If you’re looking to attract new clients to your pest control business, you need a solid search engine optimization strategy. To achieve this, you should know how search engines work.
Search engines like Google use a process known as indexing to rank your site. What is indexing in SEO, and how does this element interact with premium SEO for pest control companies?
Indexing in SEO: The Basics
Google and other search engines, such as Yahoo and Bing, use three processes, crawling, indexing, and ranking, to present users with the most relevant and trustworthy content.
Indexing involves collecting information to build a database of indexed pages. Search engines sort this data based on criteria like keywords. In simple words, indexing means adding pages to the search engine’s database. It works much like a library index but on a much larger scale.
Once a user sends a query, for example, “advanced pest management technologies,“ the search engine looks through its index, rather than the entire web, to deliver a quicker reply. The best-fitting indexed web pages will appear higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google’s bots crawl and index your pages depending on their specific meta tag (index/noindex). The index is the default tag. A noindex tag means the online search index won’t list the web page. You can choose it for pages you don’t want to be indexed for any reason.
Why Indexing Matters
Like every pest control business owner, you want to drive more traffic to your site. Knowing the answer to “What is indexing in SEO?” is an important first step. But you also want to know the why of it.
You must let search engines know your site exists to occupy those coveted first spots in search results. Search engines work using set algorithms, which you should be aware of if you want visibility.
A properly indexed website is visible to more users. It’s likelier to rank higher, gain more traffic, generate more leads, and increase your bottom line.
How Indexing Works
Search engines use indexing to learn how your website works and evaluate its pages. By indexing, Google associates your pages with subjects and determines when to drive users to your site. The search engine analyzes elements like page structure, keywords, metadata, and more to assess a page’s relevance.
You need to answer certain criteria to attract crawlers and get listed in search engines’ indexes. Your site has to offer highly relevant, regularly updated content with appropriate keywords, an easily navigable home page, and robust external and internal links.
Not every site or page will end up in Google’s index. Broken links, duplicate content, or web design that isn’t user-friendly will discourage engines from indexing your site. Search engines organize information that carries value, so they skip indexing inaccessible or low-quality pages.
Search Engine Crawling vs. Indexing
Before pages enter search engine indexes, they must undergo a step known as crawling, during which search engines discover and assess them.
Crawling is the constantly ongoing process of search engine bots (a.k.a. spiders or web crawlers) following links from pages to other pages. The process repeats until the links end or the bots run out of pages to follow. Indexing is the step of arranging and cataloging the data crawlers find on pages.
The crawling process begins with a “seed list” of high-ranking sites with many links to other sites. Bots always keep crawling to locate new pages or changes to existing sites. Crawling enables search engines to understand a website’s structure and content. The goal is to locate high-quality pages that best answer users’ searches.
Will Search Engines Crawl Every Page?
Actually, no. Google has a set “crawl budget,” which is the number of pages on any site it will crawl within a specific timeframe. This “budget” depends on the website’s size, quality, ranking, speed, and other factors. With small sites, Google most often crawls all the URLs. However, the crawling budget may run out for large sites before the bots have checked out important pages.
A website that wastes its crawl budget (for example, by keeping up irrelevant or duplicate content) shoots itself in the foot. Search engine crawlers will stop by its pages less frequently, and its rankings will drop. That’s why you should ensure all your pages add value and avoid low-content pages or difficult navigation.
Ranking and Displaying Indexed Web Pages
Once search engines add pages to their database, their algorithms will kick in to assess any indexed data and decide how important and relevant each page is. Ranking factors include content quality, user experience, and keywords.
When a user enters a query in the normal search engine process, the search engine looks for pages that best match this query. The algorithm displays pages based on its evaluation of their relevance to the search intent.
Do You Want All Your Web Pages in Google Index?
While search engine indexing is the default for web pages, you won’t want every page included in an index. For instance, you’ll want to exclude:
- Low-quality pages with content that doesn’t offer much value, for example, pages still in the development stage. Adding such pages to a search engine’s index can harm your SEO.
- Private pages like legal disclaimers or terms of service, which you publish for compliance and not to drive traffic.
- Duplicate content, including pages that contain identical or very similar content. You’ll want to use a canonical tag to mark the preferred page.
- Temporary pages, such as pages focusing on a time-sensitive pest control deal that will soon expire.
How do you decide you don’t want a page to appear in search results? Consider the page’s value. Does it offer what your target client hopes to find when they visit your site? How does it compare to your site’s other pages? You can use directives in a robots.txt file or a noindex tag to exclude those web pages you don’t need to be indexed.
What Affects Indexing?
Getting deeper into “What is indexing in SEO?”, let’s specify some elements that tap into crawlers’ algorithms in indexing. Indexing “decisions” depend on factors like:
- Content quality. The better your content is, the likelier bots are to index it. Google’s indexing algorithms lean heavily toward original, engaging, well-structured, and valuable content.
- Site structure. Proper site structure helps search engine crawlers index your site properly. In other words, easy navigation with plenty of links across pages and an optimized XML sitemap will help crawlers analyze your site. An intuitive navigation menu and links will also improve user experience.
- Robots.txt files. Robots.txt files give you more control over which pages crawlers can access. Without these files, bots will just keep crawling until the crawl budget runs out.
- JavaScript content. It’s more difficult for bots to crawl interactive sites that use JavaScript. To deal with JavaScript, the search engine renders the page to execute JavaScript code and analyze the page’s content. Thus, it may take bots more time to crawl a site with JavaScript.
Common Issues in Indexing
Pest control site owners may unknowingly undermine indexing (and, consequently, their site’s rankings) by failing to address the following common issues.
Thin Content
Thin content means content that lacks in quality, depth, or structure. It provides little value to visitors. If crawlers identify this type of content, they may demote or even deindex your whole site.
Improve your content by including relevant keywords, consolidating pages, and fleshing out pages with too little content. Repurpose outdated content by adding new information or breaking out text with images, infographics, and videos. Consider deleting irrelevant pages.
Duplicate Content
If you run a pest control service site, some information (like service terms and areas) will naturally repeat on multiple pages. However, you should ensure most of your pages include unique information to keep bots from marking them as duplicate content.
Lots of duplicate content on your site will harm indexing and ranking in search results. You can resolve this issue by setting up permanent redirects or canonical tags.
Broken URLs
Broken URLs, or 404 errors, can happen if you delete a page but don’t remove it from the sitemap. If your indexing report includes a 404 URL, check your sitemap and ensure it contains correct and properly written URLs. Set up redirects if you moved a page to a new location.
How To Optimize Your Site for Indexing
Now that you know the answer to “What is indexing in SEO?” you’re probably asking, “Can search engines find my pest control site?” Here’s what you can do to make the crawlers’ work easier:
Check for Crawling or Indexing Issues in Google Search Console
You can use Google Search Console’s data to determine whether search engines are crawling your pages. You can view Google’s history of crawling your site on Crawl Stats. Look for any availability issues to see whether server problems prevent Google from evaluating your pages.
The URL Inspection tool helps Google see a specific page. If a page is invisible to crawlers, URL Inspection should show the problem.
Optimize Your Sitemaps
XML sitemaps are files that give search engines lists of URLs to crawl on your site. XML sitemaps help Google and other search engines locate key pages. A good sitemap will direct search engine bots toward the most important pages on your site. Remember the crawl budget? Sitemaps ensure your site uses it efficiently.
You can enter your sitemap into Google Search Console to see how your URLs perform and spot any issues that could hurt your SEO.
Check Your Robots.txt File
A robots.txt file lets search engine bots know which pages on your site they should crawl. This file should authorize Google to crawl most of your pages, but you must ensure you disallow low-quality pages or those irrelevant to your SEO strategy.
For example, if you’re still building your pest control site and haven’t yet fleshed out your “Meet Our Team” page, you don’t want to waste your crawl budget on that page.
Leverage IndexNow
You can also activate IndexNow, an open-source protocol that alerts search engines like Google, Yandex, and Bing of any changes you make on your site. For instance, if you add new pages or change your content, IndexNow will alert each participating search engine to these changes.
With IndexNow, search engines will crawl and index any new content faster, improving your chances of ranking high in search results.
Other Strategies To Improve Your Rank in Search Engine Results
Beyond the technical side of search engine indexing, you must follow the usual SEO best practices. Prioritize overall web page quality and remember that you’re ultimately catering to people, not just search engines.
Offer Quality Content
Relevant, trustworthy, visitor-centric content is likely to end up in indexes and search results. To ensure you offer high-quality content, you should:
- Consider your ideal customer. Who are they? What are their pain points? Your content should address your customer’s pest control needs and offer practical solutions (e.g., a clear listing of your services, specifications of which pests you deal with, etc.).
- Show your expertise. Your content should present you as a pest control pro. Mention your track record (“20 years of top-rated pest control services in area X”) and share examples that showcase your professionalism (“This is how we solved a bad case of termite infestation”).
- Update your pages regularly and post new, engaging, diverse, and useful content (e.g., a video on how to check a home for pests before closing). Location- and season-specific content is likely to rank high.
- Sort out content issues like outdated information, mistakes, and duplicate content.
Show E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are people-focused criteria Google uses to assess web pages. To improve your rank in search engines, keep these elements in mind when building your pest control site.
You can boost your E-E-A-T if you:
- Provide details about the content authors. State your personal experience in pest control and your team’s credentials.
- Support your claims. Cite studies, statistics, and other reliable resources to add credibility to your information.
- Give expert insights. Share tips and advice from high-ranking authorities in the pest control industry.
Build Backlinks
Links to your pages from other sites, especially high-ranking sites in the pest control industry, make it likelier that Google will mark your content as highly relevant. The more backlinks you acquire, the higher your chances of appearing at the top of search results. Moreover, those links also promote indexing since they help crawlers find your pages.
Building quality backlinks isn’t as simple as listing your website in a few directories. It usually takes months of focused outreach to other sites, bloggers, and local journalists. You can also look into your competitors’ backlinks to locate opportunities.
You can:
- Contribute content. For example, you could offer to share pest control tips on a home maintenance site or appear as a guest on a podcast that links back to your site.
- Make your content shareable. Create useful blogs, infographics, or a fast-paced, catchy video like “When Should You Inspect Your Attic for Pests?” The better and more relevant your content, the more likely people are to share it on their social media.
Boost Your Rank in Search Engines With Relentless Digital
“What is indexing in SEO?” is easy enough to answer. The next step is getting your web pages to rank higher in search engines.
At Relentless Digital, we know how to avoid bad web design and what SEO tactics work best for pest control websites. Contact us online to schedule a strategy session.ork best for pest control websites. Call 262-720-5739 or contact us online to schedule a strategy session.
