If your company’s business requires driving people to physical locations then you absolutely need to focus on the effectiveness of your current local SEO best practices.
Success with organic local search encompasses much more than just a Google Business Profile, yet that is the extent of the program for many SEO agencies and in-house teams. Search engines will identify the specific location information (location name, address, phone number, web address, etc.) provided on the company’s landing pages and treat that as the indicator that you are who you say you are and are located where you say you are. They want to ensure that the information that they find elsewhere is another entity trying to hijack your location’s visibility. They compare that against all instances of this information found across the web to determine whether those instances are accurately referring to your locations.
Unique Landing Pages
Local search begins with creating unique landing page for each location in your company’s portfolio, rather than just mentions on a single page. Each page should include content and on-page optimization that communicates information that is distinctive and targeted for each. If you are nationwide or international, these locations should be organized from a local homepage such as /locations/ and arranged in a logical hierarchy such as country, region, state, city, etc. The local homepage should be linked to from the main navigation so it is easy for users and search engines to find from any page that they enter in on.
Citations
The many mentions of your locations’ name, address, and phone number are called citations. Search engine will use these mentions to reinforce your identity and build authority which has a direct affect on performance. One of the roadblocks to success with local search is when search engines find citations with conflicting or missing location information. Part of the Local Search Audit will analyze the current effectiveness and power of your site’s citations. Often a third party service can be engaged that can make near real-time updates to many local directories and websites across the web, keeping your authority as powerful as possible.
If you are not seeing the local traffic and conversions that you need for your business, reach out and let’s get started with a Local Search Audit.