As a pest control business owner, you know that digital marketing is one of the best channels to invest in to help you grow your business. The internet and modern technology have made it much easier to connect people from around the world with information, but your local business doesn't necessarily need the attention of the world at large.

Instead, you should be focused on a strategy to help you attract attention and build awareness in your local market, making you more visible when customers are searching for what you have to offer. Not only does this mean an optimized website, with content structured to show up for specific terms when people in your area are looking for a pest control solution - it means you need to ensure that your business is listed in the right places, with the right info. 

Local citation management is a critical component of a local-focused digital marketing strategy. Are you putting the necessary care into ensuring your listings are accurate?

What Is a Local Citation?

At its most basic, a local citation is a listing that exists to help people searching for local businesses in their area. 

Some citations are directories that mention of your business’ name, address, and phone number online. Others, such as Google My Business or Yelp, may be platforms that include other important information like service descriptions, hours of operation, images, or reviews.

Why Are Local Listings Important for Pest Control?

Local Listings Affect the Local Pack Map

"Pest control near me?"

Search engines are continually adapting to searcher behavior, adjusting the results they show to better match searcher intent and provide the right answer on the first try. As more and more searchers have turned to Google to show local business options in their area, the map results (also known as the “Local Pack”) have become prime real estate for local-based searches. 

While Google My Business plays a pivotal role in your chance to appear in this section of the results for pest control searches, other platforms (Yelp, for example!) have introduced map results as well to help searchers understand which local businesses are nearby and best rated near them.

Your Local Listings Impact Search Rankings

Having complete, consistent local listings has a direct impact on how trustworthy and authoritative Google finds your website, which is a primary factor in how well you will rank for relevant searches beneath the Local Pack, as well!

If you have several listings for one location but each one has a different address, a search engine is likely going to prioritize a result from a business with consistent information - as it can be more certain the information it provides to the searcher is correct.

This means that a pest control business with multiple accurate listings on relevant websites is likely going to outrank one with fewer listings, or with inaccurate listings. 

Local Listings Impact Your Reputation

You don't want potential customers calling the wrong phone number or showing up at the wrong address when they're trying to find you - and, as it turns out, your potential customers don't want that either! The 2018 BrightLocal Local Citations Trust Report reports that 80% of consumers will lose trust in a business if contact information is incorrect or inconsistent. 

If you google the name of your business, you may notice that your listings on Yelp, Facebook, or the Better Business Bureau may show in the search results. As your customers check up on your reputation, they may contact you from these pages - but if they’re not able to reach you at the right phone number, that's not going to give them a positive impression of your business.  

Which Local Listings Matter Most for Pest Control?

Claiming and continually managing your local listings is important for your pest control business - but it can also be quite an undertaking!

To make matters more complex - there are a number of smaller listing sites that often pull information from larger data aggregators. This means that if your Facebook page is showing one number and your Google My Business page is showing another, you may have hundreds of directory listings that have pulled one or the other. 

What does that mean? If you’ve let some of your bigger listings fall into disrepair, you’ve got even more work to do. 

1. Find Your Current Listings

If you're working with an agency (like Coalmarch!), your marketing team may have access to agency-level tools like Moz Local or Yext. Ongoing citation management is a part of the regular marketing services we offer our clients, but if your partner doesn't offer this, they may at least be able to quickly access information about your listings to help you get started. 

If you're doing it all yourself - tools like the Yahoo Small Business scanner are available for free and can help you take stock of where you’re already listed, and which listings don’t match up.

2. Prioritize NAP

In the SEO world, a NAP isn’t something that involves a pillow. NAP stands for “name, address, & phone number,” and it’s the best place to start chipping away at your local citation profile.

1. Name - Is the business listed consistently under the same name across your website, social media, & local listings? E.g. No-Mo-Bugs Pest Control vs. No Mo Bugs Pest Control vs. No Mo Bugs Pest Control, Inc. 
2. Address - If Yelp lists your address as “Carpenter Street” and your website lists it as “Carpenter St.,” it's inconsistent in the eyes of Google.
3. Phone Number - In most cases, it’s best practice to use your primary, landline phone number for local listings. Tracking numbers can get picked up by other listings and lead to inconsistency. 

3. Prioritize Listings that are Trafficked 

It's easy to feel overwhelmed with hundreds of local listing sites to choose from, but many of them are not relevant for pest control searchers. (Place like crunchbase and merchantcircle may list your site, but how many of your customers are realistically finding your profile there?)

When you're ready to dig in and start making updates, prioritize larger local business data platforms (sites like Google My Business, Facebook, or Yelp), where customers may be starting their search or ending up when they research your reputation and presence online. These are going to have the biggest impact more quickly. 

4. Quality Over Quantity... but Quantity Still Matters

Though developing or updating listings that send qualified traffic to your website or leads to your call center should be your top priority, it’s also important to chop away on building local listings that show search engines that your business is relevant and authoritative.

Consider geography-specific directories, as well as industry-specific sites like:

• pestcontrolexperts.com
• findpestcontrol.net

Make Local Listing Management Part of your Strategy

Local search is always rapidly changing, but it has become a large component of a successful digital marketing strategy for local businesses - and will only continue to be important for growing your pest control company in the future. 

As with most SEO practices, local listing management is often not a "quick fix." Claiming and updating your local listing profile takes time and attention, and it should be part of an ongoing effort to make sure your information is up-to-date and accessible for people searching for it. 

Ready to roll up your sleeves and make a commitment to keeping listings consistent, local citation management so your pest control business will be visible to the right people? Great! 

Not sure you can roll your sleeves up any farther? See how Coalmarch can take this off your plate and help you maximize your digital presence to grow your business.