There’s a reason some pest control companies have phones ringing off the hook while others can barely get a website visitor. It’s rarely about who does the best termite treatment or who has the most trucks on the road. More often than not, it comes down to who shows up first when a homeowner types “pest control near me” into Google at 10 PM after spotting a roach in the kitchen.

Search engine optimization isn’t glamorous. Nobody got into pest control because they love meta descriptions and keyword research.…