We work with pest control companies all over the country, so at this point in time we feel confident making a few assumptions regarding digital marketing about pest control business owners or managers:
1. You know you need a website (or need to upgrade your existing one). But you may not know everything that goes into creating a successful lead-generating website.
2. You have heard the marketing phrase “search engine optimization” (or SEO) thrown around a few times. However, it doesn’t really mean anything to you even with a basic understanding.
3. You get hit up all the time from self-proclaimed “SEO experts” or web designers advertising cheap services for guaranteed placement at the top of Google (this is B.S. by the way).
If any of this resonates with you, just know that you are not alone. Most pest control owners we deal with are in the same boat. At Rhino, one of our primary goals is to help pest control companies cut through the marketing noise so they can learn how to rank high on Google for relevant pest control search terms and dominate their local online market area. The first step in accomplishing this is evaluating your website and determining if it is set up in such a way that it has the ability to generate leads 24-7 that then turn into CUSTOMERS. We call this a SMART® Pest Control Website. By understanding the general principles that make a website SMART®, you will be well on your way to creating a central hub where you can manage, monitor, and improve your lead generation and sales conversion efforts.
Step #1 – Create an Easy-to-Navigate Site Plan
Before you do any of the fun stuff like designing your home page, you need to map out how visitors will navigate through your website. Take a look below at what we typically recommend for a successful top-line navigation: this is what would appear in your menu at the top of your home page. If you have an existing website, take a look at how it matches up.
Step #2 – Make Sure You Have Optimized Individual Site Pages for Target Pests & Areas Served
There is a method to this madness. Once you have your navigation mapped out like the above, it allows you to create all of the pages you need in a synchronized way. If there is anything we want you to take away from this article, this is it. You need to make sure you have fully optimized website pages for all services offered, target pests, and cities you service. Search engines, like Google, favor exact matches when someone does a local search. So you want to make sure your site pages are dedicated to ONE service, and ONE city. This gives Google a better understanding of what each page on your website is for, leading to higher rankings. Take a look below at what this would look like in your navigation.
This needs to be done for EVERY city you service. This is the key to growing your organic website traffic and dominating for pest control search terms in your local service area. Without this step, your pest control website will never be found on the internet by potential customers.
Step #3 – Design for Mobile FIRST, Desktop Second
Interesting concept isn’t it? I am sure if you have gone through a website design process with an agency or individual before, you only saw website design mock-ups of the desktop version. Why wouldn’t that be what is presented to you?
Well, as of right now more than 75% of all pest control website activity, like searches, clicks, messages, and calls, happen via smartphone devices. You need to make sure your website looks its BEST on mobile and website visitors can easily contact your company using only their thumb.
Step #4 – Make it EASY to Schedule an Estimate
The last step we will talk about today is making sure it is extremely easy for website visitors to contact you via form fill or phone call. This is what we refer to when we say “lead-generate”. Once someone has reached out to you to schedule a free estimate, they are now considered a HOT lead. Here are 3 ways you can do this:
1. Add calls-to-action (CTA’s) throughout your entire website. These are buttons encouraging a website visitor to TAKE ACTION by calling you or scheduling an estimate.
2. Make ALL phone numbers click-to-call on mobile.
3. Add forms on all website pages offering a free estimate so it is easy to gather contact information and schedule service.
In Layman’s Terms:
Plan and map out your website architecture. Make sure it is built so it will actually be found on the internet. Prioritize mobile. Make it easy to generate leads. Easy enough right?
We know, its a lot and we don’t expect you to understand it all by reading one blog article. Which is why we created a free guide breaking it down even further. Download it today to learn more:
