Google Business Profile for Pest Control Companies

Chapter 1 of The Ultimate Guide to Pest Control SEO · by Thomas Ballantyne & Dennis Yu

Your Google Business Profile is where pest control customers find you first — set it up, rank in the three-pack, and keep it suspension-proof.

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Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business, is a free tool provided by Google that allows business owners to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can help customers find your business and tell them your story.

Why GBP Is So Important

Visibility: When potential customers search for pest control services in your area, a well-optimized GBP can ensure your business appears prominently in local search results and on Google Maps. This visibility is crucial because many customers look for services online first.

Relevant Information: GBP allows you to provide vital information like your business hours, contact information, address, and the services you offer. For a pest control company, this means customers can quickly find and contact you in case of emergencies or for quotes.

Credibility and Trust: Customer reviews are a significant part of GBP. By collecting and responding to reviews, pest control companies can build credibility and trust with potential customers. Positive reviews can significantly influence decisions, as many customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Insights and Performance: GBP provides insights into how customers find your business (e.g., via Google Search or Maps, direct searches for your business name, or category searches for your type of service). Understanding these can help you refine your marketing strategies and allocate your resources more effectively.

Posting Updates and Offers: You can post updates, offers, and news directly on your GBP. For pest control companies, this could be special promotions, information about new services, or tips on home maintenance. These posts can engage customers and keep your business top of mind.

Set Up Your GBP

Step 1: Sign in to Google Business Profile

Go to www.google.com/business to sign in. You can either sign in with an existing Google account or create a new one. If you’re already signed in, skip ahead to the next step.

Tip: Make sure you sign up with your business email domain.

Step 2: Add Your Business

Enter your business name. If it does not appear in the drop-down menu, click Add your business to Google. Then select the appropriate category for your business.

The name is the first signal you need to pay attention to if you want to drive more

traffic. Make sure your listing name has keywords in it, and make sure it’s the same as your actual business name.

Step 3: Enter Your Location

If you have a physical location that customers can visit, select Yes.

Then add your address. You may also be asked to position a marker for the location

on a map.

If your business does not have a location customers can visit but offers a service or delivery, you can list your service area.

Step 4: Fill in Your Contact Information

Enter your business phone number and website address so customers can reach you. If you use a Facebook page rather than a website, you can add that instead.

However, a website would be a better option. If your website is ranking well organically, that’s going to help drive local traffic to your GBP profile.

Step 5: Finish and Manage Your Listing

Check Yes if you would like to receive updates and notifications. Then click Finish. You’ll then be asked to verify your business.

Verify Your Business on Google

Now that your account is set up, here’s how to verify your Google business. For most businesses, Google verification involves requesting a postcard.

Step 1: Sign in to Google Business Profile

Go to www.google.com/business to sign in.

Step 2: Click Verify Now

If you have multiple Google Business Profile accounts, make sure you choose the correct one.

Step 3: Choose a Way to Verify

Postcard by Mail is the default verification option. If your business is eligible for other methods, such as phone or email, choose the one you prefer. Fill in the required details.

Double-check to make sure you’ve entered it correctly, then submit the form.

It can take a few days to two weeks for the postcard to arrive.

When you receive your postcard, sign in and click Verify location from the menu. Enter the five-digit verification code from your postcard.

Note: It may take a few weeks for your business listing to appear on Google. While waiting, download the Google Business Profile app so you can manage your account.

Claim Your Business on Google

Do you need to claim an existing Google Business Profile? There are three options:

Option 1: Sign up or log in to Google Business Profile. Search for your business, and select it. Then follow the steps to confirm that you are the owner.

Option 2: Look up the business listing in Google Search and click Own this business.

If someone has already claimed the business, and you work for the same company, ask them to add you as a user. If you don’t recognize the owner, follow the steps to reclaim your business.

Edit Your Business on Google

Do you need to edit information on your Google Business Profile? Here’s how:

1. Sign in to Google Business Profile.
2. Open the location you’d like to edit.
3. In the menu on the left, click Info.
4. Click the pencil icon to make your edits. If you want to remove a section, click the X. When you are finished, click Apply.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 60 days for the edit to appear. There may be some information from other sources that cannot be edited.

For Businesses With Multiple Locations

For businesses with multiple locations, such as home service providers covering several neighboring regions, each location should have its own Google Business Profile.

If your business lacks a physical office, you can use your home address to receive the verification postcard from Google. Although it resembles nothing like a traditional postcard, that is the term they use. Once you receive and confirm your location with the postcard, you can unpublish your address and still show up as someone servicing the area.

As you are setting up your business profile, it will allow you to tell Google if you want people to visit your location or not. If you choose the latter, you will go to their location instead to provide a service or deliver a product. Whether it is a small location you are servicing or a large area, you can designate it, and you will show up in Google for your category.

For example, there was an executive director of a community theater with a physical location. They did not receive their mail there but through a PO Box. However, you cannot use a PO Box in GBP, so he put his home address instead. After he got the verification, he unpublished the home address and replaced it with the address of the physical location.

The mistake some people make is they do this while still in the verification process where the owner is still waiting for verification. Do not make the same mistake.

Add Multiple Locations

If you’ve opened a new location or just created a profile and need to add additional

locations, follow these steps:

1. From your Google Business Profile dashboard, click “Manage locations” in the left-hand menu.
2. Click the blue “Add location” button on the right.
3. Type in your business name and click “Create a new business with this name.”
4. Fill in the information and request verification.
   

Another option is to go to Google Maps and drop a pin on the location you would like to add. Click “Add a missing place” in the left menu. Fill in the details then select “Claim this business.”

If you have more than ten locations, you can add them in bulk.

Link Google Analytics

Link your Google Analytics to your business profile so you can look at insights to get an idea of things, such as what people are clicking on and what they do afterward. You can look at the customer’s behavioral flow and see if there are things that are causing them to stop. You also get the chance to look at the demographics and a little bit of geographics so that you can start measuring.

The Local Three-Pack

When you search for anything on Google, you will get a list of top businesses in the area that connect with the keywords you used. For example, if you’re in Gilbert, Arizona, and search for a pest control service on Google, you should see the following three services at the top of the local search.

This group of three businesses is called the local three-pack, and you want to be a part of that.

When someone clicks on “Arizona Termite & Pest Solutions,” this is what they’ll see:

The Secret To Ranking in the Local Three-Pack

The secret to ranking in the local three-pack is straightforward. Firstly, it is essential to understand that local and organic search share many common things in their algorithms. Local rankings primarily revolve around proximity, relevance, and prominence. Know that local and organic search algorithms often overlap, so optimizing for one can positively affect the other.

Here are the key factors to focus on:

Business Name

Your business name, whether it includes keywords or not, matters. Including relevant terms, like pest control or a city name, can boost your visibility.

Category

Choose your primary category carefully; it is crucial. Secondary categories (up to nine more) can also impact rankings. For instance, depending on the season, a company might switch from a general pest control category to a more specific one like rodent control or insect extermination.

To discover the best categories to use, consider using GMBspy. It is a Chrome extension that allows you to analyze a competitor’s GBP listing and identify high-performing categories the competitor uses.

You can also try PlePer at Pleper.com if you are an SEO professional. It is also a Chrome extension. With it installed, when you go to Google Maps and input a query, it will look at all 20 listings, compile them, and express the results in a graph of percentages. It will break down everything from the reviews to the categories.

Why is that important? You might find that a business ranking at #1 or #2 uses a category you have never considered. It is powerful.

Web Page

Link your Google Business Profile to a page that ranks well organically. Linking your profile to a well-ranking page assists your profile as well. Your website's content also influences the queries you rank for and should align semantically with your GBP.

There is this thing called Google My Business queries. You can see it in your Insights or what is now being called the performance report. It will show you the queries where your GBP listing is showing up. The beauty of these questions is that they come from the raw log files in Google’s Data Center. These queries are what people are using to find you.

You can use these queries in AdWords and other ways, too. You can also look at the queries where you are delivering less than 15 searches. Why is that important? You are getting found along with other businesses, and more than likely, those are not prominent enough on your site, which indicates that you are not getting your lion's share of that search.

Reviews

Having many reviews is beneficial, but it is more about their recency and ratings. Recent ones (within the last two weeks) are most important, as are the highest and lowest-rated ones when users filter reviews. Responding to reviews is crucial, as most users read your responses.

In summary, focus on these crucial elements to improve your local three-pack ranking.

Adjust Your Hours

If you need to close seasonally or temporarily, mark your business as temporarily closed. Doing this ensures customers are informed without affecting your local search ranking.

How to mark your business as temporarily closed:

1. Sign in to your Google Business Profile.
2. Click Info in the left menu.
3. Look for Close this business in the Google section on the right.
4. Click Mark as temporarily closed.

To set special hours for holidays or other circumstances, click Info in the left menu, then Special Hours.

How to Compete with Other GBPs

Website Favicon

When searching on mobile (which is what most people do) – you’ll get to see the favicon logos near each URL link.

If you don’t have one installed on your website, it will just show a blue circle like this:

It’s not much, but it makes a difference.

Most big brands have this, and as a local business owner, you need to have it, too.

When it comes to online reviews, the question often arises: Which is more influential, having a large number of reviews with only a few recent ones or having fewer reviews but a significant number from the last two weeks? Let us break this down.

First and foremost, it is crucial to view this issue from the perspective of a potential customer. If a business has hundreds of reviews but only a handful from the past two weeks, that is not impressive. Older reviews may not reflect the current state of the business. On the other hand, if a business has around a hundred reviews, with a substantial portion of them being recent, that is more likely to catch someone's attention.

Review Quality

The crucial factor to consider is the quality of your reviews. It is not just about having numerous five-star reviews with no substantial content. What truly matters are reviews that provide detailed insights into a customer's experience. One with a few sentences that describe someone's genuine encounter with your business holds more weight than a simple five-star rating.

Keywords

Moreover, the specific words used in these reviews are essential. They can influence your search visibility. Google, for instance, may highlight keywords mentioned in your reviews under your business profile. These keywords are crucial for getting discovered in relevant searches.

So, how can you encourage customers to include the right keywords in their reviews without directly asking for them? You cannot directly ask for specific reviews because it can lead to skewed and inauthentic feedback, which goes against Google's guidelines.

One common tactic is to guide your customers subtly. For instance, if you are a real estate agent who closed a successful deal, you can ask your client if they would mind taking a photo with you in front of their new home. You can then mention that sharing their experience in a Google review, including the city, your business name, and some details about the process, would help future customers. This indirect approach encourages them to leave a natural and beneficial review.

Buying Fake Reviews

Now, let us address the potential risk of fake reviews. Buying fake reviews and engaging in review gating (a form of manipulation where only satisfied customers leave reviews) can have serious consequences. Google and other platforms actively combat fake reviews and review manipulation. If you get caught, you risk losing not only the fake reviews but also genuine ones.

Competitors Attacking You Through Fake Reviews

Competitors might also buy fake one-star reviews for your business to tarnish your reputation. In such cases, it is essential to report these attacks promptly.

In such cases, seek assistance in the Google My Business community, providing evidence of the malicious actions taken against your business. Google can take measures to remove these fake reviews and protect your listing. However, be cautious when engaging in these actions. Reporting abuse is legitimate, but it can affect your business.

If you are lucky enough to have three friends with level 10 Local Guide accounts, you can reach out to them to report the fake reviews and get them removed.

Two Possible Actions

When you reach out to the community to seek assistance, and your case is raised to Google, the platform will take at least one of two actions:

1. They will start removing the reviews.
2. They will do something called a Spam Lockdown, where your profile will not be able to receive new reviews at all. The lockdown will stay in effect until the attacks stop.

They will wait some time after things settle down before you start getting new reviews again. The lockdown can take anywhere from three to six months. In this case, unfortunately, your competitor has already damaged you because even though your review rating has returned to where it was before the attack, you cannot get new reviews.

While the quantity and recency of reviews matter, the quality and authenticity of those reviews are paramount. Encourage genuine customer feedback by providing excellent service, guiding them subtly, and focusing on delivering value to potential customers. Avoid artificial tactics like buying fake reviews or review gating, as these can harm your business in the long run. If you face review attacks from competitors, report them to Google for assistance, but refrain from engaging in retaliatory actions.

Responding to Reviews

Responding to reviews is just as important, and unfortunately, most people don’t.

So make sure to respond to all the reviews.

How to Avoid Suspension

Here are some of the things that can get your Google Business Profile suspended:

Keyword Stuffing in Business Name

One common reason for a suspension is using keywords in your business name that do not match your actual business name. For example, if your business is officially registered as "Dennis Yu Pest Control," but you list it as "Dennis Yu – Top Pest Control Service in San Diego, that is a violation.

Location Spam

Listing a home address publicly on GMB can lead to a suspension. It violates Google’s guidelines because it is usually a home without signage. There is no way for a customer to find your business except by coming to your address. Using fake or virtual addresses, such as those from UPS stores or shared office spaces, is also against GBP guidelines and can result in a suspension.

For home-based agencies, the owner should clear their address on GPB. If a client in an agency’s account gets suspended, the suspension could cascade to other clients in the same agency account.

Suggested Edits without Verification

SEO companies or agencies that suggest bad edits to GMB profiles (without proper verification) can lead to suspensions. Google places a trust score on accounts, and repeated bad edits can harm your account's trustworthiness. When your account is no longer trusted by Google, every listing on your account can get suspended.

Pay-per-click (PPC) agencies often use the same email address for managing their PPC and GMB accounts. Guess what? PPC accounts get suspended all the time. You could be working with a PPC agency that is white-labeling another PPC agency. When a suspension happens, the latter gets suspended while the former does not, but the effect cascades to the former’s GBP. The best practice would be to use a different email address to suggest edits.

Google Sweeps

Occasionally, Google conducts sweeps in specific geographic areas and categories to identify and suspend spammy listings. Even if you believe you are within the guidelines, you might get caught up in these sweeps.

Sometimes, GBP listings get suspended without apparent reasons. It is essential to ensure you comply with GMB guidelines.

How to Get Unsuspended

If your GBP is not compliant, you need to submit a reinstatement request.

Getting reinstated is not straightforward. It will take at least four days to regain your ranking after the initial 24-hour period. If you are not in compliance, this process can stretch into weeks. Consider the impact of being offline for a month for your business in terms of the revenue that you lose, when your clients cannot find you and read your reviews.

One crucial aspect is understanding Google's guidelines, as even minor oversights can lead to suspensions. By troubleshooting and ensuring compliance, you regain your online presence swiftly.

GBP Checklist

• Create/Claim Your Business on Google
• Edit Your Business Profile
• Add Your Real Business Name
• Add Your Business Category and Subcategories
• Add a Location to Your Business Profile
• Fill In Your Contact Details
• Verify Your Listing
• Customize Your Profile With Photos, Questions, Offers, and Reviews
• Connect Your Social Channels
• Ensure Your Website Follows Web Standards
• Protect Your Profile Against Suspensions by Following Guidelines

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