In this digital marketing era, it is essential for businesses to incorporate valuable local search marketing practices. However, for enterprises with multiple locations, this is easier said than done. Having an effective strategy can help large multi-location businesses overcome these challenges and improve their overall brand and online presence.
3 steps your multi-location businesses should take to dominate local search:
1. Localize landing pages
It is important to develop a unique landing page for every single location. The more tailored and up-to-date your landing pages are, the better your local search rankings will be.
How do I create a successful landing page?
One of the most crucial things to remember is that consistency is key. To clarify, this means
having uniform spelling, word choice, and NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) across each
landing page and website. By maintaining this consistency, your business will become easier to find and give more accurate search results.
Include photos in your listings. Generally speaking, landing pages with no photos tend to divert interaction and prevent audience engagement. Therefore, by simply adding a localized photo of your business to your landing page, you can dramatically improve your businesses online traffic.
Spammy content is bad for search engines. You must make your landing pages as unique and as specific as you can. This means including details such as: business hours, nearby landmarks and public transportation, products/services being offered, a Google local map, and any other relevant local information.
Keep local landing page URLs simple and easy to understand.
2. Create Citations
A citation is a disclosure of your business name, address, and phone number on another webpage. Having a greater number of citations, can lead to an improved local search ranking. However, this is only true when the citation listings are accurate, consistent, and on authoritative websites.
Data aggregators are organizations that compile and distribute data. It is better to start with smaller aggregators, before focusing on major local directories. For multi-location businesses, aggregators can become very expensive. Although pricey, they are the fastest and most efficient way to distribute local information for businesses with several locations.
3. Adjust existing citations
It is important that your business takes the time to clean up existing citations. If you can afford it, we recommend using a service to do this. This will save you valuable time and help you quickly identify duplicates.
For those of you who cannot afford these services, your first step is to analyze your current listings. There are a few free tools that will scan the web for you and provide you with basic information. If you are doing this process on your own, start by searching for each business location in all the local directories. Make sure that if you run into any duplicates, you keep the most accurate listing and report the others to be removed.
By following these three guidelines, your multi-location business can be in control of local search results. If you are interested in a free 30-minute consultation to review your current local search engine strategy, please contact The Great Online at 888.360.4535 today.
