Multi-Location SEO

Starting off, you’ll want to ensure that for each local citation (like your Google My Business profile), you have consistent and accurate information. Like we mentioned above, you’ll need the correct business name, business address, and business phone number showing.

Assuming you have a google business profile per location, and have the correct NAP per google business profile, you next need to fully build out each of those listings.

Take a home improvement franchise for example. A location in one city may provide bath remodels while a location in a different location focuses more on plumbing emergencies. Be sure to have the correct services marked for each location.

From there, it’s important to differentiate the locations so they’re unique. One good example here would be in the form of photos on your google business profile. A unique photo of the store and employees can easily and quickly give each location a different look and feel.

Once your google my business locations have been built out fully and have all the correct information, be active and monitor the listing.

This activity can come in the form of consistent photo uploads, Google My Business posts, and responses to customer reviews.

All of this is easy enough to do, but can take a lot of time (exponentially more time as you add more locations). Because of the amount of time and due diligence required, hiring a multi-location SEO company is a great option.

Building website authority is a consistent ranking factor. Users need to understand how your website can be trusted. Here are some examples of how you can build authority for your multi-location business:

• Reviews – One of the best ways to increase authority for your multi-location business is through online reviews. Make sure you’re implementing a system that allows for the generation of consistent user reviews.
• Links from high authority sites – Create valuable content from authoritative sites and you’ll receive links from them naturally. A link from a highly authoritative site is a big stamp of approval for yours.
  • Local links a positive factor – Mentions from local publications (news sites, etc.) can be big wins as well. A great way to increase local authority is by doing something newsworthy that will get picked up by the local paper.
• Additional local business citations – As mentioned above, make sure there are local citations with correct NAP information. Because, again, local directories are a positive signal from users that your site can be trusted, especially if they’re backed by reviews. Subdirectory listings for multi location SEO isn’t the only tactic, but it’s something that can help push the needle.

A multi-location SEO strategy will differ from a local strategy slightly; one example has to do with location pages.

After you’ve discovered location-specific keywords, created location-specific content, and have location pages for each of your locations, be sure to optimize location pages with high-value content.

• Ensure the same information for each local citation is found on your site
• That can mean a location page for every individual location. Having individual location pages with high quality information can increase relevance and user trust. In fact, location specific pages are one of the best ways a site can increase visibility online.
• Title tag optimization for each location
• Meta description optimization to encourage more links

There’s much more to it, but the number of location pages, and potentially service pages (or sub-service pages based on location), can vary greatly based on the type of business.

You could spend hours learning about technical SEO. It’s a big field, and can be critically important. Here are a few examples of technical SEO that related to a business with multiple locations.

• Logical URL structure – Make it so users and crawlers can easily understand and access all of the pages on your site (especially if you have a lot of locations and varying services for each location).
• Speed – One of the biggest factors to consider recently, improved site speed will benefit users, and is a great signal for search engines.
• Internal links – Because there will potentially be a lot of pages on your site, it’s important that priority pages receive internal links from other priority pages.

Although, again, there are many more considerations when it comes to the technical side of SEO for businesses with multiple locations, the above is a great starting point.

At the end of the day, you can cover all the basics for your local SEO strategy, whether that’s optimizing local business listings or having a page for each specific location.

But most strategies requiring a non-cookie cutter approach.

At Sixth Media, we do exactly that. We offer multi-location SEO services that are custom for each partner. This ensures that you get the best strategy for your specific business.

Multi-location SEO is quite broad, actually. There are a few types of campaigns for businesses with multiple locations, and many examples within those types.