These SEO Mistakes are Killing Your Pest Control Website’s Ranking

When it comes to SEO, there’s no easy answer for how to achieve online success. The journey to the number one ranking on Google differs for lots of different industries and lots of different markets. It’s safe to say strong title and meta tags, quick page load speed, and quality content are the safe bets for SEO growth. These strategies make it easy on Google to match searchers with content that is most relevant to them.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are absolutely things you shouldn’t be doing to boost your ranking. Over the years – and through countless Google updates – SEO tactics have grown and changed as search engines become smarter. Perhaps the first step to understanding how to get to page one of Google is to know what practices kill your ranking.

The following are some of the SEO tactics of yesteryear which can unfavorably affect your pest control Website’s ability to show up well on Google. These tactics range from simply being outdated to straight up bad news for your Website’s place in search results.

Duplicate Content

One of the more common SEO blunders small businesses commit is using duplicate content. This refers to text that is identical on multiple pages. The main reason this isn’t recommended is because of the strain it puts on search engines. Google wants to provide searchers with the most relevant and accurate pages as possible. When the same content about termite control exists on multiple pages of your site, it puts the search engine in a position where it has to choose one page over the other. As a result, both pages with the content in question take hits in visibility.

Duplicate content can also describe when your company has multiple Websites that you have yet to merge. A good SEO strategy makes finding your Website as easy as possible, so make sure you have all of your unique content on one Website.

Keyword Stuffing (and Other Black Hat SEO Strategies)

If you aren’t familiar, Black Hat SEO refers to strategies used to boost your site’s ranking that violate search engines’ terms of service. While they were more common in the past, these tactics definitely don’t fly nowadays and will surely tank your ranking if you don’t eliminate them from your site.

More often than not, businesses with Websites that use Black Hat tactics are unaware of these violations; they usually just trusted some SEO “expert” (notice the air quotes) to get their Website on Page One as quick as possible. The following are the most common Black Hat Strategies:

• Keyword stuffing – when your Website’s pages include keywords that lack any context. They may appear in lists or a group of terms, rather than in an actual sentence or paragraph. Some people even go as far as adding keywords with the same colored text as the background of your site, meaning users can’t see them, but search engines can.
• Link farming – when your Website joins a network of Websites that automatically link to each other, regardless of the quality or relevance of the other sites. While high quality links to your site will help your rankings, links from irrelevant sources or link farms can penalize you with Google and other search engines.

If your Website is guilty of either of these, you’ll want to clean this up ASAP to improve your ranking!

Slow Page Load Speed

We aren’t accusing anyone of purposefully slowing their Website Page Load Speed (the speed it takes for every part of your Website to load on computers and mobile devices), but your Website may feature some content that is doing just that. Google knows no one likes to wait for a site to load, which is why they favor faster-loading sites in search results.

If your Home page features large photos, videos that play automatically, or third-party widgets such as YouTube videos or Twitter feeds – chances are it’s taking a little long to load that page. Your Home page is usually the page you need to worry the most about, so make sure to keep things simple when adding content to it. Make sure you optimize your photos so they are clear but not a huge file size.  As far as featuring a video, we recommend only adding one embedded YouTube video – any more might be overkill.

To get a get a free, detailed look at your Website’s Page Load Speed, enter your URL on Google’s PageSpeed Insights. If you would like help understanding the report, we’re happy to help.

Outdated Content

Part of keeping your Website fresh in the eyes of Google is checking in on and updating the different aspects of your site. One of the most common things we see on Websites is broken links; these can be outdated YouTube videos, links to affiliations that no longer exist, or just an incorrectly formatted link. While they may have worked correctly at one point, broken links tell Google that your page is outdated and in need of an update.

Another thing to look out for is pages with a low word count. Perhaps you had planned on adding more content to your “Rodent Control” page at some point but never got around to doing it. It’s recommended your page have at least 300 words to best get the page’s point across to Google. The more detail you provide in your content, the easier it is for search engines to match your Website with its related search terms. Also, remember that pest control threats are always growing and changing, meaning that your Website’s content should be doing the same!

For every good SEO practice, there’s an equally harmful tactic that can tank your rankings. While it may seem difficult at first, the main idea of a good strategy is simple: keep your content updated and relevant to people searching for it. The more you stay on top of your SEO strategies, the easier it is for search engines to notice you and put your Website in front of the people that should see it.

 

Alain Parcan, Director of Marketing for Market Hardware, Inc., contributed this article. Alain brings nearly 10 years of experience in educating businesses so they can market themselves more effectively. Market Hardware helps small businesses compete on the Web and offers special discounts for PCOC members. You can Reach Alain’s team at 888-381-6925.