on Google. With this tool, you can monitor your website's click-through rate and determine which keywords drive the most organic traffic.

Once you have these two tools in place, you can begin to measure the success of your SEO campaign and efforts.

This will give you a benchmark for future optimization and allow you to understand what strategies are working and which ones need improving.

Step #2. Optimize Your Google My Business Page for Your Pest Control Company

One of the most critical things pest control companies can do is to create and optimize their Google My Business profile.

Why is your Google My Business (GMB) page important?

Because you need a GMB profile to appear in the Google map pack.

The Google map pack is one of the most visible elements in local search engine results pages (SERPs) and appears near the top of the local search results.

When a user searches for pest control services, businesses that appear in the map pack are more likely to get noticed and clicked on than those that don't.

One report found that businesses in the map pack get approximately 35% of the click on the first page.

And when people click on your business in the map pack,

Another recent report found that 60% of smartphone users contacted local businesses using the "click to call" option from their Google business profile.

There are many other benefits to claiming and optimizing your Google My Business page for your pest control company.

These benefits include:

Credibility as an honest, local pest control company
Increased online visibility on Google Maps and local searches
The ability to respond to reviews and a place where customers can leave reviews, and a place where customers can read reviews about your business
It helps boost your local SEO rankings
An online app where customers can message you and engage with your business

Creating a Google My Business listing is simple.

First, you must create a business account and add your business information.

You will need to provide information like your

business name
business address
phone number
business category
hours of operation

Then, you go through the verification process so that Google knows you have a real business.

Once your profile is verified, you can start optimizing your page by adding images, posts, and descriptions of your pest control services.

You should also ensure that your business information (name, address, phone number) is correct on your GMB page and other citations.

Correct information helps ensure that potential customers can find accurate information about your business quickly and easily.

Finally, you should monitor customer reviews.

Reviews help you understand how customers view your business and what they think about your service.

Positive reviews also help boost the credibility of your business and let potential customers know you are active and engaged.

Reviews are also a significant ranking factor for local SEO.

Never buy reviews.

Buying reviews can hurt damage your reputation and your credibility.

By creating and optimizing your Google My Business page, you can build an online presence for your business and increase your online visibility.

Step #3. Find and Fix Technical SEO Issues

Next, you should start fixing technical SEO issues to improve your pest control SEO.

Technical SEO is the practice of making sure your website meets search engine requirements so you can improve your rankings.

Factors that to take into account are:

Crawling and Indexing

You'll want to ensure that search engines can crawl and index your pages to include your web pages in their search results.

If Google can't crawl your site, then your website will not appear in the search results.

Use Google Search Console to find and fix any indexing errors or issues with your website.

Site Structure

Your website structure is how you organize all your website pages.

To have the best SEO performance, you want a structure that allows web crawlers to crawl your entire site and not miss any pages.

For crawlers to crawl your entire site, it's best to have a flat site structure.

This means you only have one or two layers of pages instead of several.

A flat site structure makes it easier for search engines to access all your pages and index them faster. It also increases the chance that users will find the page they are looking for without getting lost in too many layers of navigation.

Website Security

Your website must be secure.

If your website is not secure, search engines may view it as dangerous and will likely not rank it.

You must have an SSL certificate installed on your site to ensure that all communication between your server and the user's browser is encrypted. This will give users the confidence that their information is safe when they visit your site.

Website security is also a critical ranking factor.

Thin content

Thin content provides little value to a page or website.

It is often written to get search engine rankings but doesn't provide any real information to a reader.

Thin content can be identified in multiple ways, including short pages, duplicate content, and pages with keyword stuffing. If you have thin content on your website, it will negatively impact your search engine rankings.

If you have thin pages, remove them or make them better.

Broken links

Broken links are links that go to 404 pages. These can be bad for SEO because it tells search engines that your page is outdated, not being maintained, or no longer exists.

Using a tool such as Screaming Frog can help you find any broken links on your site and fix them.

Structured data

Structured data is code you add to your website to help search engines better understand your content. The code allows search engines to display your listing in an attractive and functional way in their search results, such as showing images or star ratings with the listing.

By improving technical SEO, you can ensure that your pest control website is optimized to perform better in all major search engines.

Step #3. Find the Best Keywords for Pest Control SEO

Once you've created your Google My Business listing, it's time to consider your keywords.

Keywords are the words or phrases people use when searching for pest control companies, such as "pest control services" or "rodent removal."

You will need to do keyword research to find pest control keywords.

To help you find the best keywords, you can use keyword research tools like:

Ahrefs
SEMrush
Answer the Public
Google Keyword Planner

When selecting keywords, you must consider your target customers and what they're looking for.

If you choose the wrong keywords, your website won't appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for what people are looking for.

For example, if someone is searching for "rodent removal services," you'll want to ensure that keyword is included in your content and used throughout your website.

Once you've identified the best keywords for your pest control business, start incorporating them into your website, blog posts, and social media content.

This will help you increase your online visibility in local search results and ensure that potential customers see the correct information about your business.

Step #4. Optimize Web Pages For Pest Control SEO

If you have a local pest control company and want new customers to find your business, your website must appear on the first page of Google for your pest control services.

To improve your pest control SEO campaign and chances of showing up on the first page, you must do on-page SEO.

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing every single page of your website.

Factors you'll need to consider when improving your on-page SEO include:

Title tags
Meta descriptions
Page headings
Image alt text
Url's
Page speed
Internal linking
Keywords
Web page relevancy
Web page freshness
Conversions

Title tags

The title tag is the first thing search engines look at when determining your page's relevance, and it should accurately reflect the page's content.

It's a good idea to include your target keyword at the beginning of the title tag and to keep it under 70 characters.

By adding this, you'll be giving Google vital information about your page topic, which will help rank your page higher in search results.

Title tags also tell potential customers they can find the information they want on your page.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are summary that appears on search engine result pages (SERPs). It should accurately describe the page's content, which will help attract potential visitors searching for local pest control companies.

Including your target keyword in the meta description is essential, as this will improve its overall visibility and clickability. Keep it under 150 characters and give readers an incentive to visit your page by including a call-to-action.

Headings

Using proper headings can help structure your content and make it easier for search engines and users to understand what the page is about.

Headings include:

h1-tag
h2-tag
h3-tag
h4-tag
h5-tag
h6-tag

It's advisable to use either the H1 heading tag for your main title and then work down from there. Using proper headings helps search engines understand what kind of content you're offering on the page, allowing them to rank it accurately in the search engines.

Image Alt text

Search engines can't see images, so you'll need to use alternative text (alt text) for them.

Alt texts describe the image and should include your target keyword if it's relevant.

Using alt text helps ensure that your images are indexed, which can improve their visibility in SERPs. It will also be beneficial for screen readers and other assistive technologies.

Optimized URLs

Creating a clear, descriptive URL structure helps search engines understand the content of your page more easily.

Optimizing your URLs for SEO purposes ensures that both search engines and users can easily access and navigate your website. This will also make it easier to crawl and index the pages on your site, helping them appear higher in SERPs.

Page speed

Your website page speed is another crucial factor in on-page SEO. Search engines prefer pages that load quickly, ensuring a good user experience and encouraging people to stay on the page longer.

One way to increase your page speed is to optimize your images. Optimize your images by compressing them before uploading them to your website. You can also use caching plugins or CDNs (content delivery networks) to speed up your page loading time. Doing this will help improve your local SEO rankings and increase your website traffic.

Check your website page speed here.

Internal linking

Linking to other relevant content on your website helps search engines understand the context of each page and how they relate to one another.

Adding internal links can provide visitors with additional information and help them navigate your website. Internal linking also helps search engines understand the structure of the pages on your site, helping to improve their visibility in SERPs.

Responsive design

A website that looks good on all devices, including mobile and tablet, is essential for pest control SEO. A mobile-friendly design ensures your content can be accessed across multiple platforms and will help you rank higher in search results as it provides a better user experience.

To make sure your site is responsive, check the page speed with the Google Page Speed Insights tool. This will help you identify any changes that need to be made to improve loading times and give a better experience for your users.

Keywords

Doing keyword research and using relevant keywords in your content helps Google understand your web page and how it relates to users' queries.

Using keywords naturally throughout your content is essential, as stuffing them into irrelevant articles isn't beneficial for users or Google's algorithm.

You should also include variations of your target keyword (long tail keywords) in the article, as this will give you more chances to rank in SERPs.

Additionally, using keywords in headings and titles will help search engines understand what your page is about and make it easier for users to find relevant information.

To ensure your business appears in the local search results and to boost your local SEO, you can:

Add and use location-specific keywords related to your business and location
Add your city and region to your website's title tag and meta description
Add your business to the local directory and review sites
Create separate pages on your website for each of the areas you provide service

Relevancy

When writing for local SEO purposes, ensure each page has unique content relevant to pest control. Relevant content helps search engines determine what the page is about and can result in higher rankings.

Freshness

Keep your blog and website content fresh.

Google often values fresh content on websites, so you should aim to write new blog posts regularly. You should also revisit and rewrite dated content at least every six months to ensure that your website is updated with the latest information.

Optimize Your Website for Conversions

If you want your website to generate conversions, you'll need to optimize for conversions.

This includes having a clear call-to-action on your web pages that encourages users to take action and call your company or request a free quote.

Additionally, providing users with an easy way to contact your company can help conversions.

Finally, consider running A/B testing to determine which website design elements are the most effective in driving conversions.

By understanding how users interact with your website, you can make changes that will increase conversions and help you reach your business goals.

Step #6. Link Building for Pest Control Companies

To help boost your pest control SEO rankings, you must do link building.

Link building is creating quality links from other websites to your own. There are several things you can do to build links to your website.

Some of these things include:

Create Quality Content

Creating high-quality content for your website or blog is essential for a successful SEO and link-building campaign.

Quality content should be informative, interesting, and engaging to readers. It should also be relevant to your pest control website or blog and provide helpful information that will benefit visitors and search engine algorithms.

When you create content, be sure to create in-depth articles, mini-guides, video tutorials, and infographics that cover topics related to your pest control company.

Additionally, create exciting blog posts with images and multimedia elements like videos and audio recordings.

This will help create a more engaging experience for readers and increase the chances of getting backlinks.

Citations for Pest Control Companies

Citations are essential to your local SEO campaign and help create relevance and authority for your business.

Citations are references or mentions of your business, either online or offline, that includes vital information such as your company name, address, and phone number (NAP citations).

Citations can be found through directories like Yelp and Foursquare, sources on local websites, citations in local newspapers, or citations from locally-owned businesses.

When citations are consistent with this information and include your business's website URL, it can help to improve your SEO rankings.

Local citations also provide potential customers with information about your business to help them decide if they want to visit or make a purchase.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is a great way to get high-quality backlinks for your website.

By getting your content placed on other websites with a link pointing back to yours, you can increase the visibility of your website and boost its search engine rankings.

The key to successful guest posting is finding reputable sites related to pest control and pest control companies and creating high-quality content that readers will find informative and valuable. This can be time-consuming, but the rewards are well worth it.

Additionally, you can use social media to reach out to other websites in your industry and see if they would be interested in featuring content from your website on their platform.

By doing this, you can build relationships with other sites in your industry and increase your link-building opportunities.

Create and Promote Free Videos

Creating videos to promote your business can effectively spread the word about your pest control services and help build links.

You can also use videos to link to your site, which helps boost your pest control SEO and link building.

Whether creating a promotional video for your website, posting videos on social media, or using videos in email marketing campaigns, videos can help you communicate your message in an engaging and entertaining way.

Once you've created your videos, there are many free resources available to help you promote them.

YouTube is the largest video streaming platform in the world, so it's a great place to start sharing your videos.

You can also post videos on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally, videos can be embedded on your website or blog to add visual interest and to help attract visitors.

Final Thoughts: SEO For Pest Control Companies

Now that you have a solid understanding of what SEO is and how it works, it's time to put that knowledge to work.

You have three choices if you're ready to get started with search engine optimization for your pest control business.

Do nothing like most pest control companies and hope everything works out
Try to do SEO for your pest control business on your own
Hire an SEO company that specializes in pest control SEO services

If you have the time to learn SEO, you can do it on your own and save some money.

On the other hand, if you're too busy or don't have the skills to do SEO on your own, then hiring an SEO company experienced in pest control SEO services can provide a great return on investment.

Regardless of which option you choose, here are some essential tips to remember when optimizing for SEO:

1. Make sure your website is indexable and crawlable.

2. Build high-quality local citations on relevant directories and websites.

3. Utilize guest posting to get high-quality backlinks for your site.

4. Create and promote free videos on YouTube and other social media sites to boost SEO rankings.

By following these tips, you can create an on-site SEO strategy to help your pest control business rank higher on search engine results pages and attract more customers.

Good luck!

About the author

Kester is the Director of SEO at Bowie SEO. He has been doing SEO and digital marketing for more than 4 years. When not engulfed in SEO or building websites, you can find him with his family, riding his bike, or relaxing in front of his aquarium.