Do you operate a business with multiple locations? Maybe a franchise retail store or restaurant with numerous locations across the region? Or even an international service-based operation, with offices in multiple cities, states, and countries? Maybe you don’t even have offices, but you provide services in specific localities. Regardless of the logistics, chances are you have a website associated with your business, one that highlights the services or products you have on offer with the intent of directing customers into your brick-and-mortar locations in order to drive sales and build long-term relationships. But is your website optimized to rank in local searches?
Search engine optimization strategies in modern websites for businesses with multiple locations must take into account the trends in online search behavior towards local searches on Google and other search engines. With 46% of all Google searches seeking local information, and 88% of local business searches resulting in either a call or visit to that business within 24 hours, localization of your SEO strategy is absolutely crucial to ensuring your organization is properly ranked in local searches where you provide services to customers. While the overall localization of SEO on your website can be an involved and complex process, TechArk is here with some steps you can take to cover the basics.
A Page for Every Location
If you’ve not optimized your website for localization, your homepage is likely designed to try and rank for multiple locations, or you have a single page somewhere on your site that lists all of your locations. While this might have been effective in the past, new algorithms and search standards prioritize pages focused on a single topic over pages with multiple topics or listings. Therefore, it’s important that your website includes a page for each location, and that each location has a unique URL; the overall site map structure should prioritize location and keep links organized according to locale.
Stick to Basic SEO Strategies for Each Unique Page
Search engine optimization is based on certain underlying design components used by search engines to index and find your page when searches are performed. You should treat each location’s unique page as if it were the primary landing page for your brand, and include the necessary keywords, meta descriptions, and programming elements such as title tags and other underlying frameworks to promote each location’s relevance in search. Multiple cities and venues might mean each location offers a set of services unique to that location - make that clear in the page’s content. Include location-specific images, directions, and other content that will set that location apart from the competition and your other locations, ensuring each page will show up in targeted local searches without confusion.
Directories, Business Profiles, and Reviews
Search engine optimization of your website doesn’t only exist on your company’s website. Off-page SEO strategies require you to ensure your business directory listings are correct as well, as business directories are often top results, especially for local business listing searches. Just as each location necessitates its own page on your website, each location should have its own Google My Business Profile and local business listing on appropriate third-party websites. While each directory listing might list the exact same services and products, each should absolutely list the specific location’s unique name, address, and phone number (NAP) information, which helps improve local search rankings. Once you’ve established your online listings, look into strategies for review generation and establish an online reputation management strategy to leverage localized pages in driving traffic to your brand’s website and physical locations.
TechArk Knows Local SEO
When it comes to localized search engine optimization, we’ve only just touched the surface in this article, and already it sounds like a lot of work, especially if you have multiple locations around the Norfolk metropolitan area and beyond where you need to focus on building sales and relationships with clients. Don’t get bogged down trying to catch up to the competition - contact the experts at TechArk and let them take the lead on optimizing your website to feature each one of your business’s locations in a way that will rank your business head and shoulders over the competition. Our team will put our full suite of digital marketing services at your disposal, putting your brand in the local spotlight.
