You may already know that having a unique, descriptive URL for each page within your site is a good SEO strategy. But, did you know that it’s just as important to do this for each of your store locations? If your business has multiple locations, providing each with its own identifying URL will optimize them for maximum visibility.
The key is to treat each location as its own individual site. Here are 5 essential local SEO tips for how to get all of your stores found on the web:
1. Give each location its own webpage.
As Matt Cutts once said in a blog on this topic. “If you want your store pages to be found, it’s best to have a unique, easily crawlable url for each store”. It could look like this:
www.yourcompanyname.com/menlopark
If you have many locations within a state, here’s another option:
www.yourcompanyname.com/california
then links to specific locations, such as:
www.yourcompanyname.com/california/menlopark
Cutts describes the ideal scenario as an HTML sitemap that leads visitors to the web pages for each of your stores, with each store then having its own unique URL.
2. Link internally.
Not only should each locations' pages be crawlable from your company’s home page, they should have multiple internal links that point to other pages on your site. Ideally, these links will be anchored to your most important keywords.
Better yet, create separate pages for each product or service, each with its own URL, and link to these pages from other pages.
3. Include your address and phone number.
In fact, adding this information to each location’s page more than once actually helps search engines index them for local search. So, include addresses and phone numbers for each store twice—near the top and at the bottom of the page.
4. Submit each location’s information to data compilers.
This includes Google Maps, Google Places, Yahoo Local and other online yellow pages directories. Be sure to list phone numbers, addresses, brand information, hours, product and services details and payment methods that are accepted.
5. Get backlinks.
External links are a powerful SEO tool. Encourage others to link to each of your locations’ sites by joining local chambers of commerce, industry organizations and local groups in your niche. When relevant sites link to you, your pages gain clout with search engines.
Of course, there are other ways to entice the search engines to your locations’ pages. Harness the power of social media. Make it part of your daily marketing strategy to post all specials, pictures and posts to your Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus accounts. Make sure that each of your locations offers specials specific to its city or region. Write blog posts and articles that point readers back to your pages.
Optimizing a website for businesses with multiple locations means paying attention to the details that affect search engine visibility. Try these tips to ensure that the spiders crawl your site and find everything you want them to find. Don’t forget—if they can’t find your pages, people will have a hard time finding them as well.
