Expanding your business by operating in different areas or regions is always a call for celebration. Then again, issues are evident when you combine local SEO and multiple locations.
You need more resources for research, efforts to address inconsistencies, tailored strategies for each town or city, and so on.
These challenges shouldn’t deter your business growth, though. While problems are inevitable, there are means to prepare your operations SEO-wise and succeed anywhere.
In this article, we’ll walk you through mastering multi-location SEO and provide actionable strategies for attracting local customers to each of your business locations.
Understanding the Basics of Multi-Location SEO
Multiple location SEO (MLS) aims to optimise your local search presence for different towns, cities, or countries. Restaurant, service, and retail business owners benefit the most from this strategy.
To understand this concept further, let’s say you are an electric company with an established brand and optimised website on the national level. If I need to book an electrician for home repair, your company will probably not show on my Google search results.
Instead, Google will give me companies with a local business profile, ratings and reviews, and an address nearest to me.
This example emphasises why multi-location SEO is vital to business. With it, you bring your products or services closer to where your customers are. It also boosts your brand, visibility, and website traffic.
Still, despite these opportunities, MLS also opens your business to unique challenges such as:
- More resource needs. Managing profiles, pages, content, and links for multiple locations requires time, effort, and money.
- Higher competition. Overcoming competitors in every business location needs custom strategies and constant monitoring.
- Inconsistencies. Keeping your business details, services, products, and images for multiple locations on several platforms can be challenging.
- Localisation difficulties. It takes effort to apply local search intent, create unique local content while avoiding duplicates, and link to different local directories.
Optimising Your Website for Multiple Locations
Applying multi-location SEO may be confusing because of the numerous changes it requires. So, we suggest tackling one task at a time, starting with your business website.
Here are the things to focus on.
1. Create Location-Specific Landing Pages
When applying multi-location SEO, the goal is to make your site appear in your target audience’s local search results.
To do that, create a landing page for each business location. The elements within the location page will then work as signals to search engines when a relevant search query comes in.
Your location-specific landing page includes:
- URL with business location. For example, examplelawfirm.com/melbourne or www.examplelawfirm.com/locations/melbourne.
- Location-specific metadata. Your meta title and description should mention your target keyword and business locations. Here’s an example:
Meta title: ABC Legal | Expert Family Lawyers | Melbourne, VIC
Meta description: ABC Legal is a leading law firm in Melbourne and nearby suburbs. Our expert family lawyers specialise in custody, divorce, and child support.
- Location name, address, and contact. Make your location name (city, town, or suburb) prominent on the page by setting it as your Heading 1 or 2. Then, add the address and an embedded map so visitors don’t have to leave your site for office or store directions. Finally, put your phone number, email address, and local social media pages or channels.
- Schema markup. Using structured data on your location pages makes it easier for search engines to find you for local searches.
2. Use Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting involves tasks to optimise your online visibility in local search results. Creating a location-specific landing page is one example of geo-targeting.
You can then optimise further by doing similar strategies like:
- researching and optimising for geo-targeted keywords
- creating relevant content that showcases local happenings, interests, or news
- providing versions of your website in other languages or local preferences
- listing your business in local directories with consistent information (name, address, phone number)
- claiming, verifying, and updating your Google Business Profile
- encouraging customers to leave reviews on your business profile and other review sites
3. Optimise Local Citations
Local citations are online mentions of your business details (e.g. company name, address, and contact information).
These may be structured mentions, like the ones in Yellowpages, Foursquare, and other online directories. They may also be unstructured mentions in blog posts, magazine articles, or review sites.
Local citations make it easier for search engines to find your website each time a user types in a “business + location” query. However, it is not enough to have local citations online. You also need to optimise or keep them consistent.
For example, if you used “Street” in your business details, keep “Street” in full throughout, not “St.” If you have “Pty Ltd” in your business name, mention it with the same spelling and format.
Any inconsistency can make it hard for search engines to verify your business. Also, customers are hesitant to deal with business operators with inconsistent addresses or incorrect phone numbers.
Observing consistency helps build trust, and trust helps drive leads and boost rankings.
Managing Multiple Google My Business Listings
Aside from your website, taking care of your Google My Business profile is another crucial element in multi-location SEO. Here’s what you need to do.
1. Claim, Verify, and Optimise Your Google My Business Listings
When you have businesses in several locations, you need a Google Business Profile (GBP) listing for each to ensure they appear on Google. Be sure to follow Google’s how-to for claiming your business profile.
However, for 10 or more business locations, it’s better to add the listings through Google’s bulk location management. Here, you should create a business group and then bulk-upload the details of all your business locations.
Regardless of how you add or claim your GBP, always ensure to:
- link your location pages to the main website
- add a phone number that directly connects to the business location, not a central office
- keep your company name consistent throughout
- select only relevant business categories and keep them consistent
Once you claim your listings, send a request for verification. Your verified profile should now appear on Search, Maps, and other Google properties. Be sure to keep your listings accurate and updated.
2. Encourage Local Reviews
Local reviews are vital in establishing your business reputation. Google even noted that high-quality reviews improve visibility in the search results.
However, generating Google reviews for multiple-location SEO is more challenging. Extra work is necessary to remind and encourage your customers to provide feedback.
Here are a few suggestions to get more reviews:
- Ask customers in person immediately after their positive experience with your business.
- Print a review reminder or QR code on your receipt, shop window, or thank you card.
- Create a shareable Google review link to make it easier for customers to leave reviews.
- Send a newsletter or follow-up email with your Google review link as a signature.
- Reply to positive and negative reviews to boost brand image.
Also, invest in reputation management tools to easily monitor your review campaigns for multiple business locations.
3. Manage Multiple Locations in Google My Business
Google My Business has a helpful “location group” feature for easier updating and tracking across multiple business locations.
Once you create a location group, you can add bulk updates to your multi-location businesses from one dashboard. You can use the same dashboard to assign user permission so team members can help you manage each business listing.
The dashboard also has a performance metrics section, allowing you to check customer searches, reviews, and other valuable insights.
Make the most of this feature by adding tailored content and images reflecting each location.
Leveraging Local SEO Tools and Analytics
Google Analytics and Search Console are two indispensable tools you can use to monitor and improve your multi-location SEO performance.
Both generate traffic patterns, search rankings, and other valuable data to help you make strategic decisions and optimise your local SEO efforts for a better online presence.
Building Local Partnerships and Community Engagement
Aside from online optimisation, partnerships and person-to-person interaction should also be part of your multi-location SEO strategy.
1. Partner with Local Businesses
Team up with companies or nearby shops that are relevant to your business. They can help you connect with potential customers in exchange for mutual links.
You can also create combined deals or coupons with other shop owners. That way, you can engage with local customers while building links on your site.
2. Be Involved in Community Events
Research about community gatherings, local festivals, business expos, and similar events in each location. Hosting or participating in any of these can get your business featured on local websites or publications while targeting a local audience.
It also allows you to promote community involvement through in-store signages, social media, or email newsletters. Promoting your business, in turn, helps establish brand awareness and generate engagement.
You can also make post-activity content with photos and event highlights for sustained local interest. Use this to encourage readers or attendees to leave comments or reviews.
3. Stay Active in Social Media
Your social media channels have plenty of features to help you reach out and engage with your customers. For example, you can use them to post content that resonates with the local audience. Add location-specific hashtags, landmarks, or geo-tags to boost the effect.
Insert links to your captions to encourage users to leave Google reviews. Alternatively, leverage Facebook Reviews to gain more user-generated content and local keywords.
Conclusion
Applying the multi-location SEO approach can help your business attract more customers and become more visible in the search results. Over time, your MLS efforts will give long-term benefits, including higher foot traffic, improved brand reputation, and better local rankings.
However, remember that local SEO is a continuous process. So, use tools and monitor your performance to stay updated with the latest trends and best practices.
Be sure to adjust your strategy or, better yet, partner with an SEO agency that can help your multi-location business dominate the local search results.
