Google knows exactly what you want, which is why ‘Distance’ is one of the top 3 most sought-after factors for Google to determine your business’ search rankings.

Most of us are looking for a service provider nearby because we want everything to be quick!

We always search for terms like “shop near me” from a barbershop that you’re looking for a quick cut into to a tyre repair one; we constantly search for words like “business near me”.

That’s why Google has constantly been pushing forward the need to provide business locations for quick local search engine marketing.

But what if your business is set up in multiple locations? What do you do to show up in the relevant local searches from all your branch locations?

Here are six simple tips to improve the Local SEO presence for multi-location businesses.

1. Work with a single domain only

Using multiple domains for different store locations can backfire as it may confuse customers.

And not just customers; search engines view separate domains as unique websites. This adds to the risk of duplicate and invalid content. But most importantly, you won’t be getting the benefits of the existing website’s domain rating and, creating a new subdomain you will lose all your existing domain rating.

Instead, you can add multiple geo-optimised landing pages for each business location. This will not only solve the duplicate content problem but also make it easier for the search engines to crawl your website.

2. Create a standard sitemap

Sitemaps are a great booster to any website’s visibility, especially for Local SEO strategies involving multiple store locations.

Sitemaps provide basic information regarding your website, like page addresses, to the search engines in a structured manner.

This helps search engines crawl the website and all the geo-optimised landing pages with ultra-ease. Make sure your sitemap isn’t buried deep into your webpage; the more visible it is, the better it is. Check here to learn how to build and submit a sitemap.

3. Create localised content for each location

After creating geo-optimised landing pages for each of your business locations, the next step would be to create localised content for all of them.

Let’s say that you have an e-commerce store set up in different locations. In such a case, you can create content based on the products exclusively available in that particular region.

Another example, for a multi-location restaurant, you can create a Google Microblogging Post for each location and publish it daily. That way, you can constantly push fresh content to the search and the search engines will notice that your business is up to date.

Create blogs that are relevant to the targeted specific area only. Search for the keywords people are searching for, and write valuable information to drive traffic to your content.

You can also add pictures from different stores to their corresponding landing pages to add to the visual difference. But don’t forget to SEO edit your images.

4. Get listed on local directories and online profiles

When someone searches for a business like yours, Google will site all the directories and online platforms to analyse your location’s information. When Google indexes your location’s accuracy on multiple platforms, it helps if you are accurately listed on all the possible local directories. Therefore, the importance of Local Listings management is undeniable.

Creating a business listing for each location you serve in might be very challenging. Using the Local Listings Software will be an excellent solution to manage all your location data in one central platform.

5. Build backlinks wherever possible

Backlinks are a go-to term in Local SEO services. Every main local SEO organic study and survey shows backlinks as one of the most prominent ranking factors. So, if you want to rank your local business higher on Google, you’re going to need backlinks for sure.

Here are some tips for creating the Local Backlinks:

1. Get local citations. There are many online platforms you can create your business listings, or you can work with a listings company like obenan to generate the citation for your location.
2. Local community groups (e.g., Reddit, Facebook groups, Nextdoor, etc.)
3. Add internal links. Your site is also a local site, and you control it. Internal links are a strong link-building tactic.
4. Colleges or Universities (e.g., job postings, scholarships, club sponsorships, discounts, alumni links)
5. City-specific sites and directories
6. Local news, magazines, and podcasts

Some sites focus on the state or surrounding areas.

6. Monitor and respond online reviews for each location

Reviews (along with an owner’s response) show that consumers trust a business, which is a foundational factor in ranking. Therefore, Google takes review ratings, review amounts and review responses from multiple sites into consideration when determining the order of businesses it returns in local searches.

Responding to your online reviews from multiple platforms and using specific keywords influence local search engine visibility significantly. If you have OBENAN’s Review Management software, you won’t be missing any reviews across dozens of online platforms. To cut a long story short, love them or hate them, online reviews are the key to success.

Conclusion

Remember, Google will verify each of your business’s locations. So, it is also helpful to verify yourself as the business owner on Google Maps to gain more trust and traction from Google.

Social media sharing and influencer marketing are also some of the most likeable ways of driving more traffic to your website these days. We shall discuss more this in our future posts.

Local SEO for multiple locations is surely more hard-work than Local SEO practices for a single location. You need to optimise each page according to different locations and keep track of the trends in other areas.

This especially holds true if your business is a global enterprise and operates in different time zones or countries.

But it works out well for all the billion-dollar brands like Apple, Microsoft, & Coca-Cola, doesn’t it?

If you are finding it hard to go by all these metrics on your own, please get in touch with us to win over in the search ecosystem.