A PMP’s guide to Google My Business

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The team at PestCon LMM, a division of LeaseMyMarketing, shares some tips for having a Google My Business account and managing the listing to its full potential.

Google My Business (GMB) is a tool that allows businesses to be listed on Google Search and Google Maps. With different customization options such as hours, location, services offered and service areas, GMB is a versatile and useful tool that every pest control company should utilize.

Unfortunately, we see many pest control companies neglecting the potential of their GMB listing, so we created a guide to help pest management professionals (PMPs) optimize and improve their listings.

Fill it out completely

Seems simple, right? Just fill out every section of your GMB listing. Despite the simplicity, a huge number of pest control companies just aren’t doing that. If you take the time to go fill out your listing, it will pay off. This includes:

• Choose your business category (and applicable subcategories). Google gives you a huge number of options, but in general, you’ll want to have your main category as “pest control service.” Google allows businesses to use subcategories as well, so if you’re a pest control company that also takes care of wildlife, you’ll want to add the “animal control service” as a secondary category.
• Add in every city and town that is within your service area. Keep in mind, though, that Google does limit the number service areas you can add, so if you can’t add all of your service cities, pick your top markets.
• Include open hours. Are you open 24/7? Do you take calls or service on weekends? Your potential customers need to know when they can expect your office to answer their calls and when they can be helped. Add in your holiday hours if they differ from your regular hours.
• Double check that the listed phone number is accurate. You’d be surprised at how many pest control companies have the wrong phone number on their GMB listings.  If you’re using a call tracking number, the best practice is to have the main phone number be the call tracking number, and the secondary number be your actual office phone number.
• Create your “short name.” Google allows you to create a short name associated with your GMB listing. Essentially, your short name is a unique URL that is easily shareable. For example, Averse Pest Control in Boise, Idaho, uses as its short name “aversepest,” allowing customers to visit g.page/aversepest to get directly to its GMB listing. It’s a nice clean URL link that is perfect for adding to text messages and emails to your customers.
• Organize your URLs. If your company only has one branch, simply put your home page as the URL in this section. If you have multiple branches, make sure the URL on this GMB listing goes to the landing page on your website for that specific branch.
• Confirm an appointment link. Do you use a software that allows customers to schedule service appointments online? This is where you’ll put the link to the scheduling software or scheduling site. If you don’t have something like that, then leave this section blank.
• Leave the “Products” section blank. The “Service” section is where you want to put your focus. This is your opportunity to showcase all of the pests you get rid of and the services you offer. Don’t be shy about this section. List everything that your company does and the things for which you treat.
• List any and all special attributes of your company. Here is your opportunity to list some unique qualities of your pest control company. Is your office wheelchair accessible? Does your office offer free public Wi-Fi? Is your company veteran-owned?
• Create a business description. This section is one of, if not the most important section to fill out on your GMB listing. Google gives you 750 characters, and you should be using all of them. In your business description, give a brief background of the company, and highlight some of the services you offer. You should also sprinkle a few keywords in your business description. For example, if your company is in Portland, one of the top keyword phrases on Google is “pest control Portland.” You might say something like “We are the best pest control Portland has to offer.”
• Add photos. It’s a common misconception that you need to hire a professional photographer for any photos you’re going to use for your business. Today’s smartphone cameras are fantastic, and are perfect for action shots of you, your office and your technicians servicing. If you don’t have photos on your Google My Business listing, take an hour or two to take photos of your technicians servicing and upload them. This is a huge miss for many pest control companies; don’t let it be for you.

Keep it updated

Now that you’ve gone through and thoroughly updated your GMB content, it’s super important to keep these details updated. Updating your critical content like your hours, contact information and responding to any reviews you get on the platform. One sidebar here on responding to reviews: It’s very important you reply to reviews with a positive and professional tone.

I realize that you might be thinking, “Wow, this sounds like a lot of work.” It definitely can be. But it’s also critical to your local search engine optimization, or SEO.