Making a local pest expert easy to find, trust, and call

Mike, BugOut's owner, had built his site himself when the business was smaller. It had grown since, and he felt the site looked like a template, undersold what he offered, and wasn't doing much for search. He didn't know exactly what to fix. He just knew it was time.

The old site had real strengths buried under a few problems:

• No service area. Nothing told a visitor, or Google, where BugOut works.
• Services as a single sentence. Twelve pests in one run-on line, with no detail and no mention of commercial work.
• Unanswered questions. Customers had to call to learn basics like whether treatment is safe for pets.
• Buried proof. A 5.0 rating across 29 Google reviews sat on a close-up photo of a mosquito biting skin.
• A disconnected form. Quote requests didn't reach Housecall Pro, the system Mike uses to manage customers.

The most useful discovery came from questions Mike hadn't thought to ask himself. I combined conversations with him, a read through his customer reviews, and a review of competitors' sites.

Beyond "what do you want the site to look like," I asked:

• What questions do you answer over and over that the site could handle?
• Which parts of the customer experience are repetitive and slow you down?
• What should the site handle, and what needs to happen in person?

His answers shaped everything that followed:

• Diagnosis can only happen in-person. Customers usually misidentify their pest problem, so Mike wanted no diagnostic tools or promises online. He needs to see it himself.
• Some answers never change. He had a list of stable questions, like pet safety and bed bug prep, that were good candidates for the site.
• The site's job is the first conversation. That made a free quote request the one action every page should lead to.
• The service area wasn't explicitly stated. It wasn't on the site or in his search strategy.

The core idea: position BugOut as the pest control expert for its specific corner of Michigan and move visitors towards requesting a quote.

Start from the service area

All content now starts from where BugOut works: Oakland, Macomb, and St. Clair counties, plus parts of Sanilac, Wayne, and Lapeer. I used Google Trends to find what people in that area actually search for, then rebuilt the search keywords and site copy around it. The service area now appears in the headline, the page description, and a list of cities served.

Name services the way customers do

Each pest got its own short description in plain language, so a visitor can spot their problem and think "yes, that." I added rodents and a special services category for overwintering pests like stink bugs and lady beetles, and made clear that BugOut serves businesses as well as homes.

One clear next step

Every section points to a free quote. The phone number sits at the top of the page, with hours and contact details at the bottom.

Answer the repeat questions up front

An FAQ covers the questions Mike gets most: pet and child safety, whether to leave home during treatment, timing of results, one-time vs. recurring service, and bed bug prep. The answers set expectations without promising a diagnosis.

Build trust fast

Reviews stay prominent, now alongside licensing, insurance, and a satisfaction guarantee. A short founder story explains why Mike is "your pest control expert's pest control expert." I wrote the story and that positioning line from his career history.

I spent most of the project on strategy, so the design could move quickly once the direction was set.

• Visual direction. BugOut's brand was a logo and one color. I built on that deep blue with strong outlines and white contrast, aiming for professional, calm, and expert.
• Faster production. With the content strategy in hand, I used Figma Agent to produce the design, then built it in GoDaddy Website Builder.
• Leads that arrive ready. Mike had started using Housecall Pro but didn't know how to connect it to his site. I embedded its intake form directly, so every quote request lands in his customer system with what he needs to call back prepared.

In the first four full months after the May 31 launch, site traffic roughly tripled: from about 60 visitors a month in March–May to about 210 a month in June–September 2026.

Mike came to me for a redesign, but a fresh look alone wouldn't have changed much. What mattered was whether the right people could find him, trust him quickly, and reach out in a way that saved him time. The design came last, built on decisions about who his customers are, where they live, and what they need when they're dealing with a stressful problem.

Small business owners are experts in their work, not in websites, and they rarely have time to step back and ask what their site should actually do. My job was to ask those questions for him, then turn the answers into something he can keep using without me.