Most pest control operators think of reviews as social proof — something that reassures a nervous homeowner before they book. That is true, but it undersells the role reviews play in where your listing ranks in the first place.
Google's local ranking algorithm weighs three broad factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. Reviews feed directly into prominence. Specifically, Google looks at review quantity, review recency, keyword presence in review text, and your response rate. A competitor with 40 recent reviews and consistent owner responses will routinely outrank a firm with 200 older reviews and no engagement — even if the older firm has a higher average star rating.
The practical implication is that reputation management is not a one-time cleanup project. It is an ongoing part of your local SEO operation. Firms that treat it that way — building a review generation system rather than asking customers ad hoc — tend to hold Map Pack positions through seasonal swings and new competitor entries.
There is a second mechanism worth understanding: click-through rate. When your listing appears in a search result, the star rating and review count are visible before someone clicks. A listing with a 4.8 rating and 120 reviews pulls more clicks than a 4.1 with 18, even at the same rank. More clicks signal relevance to Google, which can reinforce your position. The reputation work compounds.
For pest control specifically, the stakes are higher than many local service categories. Customers are inviting you into their home to deal with something they find stressful or embarrassing. They read reviews carefully. In our experience working with local service businesses, pest control conversion rates from Google Business Profile listings are meaningfully sensitive to both average rating and whether negative reviews have received professional responses.