Creating Local Pages to improve your business's local search visibility.
How would you rate the visibility of your business in local search results? Are you having trouble getting in front of nearby customers? This article for location page search engine optimization (SEO) will assist you in improving your existing location page to get in front of potential customers or create a new location page strategy to boost the number of qualified visitors to your website.
No need to worry if you don't yet have a location page(s). This article will walk you through how to create your website's location page(s) properly or reach out to your Strategy Coach to learn how Industrial Marketing can provide a service to get it done for you.
A location page, whether you're a brick-and-mortar business, a service area business (SAB), single-location or multi-location operation, can assist you in organizing your local SEO efforts and providing your consumers with a great experience by giving them a fast overview of your company's location and services.
If you already have a location page(s) and are ready to optimize it, go to our full checklist for creating a successful location page strategy and SEO. If you want to rank in Google's local search, first learn what a location page is and why it's so important.
What is a Location Page?
A location page, also known as a city landing page or service area page, is a highly targeted website page that contains all of your company's locations' essential information for customers and search engines. These local landing pages are a great way to target long-tail, location-specific terms. These pages are most suited for businesses that provide services across a wide area (such as machine repair shops) and multi-location brick-and-mortar shops. They have something else in common: the need to advertise the fact that they have more than one office or service location. These pages can often help make up for the fact that you're having difficulty ranking for local SEO in areas outside of your main location.
The information you provide on these pages will be used to give visitors a comprehensive profile of your business that includes the following details: your company's NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number), product or service offers, working hours, reviews, and directions. Regardless of whether you operate a physical location or an e-commerce store. However, the way you optimize your location page is determined by the number of locations you have. A multi-location brick-and-mortar firm, for example, would take a different approach to create location pages than a single-location SAB.
How do location pages improve local search visibility?
Customers might discover more about your business through location pages, which include many of important components in local-targeted search results. The following are some of the most important elements of a location page:
- Google My Business elements (keywords in name, category, etc.)
- Google reviews
- The proximity of the searcher to the place of business
- Physical address in the city of search
- Consistency of citations (on primary data sources such as directories, aggregators, and platforms)
- On-page SEO elements
- Local listing engagement (click-through rate (CTR), clicks-to-call, online bookings, etc.)
- Organic user behavior (CTR, bounce rate, time on site, etc.)
- Quality/authority of inbound links to the domain
- Google Map Location
The top-ranking factors for local organic search results include the following:
- On-page SEO elements
- Organic user behavior
- Google My Business elements
- Quality/authority of inbound links to the domain
- Consistency of citations
- Google reviews
- Local listing engagement
- Physical address in the city of search
- Proximity to the place of business
- Social media engagement (such as likes, comments, and shares)
Industrial Marketing has put together a complete checklist to optimize your own location page, keep these ranking factors in mind. Now, let’s get to the reason you’re here!
The Complete Checklist for Creating your own Location Page Strategy
So you're interested in developing a local location page strategy for your company? This checklist can help serve as a guide for you to optimize your own location pages. Each component may improve your website's user experience for customers who search for additional information and search engine robots that crawl and index your location page to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Read through each step or jump to the sections that apply to you:
Background Research
- Determine areas you service
- Keyword Research
Building Pages/What to Include
- Feature Identical NAP Details
- Use Location-Specific Keywords
- Include Location-Specific Content
- Include Business Hours
- Feature Customer Reviews
- Provide Directions & Share Your Location
- Include Location-Specific Images
- Use a Relevant CTA
- Add Relevant Internal & External Links
1. Determine Which States/Cities/Neighborhoods Your Business Serves
This should be quite simple. If you own a multi-location organization and have locations in various cities, all you have to do is build landing pages for each of your physical sites or service areas.
If you're a service company, such as a machine repairman who travels around various cities or neighborhoods in your community, you should create location pages for towns within a certain distance of where you operate.
2. Do Keyword Research
After you've decided which cities or regions to target, you must conduct extensive keyword research to see whether anybody is actually looking for what you have in those areas. Let’s say you’re a machine repairman in New Hampshire. However, you’re willing to travel up to 30 miles to visit a site in order to do on-site repairs. You gather all the cities you’re willing to travel to, even the small cities. Let’s say that the city of Nashua shows up on your list. So you go to a keyword research tool and you type in queries like “machine repairman in Nashua, NH” or “Nashua, NH machine repairman.”
Now that you have determined who you want to target and which keywords to use, below are the steps to build out these location-specific pages and what to make sure to include for optimized results:
1. Feature Identical NAP Details
The first things you should include on your location page are your NAP details. The term "NAP" refers to a company's Name, Address, and Phone Number. Google and other search engines take a company's NAP information into account when deciding where it should rank in geo-specific searches. Make sure your NAP information is correct and consistent across your location page, website, Google My Business (GMB) listing, and other online directories since the searcher's proximity to your business is a significant ranking indicator for these pages. Depending on your company's location type, you'll need to take the following factors into consideration:
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Build one location page on your website that features your NAP details.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Build one web page for each location. If you only have a handful of store locations, consider building out a location subfolder on your website.
- SAB(Service Area Business) with an office location: On the location page, include your company name, phone number, and service areas. If you have an office, include the address as well.
- SAB without an office location: On the location page, include your business name, phone number, and service areas. If you don't have an office, consider using your company's registered address instead.
2. Use Location-Specific Keywords
The second step is to use location-specific keywords in the meta tags (title, meta description, h1), URL path, and throughout your content. This indicates to search engines that your location page pertains to a certain area.
Example:
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include your company's city in the content, in your meta tags, and on the URL path.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Include your business locations' cities in your content, meta tags, and URL path for each location page.
- Service Area Business with an office location: You may include your location's city in your content, meta tags, and URL path if you have an office location. However, make sure you also highlight your service areas as well. It is less likely for your service area business to rank in Google outside of your city address if not. For example, a manufacturer with a Boston, MA address that services Concord, NH will likely not rank highly in local search results in Concord, NH for the search query, “manufacturer near me.”
- Service Area Business without an office location(e-Commerce): Include your service areas in the meta tags, content, and URL path of your site if you don't have a brick-and-mortar location.
3. Include Location-Specific Content
As with the second step, you should include local-oriented information on your location page. If you have numerous pages, don't repeat the same content on each and replace the relevant keywords. Duplicate content is something you want to avoid if possible. Instead, produce content that is unique to each location area. Information such as services accessible, products sold, and local areas are all examples of location-specific information.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include business hours, products or services available in-store, place map location or markers to assist customers to locate you, and your unique selling proposition (USP).
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: For each location page, include your products or services available in-store, business hours, address details, and your USP.
- SAB with an office location: Include your products and services, address, and business information.
- SAB without an office location: Include your products and services, and business information.
4. Feature Company Business Hours
Nothing irritates customers more than looking for a company's hours, traveling to its location, and discovering that it is closed, only to discover that its hours were incorrect on either its website or GMB listing. Include your company hours on your location page to avoid this from happening to your own consumers. These times should precisely match the GMB listing.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Add your store hours to your location pages.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: For each location, include your specific store hours.
- SAB with an office location: Include your office hours on your location pages. If you also offer 24/7 service, make sure you highlight both your office’s hours of operation and your 24/7 service offerings. If you only provide 24/7 service, make sure you feature this on both your location page and your GMB listing.
- SAB without an office location: Include your service hours on your location page.
5. Include Customer Reviews
Google has confirmed that customer reviews on Google are an important component of local search results. Furthermore, positive reviews help to promote your brand's credibility and trustworthiness with potential consumers. On average, customers will read 10 reviews before making a purchasing decision. Developing a reputation management strategy to attract more good consumer feedback if you don't have many evaluations or are having trouble recovering from a bad one is a smart idea.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Feature Google customer reviews on your location page using an embed widget.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: If you have a GMB listing for each location, feature customer reviews from each GMB listing on its associated location page. For example, if you have a location in Ankeny, Iowa and Des Moines, Iowa, feature your Ankeny GMB reviews on your Ankeny location page and your Des Moines GMB reviews on your Des Moines location page.
- SAB with an office location: Feature Google customer reviews, or in-store customer reviews on your location page.
- SAB without an office location: Feature Google customer reviews.
6. Provide Directions & Share Your Business Location
It's critical to inform your consumers about your location and provide directions so they know exactly where and how to get to your company, much like putting your business hours on your location page. By including your company's location, you'll be more discoverable to clients. You can also include a Google Maps widget on your website with a location pin to allow consumers to click immediately on the pin for driving directions.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include directions to your location page so customers can find you. Embed a Google Maps widget on your location page and provide directions to assist visitors to locate your company.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Embed a Google Maps widget on your website to display location-specific driving instructions for clients.
- SAB with an office location: Add a Google Maps widget to your location page. To identify your position and service area, add a pin to your business address and a service area radius around the pin.
- SAB without an office location: Include a Google Maps widget on your location page that displays a radius to show the range of your service area.
7. Include Location-Specific Images
Customers may be more inclined to purchase if they have an image or video of your company's location. This allows clients to get a feel for your business, establish expectations, and build trust on top of what they already know. Interior and exterior photographs, products for sale, services being performed and images of your staff are all examples of location-specific images.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include interior and outdoor photographs, product photos, and team photographs.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Add interior and exterior photographs, as well as pictures of popular or available items, and team photos for each store.
- SAB with an office location: Add interior and exterior photos, and pictures of your staff performing services
- SAB without an office location: Add pictures of your staff performing services.
8. Use Relevant CTA's
For each page on your website, there should be a distinct goal or desired action for visitors. The same is true for location pages. Including a relevant CTA on your location page might assist you to encourage your visitors to take a particular course of action (e.g., Get Directions, Request information, Request an Appointment, etc.).
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include a useful CTA on your location page to encourage visitors to take a certain action.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Include a call to action (CTA) that aligns with the location's objective for each location page.
- SAB with an office location: Include a call-to-action that is appropriate for your services (e.g., Schedule an Appointment, Ask an Expert, Request a Quote, etc.).
- SAB without an office location: Same as SAB with office location.
9. Add Relevant Internal & External Links
The final stage in this checklist is to include relevant internal and external links. You may also provide additional resources to your visitors by including these links. Internal links, like those to specific goods or services, or your companies about page are just a few examples of ways you might include them. You can also include external links to local directories or publications that feature your business, or popular directory listings.
- Single-location brick-and-mortar business: Include relevant internal and external links that advertise your company's products or services.
- Multi-location brick-and-mortar business: Include internal and external links applicable to each location. For example, relevant internal links to a special daily offer, products trending in the store, and nearby locations.
- SAB with an office location: Include links to your service pages, product pages, and directory listings, to name a few.
- SAB without an office location: Same as SAB with an office location.
After following this checklist and building your location page strategy you have a fantastic opportunity to show up in local searches and interact with customers in interesting new ways as Google seeks to provide businesses with new products and experiences. The end result: more local customers.
Following these local SEO guidelines can get you a head start in local searches!