Google Business Profile For Pest Control: Complete Guide

Before you can start making changes to your GBP…

You have to go into your dashboard, as shown above.

There are numerous ways to do this, here are the top two ways:

1. Search your business name under an email with access

2. Search "Google Business Profile" under an email with access

If you have one location, I suggest #1.

If you have more than one location, I suggest #2.

#1 takes you straight to your profile, while #2 gives you a list of all of them.

Once, you're in your dashboard, we can get down to business.

*Screenshots edited to protect client.*

1. Business Name

Business name is actually one of the most important aspects of GBP.

Not just having a recognizable brand, but also having keywords in your business name.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news…

But if you are a:

• “Pest Solutions”

• “Pest Management”

• “Pest”

You’re missing out on quite a lot of GBP traffic.

Some of the main keywords are:

• Pest control

• Pest control [city]

• Pest control near me

• Pest control service

I wish this wasn’t the case, but I’ve ran scan reports on 2,000+ pest control companies.

There is a clear pattern here, that all experts in the space agree on.

I’m not saying it’s a requirement or impossible to rank…

It’s just much harder than not having it.

So, if you’re a newer pest control owner with not much of a brand established:

I’d highly recommend getting “pest control” in your business name.

“Exterminators” works too, but doesn’t have as much traffic.

If you already have an established brand…

Don’t worry about it too much.

But if you want to make the change:

Make sure to update citations and setup a DBA for it.

2. Business Category

This one is fairly straightforward.

If you’re primarily a pest control company…

Your primary category will be “Pest control service.”

I’m guessing you already have this in place.

Good job.

What most companies are missing is additional categories, though.

These are another big ranking factor for GBP.

Here are additional categories are relevant to pest control:

• Lawn care service

• Bird control service

• Animal control service

• Wildlife rescue service

• Tree service

• Home inspector

• Building inspector

• Sanitary inspection

There are over 4,000 of these, and you get to choose up to 9 additional ones.

However…

Do NOT just blindly use these.

If you don’t do wildlife rescue, don’t list it.

Same goes for the rest of them.

Rule of thumb:

Only use it if you want to rank on that keyword or similar ones.

3. Business Description

There’s a good amount of controversy around this.

But from what I’ve seen and what other experts in the space say…

Don’t optimize for keywords.

Write compelling copy that will convert people.

I typically recommend the founding story and core values.

Think of it as a warm welcome to new customers.

This is the first thing they see, what do you want them to think?

Keep in mind…

We’re not just “doing SEO”, we’re trying to get as many customers as possible.

You get 750 characters, so go crazy with it.

But don’t give it too much thought, as this is less significant.

4. Website

The website associated with your GBP is a big ranking factor.

This gives larger companies like Orkin an immediate unfair advantage.

However, it’s not only the website itself that matters…

It’s the website page that you’re linking to.

Typically, most companies will link to their homepage.

But the best way to go about this is:

Linking to the corresponding city page on your site.

By the way…

You should have a page on your site for each city you have a GBP. 

This is non-negotiable.

Usually, we set up pages for surrounding cities as well.

This is how we rank outside of our immediate area, but that’s for another video.

So, ideally link to location landing page.

If you don’t have a website or are not linking to it:

Get on that ASAP. 

It’s hurting you.

We build websites too, by the way.

5. Social Profiles

I actually haven’t heard or seen much about this in the space.

But I’m personally a big advocate of setting up business social profiles and linking them.

Here’s why:

Essentially, they act as citations and strengthen your entity to Google.

I could go super deep into this, but I’ll say just trust me.

I actually gave a whole speech on this topic.

So, take an hour or two to setup and optimize social profiles on the 7 platforms you can link:

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

• YouTube

• Twitter

• Instagram

• TikTok

• Pinterest

And then link them to each other, then link to them on your GBP.

Bonus - you can set up a Facebook page for every location you have.

That’s really the only social platform it makes sense to though.

As a side note, my 2 rules with SEO are:

1. The more information, the better

2. The more consistency, the better

So make sure your social profiles, GBP, and everything else follow this.

6. Address

Address is another big ranking factor.

GBP is super proximity relevant…

So if you have no address, you have no proximity relevance. 

You’re banking on all the other ranking factors to save you.

However, I’ve seen it been done.

If you’re super strong everywhere else or have little competition, you should be good.

We highly recommend every pest control company gets one though.

Some considerations when choosing a location:

• Should be in an area you want leads

• Ideally away from top competitors

• Should be in the city you want to rank in

• Ideally be close to the city centroid

• Should be an actual office you own

Also, please don’t get 2 GBPs in the same city.

It’s a waste of ranking, confuses users, and can potentially cannibalize. 

Make sure to turn on "show business location," by the way.

And please don't use your home or a virtual office as your location.

More likely than not, you'll eventually get suspended.

7. Service area

Service area surprisingly isn’t much of a ranking factor for GBP. 

But, this is still a bonus point we shouldn’t miss out on.

Add the top 20 cities you serve near that GBP.

If you can’t think of them, just go to Google Maps. 

I’m sure there’s at least 20.

If you’re multi location, make sure you’re only doing the areas near that GBP.

8. Business Hours

Joy Hawkins recently confirmed this is a ranking factor.

HOWEVER… that does not mean turn on 24 hour operating hours.

If you don’t pick up those midnight calls, Google is going to make you regret it.

Sure, you can pay for a call service or something else.

But overall, it’s not good business practice.

Be truthful about business hours, but do know it’s a ranking factor. 

You might want to stay open an hour or two later than competitors to get those leads.

9. “More”

In the “more section of your GBP, you’ll see:

• From the business

• Accessibility 

• Amenities

• Crowd

• Parking

• Planning

• Service options

Google makes this more complicated than it needs to be.

First, these 3 are irrelevant for pest control:

• Accessibility 

• Amenities

• Parking

First, from the business.

If you are:

• Asian

• Black

• Indigenous 

• Latino

• LGBTQ+ 

• Veteran

• Woman

Then you can check that off and get a little ranking boost.

If not, no worries though.

Probably not worth it to lie about it.

After that, you have crowd.

You can check off:

• LGBTQ+ friendly

• Transgender safespace

This is completely up to you.

I recommend it because a customer is a customer.

Next is planning.

Right now, all that shows there is “appointment required.”

So you tell customers whether you require appointments or not. 

I’m guessing your conversion rate will go up a tiny bit if this is turned on.

Finally, service options.

Currently, there are 3 service options then languages.

The 3 options are:

• Offers online appointments

• Offers online estimates

• On site services available

Typically I see pest control companies just turn on #3.

However, if you do 1 or 2, check them off.

Then… there’s a long list of languages.

If your company happens to speak anything but English, check those off too.

Overall, these are all pretty tiny boosts.

But we’ll take whatever we can get, since SEO is a game of competition.

10. Reviews

Arguably the #1 attribute of GBP.

You’ve gotta have them and be getting them consistently.

A healthy pest control GBP has 100+ reviews and getting at least one a week.

Obviously, you need customers in the first place to get reviews.

If you have existing customers that you haven’t asked, you should definitely ask them first.

But do NOT email or text blast. 

I believe reviews are so important you should either:

1. Call them to ask

2. Ask in person, after service

This keeps rapport with customers and increases the likelihood they do.

Put simply, reviews are the lifeblood of your business.

They are so key for GBP, LSAs, and conversion rates for other acquisition channels.

For future strategy, I personally like review business cards the best.

But really, there’s a million ways to do it.

I recommend you ask in person, after the service, and wait until they submit it to leave.

That is with the assumption that you did a great job and they’re happy.

Regardless, figure out a way to get these going ASAP if you haven’t already.

If you’re a multi location business…

Make sure you are getting reviews on the corresponding GBP.

11. Photos 

I think this is the most underrated aspect of GBP. 

Google and users love to see lots of real, unique, organic content.

And what better place than your GBP?

It’s easy to upload, everyone sees them, and they’re there forever.

Personally, I recommend 50+ photos and 5+ videos.

That may sound like a lot…

But you can get those done in one service.

Have someone like an office manager tag along on a job and take pictures of everything.

Here are some things to have pictures of:

• Vehicles

• Technicians

• Other team members

• Inside the office building

• Outside the office building

• Pests

• Equipment

• Signage

If you’re cooperative with this, I promise it will help out.

Ideally, you should have new photos uploaded consistently like reviews.

Best case scenario, you have your technicians take a picture at every job and upload it.

There are several reasons why this is great, but again, I’ll just say trust me.

Also, make sure to upload your logo and cover photo.

You should use the same logo and cover photo across your GBPs, socials, and citations.

Remember, consistency is key—for Google and for people.

12. Products

Products for home service local businesses are controversial.

Some people say it’s only for ecom stores…

But why would it be there for service businesses then?

We personally like to set up 5 or so “products” for a clients top services.

This could be:

• Bed bug extermination

• Raccoon removal

• Ant control

Once you create the product…

Add a photo, description, and link to it.

• Add a real photo you took (relating to the service)

• Add an in depth description (you get 1000 characters)

• Link to your service page for this (if you have one)

And you’re good to go.

13. Services

The services section is not a huge ranking factor, but still holds some power.

The very first thing you should do is fill out predefined services.

Google will already suggest about 20 related to pest control, because that’s your category.

So, add those first.

Once added, write descriptions for them.

We usually do this in ChatGPT.

You can write a simple prompt such as:

I own a pest control company. Write 3 SEO sentences about this service I provide, “[Service]”

Super easy. 

Next, add any services that weren’t predefined.

Then write descriptions for those as well.

Finally, if you want to get a little boost, you can add location relevant keywords.

Such as: pest control [city 1], pest control [city 2], etc.

You can add as many services as you’d like…

So feel free to get creative, just don’t be spammy.

14. Q&A

The Q&A section on your GBP is more of a bonus.

It doesn’t matter much, but can still give us a little ranking boost.

I think more importantly, this can be useful for answering actual questions customers have.

Think of the top 5-10 questions people usually ask before working with you…

Then ask and answer them yourself.

This could be:

• What are common signs of pests?

• What are the most dangerous pests?

• Is your service eco friendly?

• How much does it cost?

• How long does it take?

As the business owner, you know your customers best.

Ideally you go in and do these yourself.

Also, if anyone else asks a question, answer it.

Chances are, other people have that same question.

If you truly want to go all out here:

Ask and answer a new question every month.

Google loves to see owner activity and this is part of it.

We do this for our clients by the way.

15. Google Posts

Google posts definitely have a place in GBP rankings.

This is the main “owner activity” thing that should be going on.

For our clients, we post once a week.

There are plenty of platforms where you can schedule these out as well.

• Semrush 

• Brightlocal

• Planable

To name a few. 

Now, what should the posts be?

Your GBP posts are not the same as social media posts.

They should be treated as a conversion mechanism to get people over the fence.

Chances are:

1. Someone searches for your service

2. They click on your GBP

3. They look around

4. They see a GBP post

5. They convert based on the post

So mainly, they’re for sales.

Here’s some ideas of what to post:

• Offers

• Reviews

• Awards

• Before/afters

• Etc.

Because they will show up small, make sure they’re eye-catching.

Also, use correct sizing - 720 x 540.

(You can edit photos in something like Canva).

When you use vertical images/videos, it looks weird.

Finally, make sure to have some call to action.

Tell people to call or go to your website then link it in the space below.

As for offer posts, they're essentially the same thing.

If you truly want to go all out, you can do those monthly as well.

Closing Thoughts

Google Business Profile is an incredible asset when done properly. 

And if you’re not already utilizing it, you’re missing out.

My advice for local business owners is:

Focus on photos and reviews.

Don’t get overwhelmed with all the stuff I said here.

Just keep getting as many reviews and uploading as many photos as possible.

The last thing I'll mention:

Google Business Profile really isn't that hard once you get the hang of it.

The complexity comes when you have 10+ profiles and now need to work on all of them.

Personally, I think you need someone handling your GBP if you're at that level.

That could be an agency or in house, you decide.

And that’s all folks! 

Hope you found this valuable.

By the way, if I haven't made this clear:

Our agency will do all of these things for you.

If you're a pest control company owner and want this done for you…

You can book a call with us at: https://calendly.com/dannyleibrandt/discovery

P.S. If you want our Google Business Profile checklist…

Comment “GBP” on the YouTube video and we'll send it over.

Link to video walkthrough here: