Best Local SEO Practices for Multi-Location Businesses

You’ve worked incredibly hard to be able to open up multiple locations for your business.

Now, you want to know that your current local SEO strategy helps each location’s web presence to be as strong and visible as possible. The last thing you want is for your second and third locations to get lost in the search engine results.

So, what are the best local SEO strategies for businesses with more than one location?

Whether you have more than one store or business in the same state or town, or if you have multiple locations across the country, we’re here to help you to develop a winning local SEO strategy.

Are you ready to outrank the competition and dominate the local market in each of your locations?

Read on to learn how to master the fine art of local SEO for multiple locations.

Pages Should Be Location-Specific

One of the most common mistakes that businesses with multiple locations make when it comes to creating their websites?

Having a singular website or webpage that simply lists multiple locations.

You might think that, by having a singular webpage, you’re making it easier on your customers and target market as a whole. After all, they can see all of your locations in one place, right?

Wrong.

The truth is that all you’re really doing is limiting the scope of your business — and missing out on multiple local markets.

Start by creating either separate websites or separate pages for each of your company’s locations.

This will allow you to get much more specific when it comes to your local SEO strategy. You’ll also increase the number of indexed pages your site actually has. This will help you to rise in both the local and overall search engine rankings.

The same goes for any listings on third-party sites (more on that in a minute.) List on a “per-location,” basis.

Don’t just have one listing on a third-party site that lumps all of your different locations together.

A final tip when it comes to building those individual webpages?

Check out your URL structure.

Include the name of your business, the state, the city, and even the store or branch number in your URL address. This will make it easy for customers to find the specific location they need.

Focus on Location-Based Third Party Sites

The best local SEO strategies are the ones that take advantage of third-party listing and review sites.

After all, close to 100% of consumers say they always read online reviews about a brand before deciding to shop from or work with it.

Online reviews are a part of not just your overall reputation management plan, but also your local SEO strategy. First of all, as we mentioned above, ensure that each one of your locations — even if you have multiple locations in the same city — has its own separate review page.

We do suggest that you create one singular Google My Business or Yelp account in order to easily manage multiple listings, however.

In order to optimize these review pages, there are several things you need to include in your third-party listings.

First of all, always include a Google Map (we’ll talk more about them later on in this post.) You should also fill your listings with storefront photos, your hours, public transit directions, and even your methods of accepted payments.

Above all, don’t be afraid to get responsive — as long as you can keep your cool — in the review section. Thank customers for positive feedback. If the feedback isn’t as great as you’d hope, respond publicly and privately to the reviewer.

People want to know their concerns are being taken seriously.

Ensure NAP Is Consistent

This is an easy one.

Your NAP (name, address, and phone number) should be correct and consistent on each of your listings and individual location webpages.

If you have a “central” phone number for clients to call, list that on each of the pages. But ensure that, if you have location-specific contact information, it’s correct on each site.

If you change any of your NAP data, update it across your different listings and webpages as soon as possible. If you close a franchise or a branch, make sure that you update that on your website immediately. The same goes if a location moves to another place.

Inconsistent contact information won’t just irritate your customers. It can also get you penalized in the search engine rankings.

Create Localized Content

The best local strategy is also one that focuses on creating location-based content.

In today’s world, believe it or not, going just “local” isn’t always enough to outrank your competitors. Now, it’s all about creating a marketing strategy that’s hyperlocal.

This means that you need blog and even on-page content that references local events, landmarks that are close to your business, and even what’s happening on your street.

Now is the time to connect and cross-promote with other local businesses in your area. It’s also the time to refine your location-based keyword strategy.

For example, your keyword phrases should contain lots more than just the name of the city or state your company is located within. These hyperlocal keyword phrases should include the name of your county, the names of other local businesses, and even nearby tourist attractions.

You should also write keyword phrases that reference the name of the neighborhood where your business stands.

You might even want to consider working with micro-influencers. Think of these people as “local celebrities” that you know people within your service area trust and even want to be like.

An endorsement from them can go a long way towards strengthening your brand reputation — and increasing your profits.

Linking Locally

It’s certainly no secret that a strong linking plan is a huge part of a successful SEO strategy.

However, if you’re thinking on a hyperlocal level and have multiple locations, you need to do more. As you would with location-based keywords, you should also link to external sites that are relevant to a specific location’s market.

Maybe you should include a link to a local festival where your brand will have a both. Link to an interview you did with another local business.

Don’t be afraid to ask for links, either.

You might be surprised by just how many local businesses will be willing to do link exchanges. The same goes for posts on social media.

And speaking of social media?

When you upload pictures to your master account, always ensure that you’ve turned on geolocation services.

This way, even if each of your locations doesn’t have their own social media profile, users can see which specific location the picture came from.

This will help you to get more attention from your local market. Plus, we’re willing to bet it will grow your follower count in the process!

Don’t Neglect Google Maps

We’ve already spoken about the importance of Google My Business when it comes to developing local SEO strategies for companies with multiple locations.

Now, let’s move onto how to master Google Map multiple locations.

Getting Google Maps right is especially important if you’re trying to target mobile users.

After all, you want them to quickly be able to find the location that’s the closest to where they are when they search for your company.

The good news is that plotting multiple points on Google Maps is easier than you might think.

All you need to do is sign into your account, and click on the “Your Places” menu item. From there, hit “Maps” and then “Create Map.” You can then name your new location, and enter in the franchise or branch’s address.

This means that users will be able to easily see multiple locations when they visit your site.

Make sure that you include a Google Map on each individual page of your website and listings.

Get the Best Local SEO for Multiple Locations

We hope that this post has helped you better understand what it truly takes to develop the best local SEO strategy for businesses with multiple locations.

Of course, we understand that, with everything else you have to do to keep your business running every day, you don’t always have time for local SEO.

Luckily, we do.

In addition to offering you blog posts full of the most competitive and up-to-date SEO advice? We can also provide you with PPC marketing, local SEO, web design, and analytic services that you need to improve your ranking factor.

Rely on us for all of your digital marketing needs. Ready to hire a local SEO company? We can’t wait to help you take your business further than ever before.

Previous Entry Next Entry

The 3 Most Important Small Business Branding Tips

Small business owners hear it a lot: the importance of building a brand. But what does that really mean? What do you need to build a brand? And why’s it important?

It’s true that a “brand” is a bit of a nebulous concept. So to help clarify the subject and give you concrete steps to take, we’ve identified these three vital tips to get you started.

Tip #1. Nail down your message

Think critically about your company’s philosophy and vision. Your message is at the heart of what you do and will inform the shape your brand takes.

Your message should summarize your company goals, values, and what drives you. It should demonstrate where you stand now – and where you strive to be in the future.

Consider the following:

The services or products you offer
What niche you fill in your industry and what makes you different from competitors
The clients you strive to serve

From there, think about what adjectives you’d use to describe your business. Are you trendy and modern? Upscale and eco-friendly? Or old-fashioned and rough-hewn? These will inform the tone of your brand, as well as your image to customers.

Tip #2. Make a logo & stick with it

A brand is more than just a logo, but a logo is the lynchpin of any good brand.

Small businesses need to have a clear, consistent visual identity. Customers need to be able to identify you at a glance – and seeing your logo over and over is a way to familiarize people with your company and keep you top-of-mind.

You should have your logo, your colors, and your fonts, all of which should be codified in a brand style guide. These logos and colors should be on your website, your letterhead, uniforms, and anything you hand out to customers.

In particular, physical merchandise is an easy and fun way to let people take a little piece of your business home with them. It’s great when someone can see your brand – and even better when they can touch and hold it.

You can never go wrong with a classic business card, but don’t be afraid to get creative. The best pieces of merch are the most useful ones: fridge magnets, USB drives, pens, notepads, water bottles, bottle openers, etc. Digital Neighbor gets some of our custom printed Logo Magnets from our friends at Sticker Mule.

Tip #3. Show your expertise (and do it online)

You’re the best in your field. But how can customers find you and learn about your expertise? It’s simple: Google needs to know you’re an expert, too.

In 2018, Google rolled out the “medic” update to its search algorithm. Among other things, Google started defining a set of characteristics called ‘E.A.T.’ as some of the most important factors in ranking highly.

E.A.T. is Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Essentially, that means Google wants to promote pages that only share accurate and factual information. You have to prove your expertise to Google. Some ways to boost your E.A.T. are to:

Write full bios on your website for your staff and blog authors, including credentials and titles
Make sure there’s contact info on every single page – name, address, and phone number
Encourage your customers to leave good reviews on Yelp and Google Reviews
Post high-quality, factual, and industry-relevant blogs on your site (and don’t forget to use sources to back up your facts)

Bonus Tip: Get a pro to help

At Digital Neighbor, we’re experts in helping small businesses with their digital branding, content marketing, website design, and everything in between. We’ll help you with your online presence so that potential customers learn your name – and remember it.
If you want to learn more, just drop us a line! We’d love to show you exactly what we can do for your small business.

Previous Entry Next Entry

A Solid Foundation: 8 of Today’s Best CMS Platforms for Web Design (And Why)

Did you know that there are about 2 billion websites in the world?

Yes, the competition is tighter than ever. Your business won’t succeed unless you launch your site strong. A key step towards this goal is to use a reliable Content Management System (CMS).

The best CMS platforms make it easier to set up your own. They continue to advance and plugin support continues to grow. It’s a good addition to your tools especially if you believe that SEO still matters today.

But what are the top CMS available in the market? If you’re ready to learn more, read on.

1. WordPress

If you spent any period of time studying web development, there’s a good chance you know WordPress.

It’s nearly impossible to browse the Internet today without coming across WordPress in one way or another. While you might not visit blog posts on a regular basis, the sites you do visit might use WordPress as their main backbone. Some originated solely from WordPress plugins like Divi.

After all, this CMS is still one of the most used platforms in the world. With its features, it isn’t that difficult to see why it dominates its competition.

WordPress used to be exclusive for blogging purposes. But at this point, the platform grew way beyond that. It’s easy to learn and it offers customization features that can meet your design choices. It’s made possible by the sheer number of plugins and themes available to this platform.

If you want a great content management experience, WordPress is your best bet. You can publish and post new content and pages in a simple, seamless manner. It’s because you have the means of formatting your content through a powerful editor.

The platform supports users and gives regular updates to better its features. The best part of using this platform, however, is that you have access to a large and helpful community. The only downside is that you might take a while in mixing and matching the plugins and themes to get the website you want.

2. Joomla!

Another of the better CMS options, Joomla can compete with WordPress when it comes to popularity. Most people think that the platform isn’t as beginner-friendly as WordPress. But the caveat is that Joomla offers more flexibility in some of its design aspects.

For example, if you need a lot of custom post types, Joomla is a better option. What this means is that websites with non-text content benefit the most from this platform. It’s also a better choice when it comes to user management since it offers a lot of options.

If you’re a membership-based website, you can count on Joomla to do the job. It’s also a great choice since it offers multilingual support without the need for plugins. Its multiple template support allows you to use different themes for various content.

Its main downside is its less beginner-friendly features that makes it longer to learn than WordPress. It doesn’t have as many extensions and templates compared to most of its competitors. It’s not that big of a deal, but some features might need manual implementation.

3. Drupal

A lot of people are partial to this CMS platform and they argue it’s one of the best open source ones out there. It’s not as popular as WordPress and Joomla, but its capabilities are something you can’t ignore. It shares a lot of similarities with Joomla when it comes to areas of practice.

Like Joomla, Drupal is great with its flexibility if you use custom post types. It gives a high means of controlling your users and what they’re allowed to do. It even has the multilingual support without the need for plugins.

There are some areas where Drupal sets itself aside. A good example is its taxonomy system, which is more powerful than its contemporaries. Also, its platform is more secure compared to WordPress and Joomla.

Another area Drupal excels in is its scalability. That makes it a great choice if you want to use it for enterprise and business websites. The price to pay for these features is the steep learning curve required to master it.

Drupal isn’t recommended for beginners. You need to have quite a bit of web development experience to understand it. But once you get comfortable with it, it’s one of the most powerful CMS choices right now.

4. Typo3

It isn’t part of the “Big Three” with WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. But it doesn’t mean it’s a less valuable platform than the others. The big difference between Typo 3 and the others is the fact that they have more specific uses.

Typo3’s main selling point is its great scalability. Its primary demographic is enterprise-level websites. What this means is that it’s a great choice if you’re building an intranet and other related projects.

It isn’t your first pick when it comes to its ease of use. It works best if you have enough knowledge of web development principles. With this, Typo3 isn’t a good choice for simpler, smaller websites.

Typo3 has a lot of great features like multilingual support. If you want to save a lot of time, use this platform to run multiple websites using a single installation. It’s recommended if you’re managing different websites that fall within the same category.

5. Serendipity

When it comes to user-friendliness, Serendipity strikes a direct contrast with Typo3. In fact, it’s one of the best picks for small blogs. This makes it one of the most lightweight CMS platforms used for building websites.

While that might be the case, it doesn’t lack any important features. Its main selling point is its dynamic caching settings. This offers an excellent level of performance for most types of websites.

It offers plugins and themes to make up for the limited functionality. It allows you to look for back-end or front-end plugins, making it easier for you to find the things you want. All in all, if you want to have a fast-loading website, you can use Serendipity’s lightweight platform.

This works well if you want to rank higher in SEO searches. Remember, Google holds about 92% of the global search engine market. One of the most important things this search engine considers is page speed, making it one of the most important components of SEO-friendly website design.

6. Dotclear

This is a great option as a CMS platform for websites that look for straight up blogging experience. Among all the CMS’s around, only a handful are as easy to use as Dotclear. The best part about it is the fact that you have an experience like that with WordPress when you use this platform.

You have the means of publishing posts, managing them, and taxonomy choices. What’s surprising is that you can make your posts using plain text or HTML. If you’re fond of Wiki Syntax, you can use that to write your posts as well.

Dotclear also gives you the ability to make RSS feeds. But what makes it closest to WordPress are their plugins and themes. All in all, the experience that is given by this platform is in the same category as Serendipity.

It’s used to give a simple blogging experience. Don’t let it discourage you from using it to launch a bigger, more successful project. Your choice between the two comes down to your personal preferences.

7. ImpressPages

This CMS platform isn’t as well-known as the others on this list. But so far, it gives the best experience when it comes to blogging. It has a neat, well-organized editor with a sleek, modern interface. Its main selling point is that it can add some elements other CMS’s can without resorting to extensions.

This CMS also gets a lot of points for its design. The dashboard doesn’t look cluttered and it’s easy to use. It gives a lot of choices when you’re trying to customize your page and improve website functionalities.

ImpressPages also has an intuitive drag-and-drop builder without the need for plugins. This simplifies the process of creating the pages you need for your website. Its main drawback is that it doesn’t have the same sheer number of extensions, meaning it isn’t as fit as WordPress for custom websites.

8. Wix

This is a cloud-based platform that has a wide range of available plugins and themes. It’s a great platform for creating HTML5 and mobile-friendly websites. It has a drag and drop system that makes it easier for you to design your website.

You have the option to pay to remove advertisements and have your own domain name. It has reasonably-priced premium plans that start at $4.50 a month. It’s cheap considering that it has elements for email marketing, eCommerce, and contact forms.

Get the Best CMS Platforms Today!

Choosing your CMS depends on your website needs.

Always remember that all these options have supporters and detractors. But if you’re deciding on which one is the best CMS platform among them, don’t decide without weighing your options in a thorough fashion.

If you’re looking for a great web development company, contact us today and we can talk. We offer digital consulting, local SEO, PPC, and web design. We have the right expertise and experience to deliver great service without breaking your budget.

Previous Entry Next Entry

Want to learn even more?

Whether you have a simple SEO question or want to have a deep conversation about your digital strategy, we’re all ears. Contact us today for a chat or to learn how we can put our digital marketing expertise to good use for your business.