Did you know that four out of five people’s Google searches are local? According to Forbes, these people use Google to meet a need in their local area. 

If you run a business with multiple locations, optimizing your local SEO for multiple locations boosts your online presence in these areas and attracts local customers. In this blog, we’ll discuss the challenges of multiple-location SEO and practical strategies to achieve remarkable results.

Challenges of Local SEO for Multiple Locations

As you attempt to expand your reach across various regions, the challenges of local SEO for multiple locations become increasingly complex. In general, they boil down to these three.

• Tailoring Area-Specific Strategies. Crafting customized SEO strategies for different locales requires extensive research and understanding of the local market.
• Maintaining Consistency Across Locations. Ensuring uniformity in business information and brand messaging is crucial for building trust and requires meticulous oversight.
• Avoiding Duplicate Content. Offering the same services across multiple locations increases the risk of duplicate content, which can lead to penalties from search engines.

Creating a Solid Foundation

Google Business Profile (GBP) Setup

Google Business Profile is crucial for managing local SEO for businesses with multiple locations. It allows your business to appear on Google Maps, along with pertinent contact information. A verified GBP listing can also rank on the Local Pack, often the first thing a user sees in local search results. 

If you have ten or more GBP listings for the same business, you can verify and manage them in bulk by creating a location group. Sharing account management access with your teammates is also possible with this feature.

URL Structure

Building a logical URL structure makes your page more organized and user-friendly. Also, it ensures that search engines can crawl and index each location page. 

Here is an example of how to structure URLs for multiple-location businesses:

• Page for All Locations: yourbusiness.com/locations 
• Page for a State: yourbusiness.com/oh/
• Page for a City: yourbusiness.com/oh/cleveland
• Page for Store Number 1: yourbusiness.com/oh/cleveland-1
• Page for Store Number 2: yourbusiness.com/oh/cleveland-2

Scaling Your Local SEO Efforts

Keyword Research and Targeting

Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of SEO at any level. When managing multiple locations, it’s even more important to customize your approach to suit each area. 

Here’s how to do local keyword research.

1. Start with Your Services. Your core services should be the foundation for your keyword research efforts across all locations.
2. Check for Local Intent. The fastest way to do this is to Google your service. If the search results feature a Local Pack and local business websites, the local intent is present.
3. Prioritize Low-Difficulty Keywords. Local keywords often exhibit low search volumes. Hence, it makes sense to prioritize keywords by difficulty. Focus on less competitive keywords to increase the likelihood of ranking well.
4. Add Keyword Variations. These tend to be more specific and indicative of user intent. Using them helps you capture niche audience segments and improve the overall relevance of your content to local search queries.
5. Group Related Keywords on a Page. Organize related keywords into thematic groups and assign each group to a specific page on your website.

Localized Content Strategy

Once you’ve identified your target keywords, it’s time to create localized content.

Here are some tips to craft localized content.

• Know Your Audience. Research your target audience’s demographics, interests, and preferences to create content that resonates with them.
• Adapt Your Format. Different audiences prefer different content formats. Some prefer written articles; others gravitate towards videos, podcasts, or infographics.
• Localize Your Language. Consider linguistic nuances and sensitivities that may vary across different locations.
• Customize Your Topics. Research trending topics and events in each location and incorporate them into your content strategy.
• Engage Your Audience. Encourage feedback, comments, and discussions, and actively participate in conversations with your audience.

Link Building

Consistent high-quality backlinks can improve search rankings and establish your business as a trusted local authority. Here are some of the effective ways to secure local backlinks. 

• Write Guest Posts. Contributing valuable content to your locality is an effective way to build local backlinks.
• Swap Links with Local Businesses. Identify complementary businesses within your locality with websites, blogs, or online directories. Reach out to them and propose a link exchange where you link to their website, and they can link back to yours.
• Work with Online Influencers. Collaborating with online influencers can be a powerful way to secure local backlinks. Collaborating involves sponsoring their content, providing them with your products or services for review, or co-creating content. In return, the influencer can feature your website or brand on their platforms.

Managing Reviews and Reputation

Review Management Tools 

Reviews hugely impact local SEO rankings. According to a PowerReviews report in 2021, 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. With customers heavily relying on online testimonials, managing online reviews—whether positive or negative—is a must to build an online reputation.

Review management tools like Broadly, Bandwatch, Reputation, and Yext

aggregate reviews from platforms, allowing you to track and respond efficiently. Real-time review management enhances customer engagement and online reputation.

Consistent Review Responses

Responding to reviews on each of your location pages fosters a positive atmosphere, encouraging potential customers to buy your products or book your services.

Follow these tips to craft professional responses.

1. Acknowledge Feedback. Identify and acknowledge specific points when responding to a review.
2. Address Concerns Directly. Be professional and empathetic when responding to a negative review.
3. Offer Solutions. If they raise any concerns, provide solutions or steps to address them.
4. Personalize the Response. Call customers by their names to add a personal touch to your response. 
5. Highlight Positive Feedback. Show appreciation by recognizing positive customer reviews.

Local Citations and Directories

Listings with incorrect NAP (name, address, phone number) information can hurt your traffic. Consistent NAP information can help customers find and contact you.

Here are tips on managing local citations across various directories.

• Know All Your Listings. Check if their content is accurate.
• Use a Paid Data Facilitator. It helps maintain and monitor accurate citations for you. 
• Use Consistent and Accurate NAP Details. You can use variations of your NAP details if they do not affect the NAP consistency.
• Claim and Verify All Citations. Doing this helps establish trust and prove your business’s legitimacy.

Implementing Technical SEO Best Practices

Structured Data Markup

Structured data, particularly schema markup, gives search engines clear information about your web page, thus increasing the chances of discovery for local searches. 

The below schema properties are required for validation.

• URL
• Business name
• Business hours
• Business telephone number
• Store image
• Business logo
• Business address
• Geo coordinates
• Zip codes of areas served
• Main content

XML Sitemap Configuration

An XML sitemap is a file containing your website’s essential pages. Having an XML sitemap ensures that Google discovers and indexes each page accurately.

Here are some best practices when implementing XML sitemaps.

1. Keep Your XML Sitemap Up-to-Date. Constantly update the lastmod-tag timestamp after any page modification if you use this feature.
2. Only Include Indexable Pages. Exclude all URLs that point to redirects and missing pages.
3. Stick to the Default Location and Filename. Doing this makes it easier for search engines to find them.
4. Reference the XML Sitemap in Your robots.txt File. Including the robots.txt file ensures that search engines can find you easily.
5. Stick to the Size Limits for XML Sitemaps. Ensure your XML sitemaps don’t contain more than 50,000 URLs and the uncompressed file size is only 50 MB. 

Utilizing Automation and Tools

Local SEO Management and Tools

Local SEO tools simplify your processes and collect valuable information across prominent platforms.

Below are some of the best tools.

Tool	Best Features
Whitespark	Citation finder tool Local rank trackerReputation builderReview monitoring
Yext	Knowledge ManagerYext PagesYext Listings
ReviewTrackers	Solicit feedback from customersMonitor reviews from various sourcesTrack location performance
Moz Local	Data VisualizationKeyword Rank TrackingNegative Feedback ManagementResponse ManagementReview MonitoringReview NotificationSEO AuditBacklink Monitoring

Reporting and Analytics

Continuously monitoring helps you determine what’s effective and what requires improvement. You can analyze the data and change your optimization energy to achieve better results. 

Reviews, unlinked brand mentions, backlinks, and social media engagement are some metrics to look at and analyze.

Conclusion

As you can see, managing local SEO for multiple locations entails a significant amount of work, from tailoring strategies to managing reviews and listings.

Marketing Done Right understands this challenge. Our comprehensive local SEO services can take this off your plate and drive results. With our expertise, you can streamline your SEO efforts and enhance your visibility across all locations.

Ready to take your local SEO strategy to the next level? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business succeed in the competitive landscape of multiple-location SEO. Let’s work together to elevate your online presence and attract more customers.