RyanRanksStuff

SEO strategist for home service companies

Ryan Johnston

Hi, I'm Ryan. When someone types "pest control near me" with a bug on their shoe, I want your company to be the answer.

I help lawn care and pest control companies get found on Google, on Maps, and in AI answers like ChatGPT. I run organic search for about 20 accounts, and I explain the results to business owners in plain English. No jargon and no mystery.

I started as an SEO analyst in 2023 and became a strategist in 2024. Before SEO, I worked in sales and client services, so I'm just as comfortable on a call with an owner as I am in a crawl report.

My motto 1% better each day

Outside work, I'm an Eagle Scout and an avid snowboarder.

Ryan Johnston smiling in a blue button-down shirt and a yellow bow tie.
most accounts I've supported at once as an analyst
40
accounts I run now as a strategist
~20
site launches I've done the SEO for
15+
years working in SEO
3.5+

Projects

Client names stay private, so I describe each company by type. Every project gets its own color. Open a card for the full story.

Multi-office pest control

A local page template that helped keep a client

This client was close to leaving. I built a page template, then a page for every office.

  • +31% organic sessions
  • +22.7% summer organic leads
  • ~9 hrs to build every location page
See the full story

The problem: A pest control company with several offices was close to leaving us in 2025.

What I did: I built a template for local landing pages, with a custom intro, links to nearby pages, and each office's details. Then I bulk-created a page for every location in about nine hours. I also fixed the homepage links, since only 8 city pages were linked, and pointed each Google Business Profile at its own page.

The result: Organic sessions rose 31%, and summer organic leads rose 22.7%. The client stayed.

What I'd do differently: Building fast created overlapping pages that competed with each other. After a Google core update, I found that 47% of tracked keywords had two or more of the client's pages fighting for them. So I planned a cleanup. My rule now is to scale first, then consolidate.

More numbers

  • 47% of tracked keywords had competing pages
  • Only 8 city pages were linked from the homepage before I fixed it

Pest control, Oklahoma

Two years of city pages and internal links for a tough market

Weak authority and no spot on Google Maps. I fixed that with clusters of linked city pages.

  • +83% form leads
  • +41% phone leads
  • +61% organic and Maps sessions
See the full story

The problem: A pest control company in Oklahoma started with weak authority, no steady spot in the Google Maps results, and a very competitive market.

What I did: I built city pages in clusters of nearby towns and linked them together. I also cleaned up technical problems, fixed titles and meta descriptions, and ran a topical blog push. I have owned this account since I was an analyst.

The result: In the latest six-month review, form leads rose 83%, phone leads rose 41%, and organic and Google Business Profile sessions rose 61%. One city keyword moved from #10 to #1.

What I'd do differently: Five older markets lost ground in the same period, and one page got 13,876 impressions but only 24 clicks. Those are next on my fix list.

More numbers

  • One city keyword went from #10 to #1
  • First steady Google Maps spots on termite keywords

Pest control, Tennessee

A website relaunch built for local search

A new site, planned for local search from day one, and reviewed at 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months.

  • 421 organic leads in 6 months
  • 9 of 9 main keywords in the top 3
  • 37 AI Overview citations
See the full story

The problem: A pest control company in Tennessee was relaunching its site and needed to be found in both big markets and small towns.

What I did: I planned and shipped city and service pages across the new site. I also checked redirects after launch and reviewed the results at two weeks, one month, and three months.

The result: In six months, the site earned 421 organic leads (356 phone calls and 65 forms). In its main market, 9 of 9 tracked keywords ranked in the top 3. It also earned 31 top-10 Maps rankings, and 71% of them came from towns where the company has no office. Google AI Overviews cited the site 37 times.

What I'd do differently: Two big cities still have no Maps visibility, and 72% of organic traffic goes to just five pages. Spreading that out is the next job.

More numbers

  • 356 phone calls and 65 forms
  • 31 top-10 Maps rankings, 71% from towns with no office

Skills

Here is what I do every week, and what I use to do it.

What I do

  • Local SEO and Google Business Profile
  • Multi-location SEO, including city pages and internal linking
  • Technical SEO and Core Web Vitals
  • On-page SEO, keyword research, and content strategy
  • Schema markup
  • AI search: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and AI Overviews
  • Website launches, from planning and redirect checks to three-month reviews
  • Reporting and quarterly reviews for business owners

What I use

  • Screaming Frog
  • Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4
  • CallTrackingMetrics
  • Whitespark
  • Ahrefs
  • Claude, for research, content, and workflow building

Contact

I'm open to new roles, and I'm happy to talk SEO or swap ideas too. Reach out.

Based in Raleigh, NC.