A homeowner who finds termites in the basement is calling someone within the hour. A homeowner with seasonal ants is browsing for two weeks before deciding. A property manager evaluating a quarterly contract takes a month to compare three vendors. All three audiences land on the same pest-control website. Most pest-control sites are built for one of them.
The vertical's defining characteristic: high trust gap. Customers don't want strangers walking through their house with chemicals; commercial customers don't want liability exposure from a vendor with shaky credentials. The pest-control site that addresses the trust gap explicitly converts at meaningfully higher rates than the site that just lists services.
This post is the architecture, the credentialing, and the trust signals that win the work.
Each is a separate URL. For a pest-control company serving 3 cities × 8 common pests × 2 customer types (residential/commercial), that's potentially 48 pages. Most companies have one "Services" page with bullet points.
The knowsAbout array with specific treatment methods (heat treatment, exclusion, baiting) signals technical capability to Google's entity matching. The priceRange per offer surfaces in search snippets.
Pest control buyers verify credentials before booking. The credentials that matter:
State pesticide applicator license (number visible on the website and on every truck)
NPMA membership (National Pest Management Association — industry's primary trade association)
QualityPro certification (NPMA's quality program; meaningful trust signal where applicable)
Sentricon Certified Specialist (for termite work specifically)
Bonded and insured with limits stated ($1M liability is common; commercial accounts often need $2M+)
Workers' comp coverage
Years in business prominently stated (and accurate)
EPA registration numbers for the products used
The original observation worth naming: pest-control sites that publish their state license number in the header (not buried in the footer) consistently outperform sites that hide it. The license is a trust signal for customers and an entity-verification signal for Google. Both effects compound.
For commercial accounts, the additional credentials worth publishing:
COI (Certificate of Insurance) capability — the company can add the property manager as additional insured on short notice
HACCP plan understanding (for food-service accounts)
Pest control buyers shop based on price more than the industry likes to admit. The companies that publish pricing bands convert at higher rates than the companies that say "Free Estimate".
The pattern that works:
Termite Inspection: Free for residential, $150 for commercial
Termite Treatment: $1,200–$4,000 depending on home size and method
Bed Bug Treatment (heat): $1,500–$3,500 per home
Quarterly Pest Control: $120–$200 per quarter
One-Time Roach Treatment: $250–$500
Specific. Real numbers. Updated quarterly.
This terrifies most operators. In practice, the few competitors who undercut on price are usually undercutting on quality, and customers who choose the cheapest option self-select out of the buyer pool you actually want. Pricing transparency wins both lead quality and trust.
Pest control reviews convert at unusually high rates because customers are checking for safety incidents and competence:
Under 40 reviews: rarely makes the local pack
40–150 reviews, 4.6+ rating: competitive
150+ with monthly velocity: dominant
The vertical-specific note: reviews mentioning specific pests handled (termites, bed bugs, wildlife) help the service-pest pages rank. The keyword-in-review signal compounds with the page targeting.
The post-service review request:
Sent 7–10 days after treatment (long enough to confirm the pests are gone)
For ongoing service contracts, send a fresh review request every 6 months from satisfied customers
Direct link to Google Business Profile
Specific prompt: "Mention which pest we treated and how it went"
Real estate transactions in most states require a WDIR (also called a Section 1 inspection or NPMA-33). Realtors order these constantly and need a reliable vendor. A dedicated /services/wood-destroying-insect-report-[city]/ page captures the realtor-driven inbound search, which is a high-volume, recurring revenue stream most pest-control companies underbuild for.
Builders need pre-construction termite pretreatment on new homes. A dedicated /services/new-construction-termite-pretreatment-[city]/ page captures the builder-driven inbound search. Margins on pretreatment work are typically lower than residential reactive treatment, but the volume and predictability are higher.
Property managers and renters search for move-in / move-out pest treatment specifically. A dedicated /services/move-in-pest-treatment-[city]/ page captures this otherwise-missed segment.
Service-and-pest-type matrix with city in URL, schema with knowsAbout and hasOfferCatalog with priceRange, state license number visible in the header, all credentials (NPMA, QualityPro, Sentricon, insurance limits) prominently displayed, pricing bands published per service, WDIR / new-construction / move-in pages built for the realtor and builder segments, review velocity above 3/month with pest-specific prompts.
Seven things. Most pest control sites get one or two. The companies that ship all seven take the local pack from chains in 60–90 days and capture the high-value commercial and real-estate-driven segments.
