When it comes to growing your business locally, you need to find your local customers. That’s nothing new. The bigger part, however, is HOW to get them. Consumers are conducting searches on Google more than ever. Does your pest control business show up when a local customer searches online for pest control services? How does your business rank in the search results compared to your competitors?
Your new pest control customers are right around the corner, and a local SEO strategy is the best way to grab them. In this article, we’re giving you a crash course in local SEO and some ways you can optimize your business for local search.
How Google Ranks Local Search Results
No matter the industry, the goal is to grow your business. One crucial element to achieve this is by optimizing your website for local search, otherwise known as local SEO. When done right, local SEO will help your target pest control customers at the exact moment they are ready to make a purchase. Here’s a simple breakdown of how that all works.
Google is essentially a giant answering machine. Its job is to filter through tons of information on the internet and deliver the most relevant results to the searcher’s question. Because there’s so much content out there, search engines use a specific checklist to prioritize what information they put in front of the user. These “trust factors” are a part of what makes up SEO (search engine optimization), and your digital footprint on the internet. Simply put, how many of these factors your website has determines how well you will appear in the search results.
What Matters for Local SEO
If Google is a car, and your website is a gas station, SEO is the navigation system to find it. Simply put, to show up in search results, your website needs to contain all the key ingredients to be visible to search engines. If your website can’t be found, there’s no way you’ll ever show up in the search results.
So, what are some local SEO factors search engines looking for? Here’s the rundown.
Claim your Google Business Profile
This is arguably the first and perhaps the easiest thing you can do to boost your local presence. Your Google Business Profile is a section of information about your business that appears when someone conducts a local search. It appears at the top of the search results in a box known as the local SEO 3-pack. The set this up, you’ll need to go to the Google Business Profile page and claim your listing. Next, you will want to start filling out your profile will every bit of information you want users to know about your business. Filling out your business listing completely will help potential customers feel more informed about your business and be more likely to choose your business over the competitor.
Optimize Your Website with Relevant Keywords
The next step in local SEO is optimizing your business for relevant keywords. If you want to appear in the search results, your need to integrate the right keywords that are related to your pest control business and are keywords that are often searched by users.
You’ll also want to incorporate local keywords that specify the geographical location of your business. These can help you reach potential customers in your community who are trying to find a pest control company such as yours. Once you’ve selected your keywords, you’ll want to integrate them properly throughout your website.
You’ll also want to take it a step further by creating separate pages on your website for each one of your services and locations. This makes it super easy for Google to crawl through your website and get the information they need quickly. Remember, if they can’t find what they are looking for quickly, they’ll move on to the new site.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
To make your website local-SEO friendly, it must work great on mobile. Your mobile site plays a fundamental role in your ranking. Mobile-friendly means that your website adapts to whatever device a user uses so visitors have a flawless browsing experience. If your website isn’t responsive, you’ll risk losing potential customers and taking a big hit with your online rankings.
Get More Reviews
A critical piece of local SEO is online reviews. Reviews are not a “nice-to-have” item, they are a “must-have.” Online reviews can potentially make or break a person’s decision to do business with you, so it’s crucial that you get a steady flow of ongoing positive reviews. From a search engine standpoint, reviews are a part of a ranking factor Google uses called Prominence. Prominence is defined as “how well-known a business is.” The more reviews and positive ratings a business has will improve its local ranking. Make getting more reviews a priority to help build trust with both customers and search engines.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the ways to optimize your pest control business for local search. Now that you understand a bit more it may sound a little overwhelming. Local SEO is a technical process and takes time to learn and implement. If you don’t have the time or expertise to do it, your best option is to turn it over to a local SEO agency like Fusion One Marketing. If you’re ready to build a solid local SEO campaign and drive more traffic to your pest control business, we’re here to help. Contact us directly to see how we can help you get more calls and more business.
