It’s no surprise that many businesses struggle with local presence management today, as there’s a lot of outdated and just-plain-wrong data linked to businesses online. When a customer accesses that bad data then gets lost trying to reach a location, 67% of them will lose trust in the business. The multi-location business faces the same challenges as businesses with only one location, and they must also manage online data for each of their stores or locations. Whether a business has two locations or two thousand, there’s a lot to think about at once.
So what’s a multi-location business to do? For starters, add a store locator map to the website. A good store locator makes it fast and convenient for customers find directions to the nearest location – and a great store locator generates unique landing pages to improve the business’ local SEO.
How Multi-Location Businesses Can Use Location Landing Pages as Microsites
Creating a landing page for each location is a definite step in the right direction. However, to get the most value from these landing pages, multi-location businesses should treat them as a microsite for each location.
Simply generating a page for each location is not enough; each page should have dynamic content that store owners can edit, individual location data specific to the store, and a unique URL that search engines can index.
When creating these landing pages it’s important to make sure you’re not actually creating doorway pages. If you don’t know what a doorway page is (or how to avoid them), you need to do your research!
Getting Started with Location Landing Pages
1. Give Each Landing Page Its Own URL
Generating individual landing pages with unique URLs makes it easier for Google to find and index business information and location data – especially if the pages are SEO-optimized for their specific location. This helps the business perform better in local search results when potential customers search for them online. The increased visibility allows more searchers to discover nearby locations, thereby driving web traffic to the landing page as well as foot traffic to the physical store.
2. Place NAP Data on the Landing Page
Each location should have its own name, address, and phone number listed on the landing page. As always, it’s important to keep NAP data consistent and accurate across all business listings for the location (including local directories and Google My Business listings).
By allowing business owners to easily update location details, multi-location businesses minimize data inconsistencies that damage online presence, making it easier for customers to find nearby stores, get in touch, or drop by.
At my company, Advice Local, our Store Locator product makes it easy for multi-location businesses to create and manage location landing pages.
3. Offer Location-Specific Promotions and Coupons
There are plenty of reasons multi-location brands should have a unique landing page for each location, but here’s an often-overlooked benefit – the ability to drive local sales. Location landing pages can contain photos, team bios, and the other details that make a location unique, and they can also highlight special offers.
When a customer visits the landing page for their local store, they should be able to instantly see if a promotion is still valid and if there are any specials they should come in to take advantage of.
Note that phrase above: come in to take advantage of. Again, this demonstrates why it’s important for location data to be accurate. And “close” is not good enough here, go for 100% accuracy every time.
To ensure accuracy and get those customers-to-be through the right door, ensure you have a complete local landing page. Take advantage of the different types of content the business can showcase.
What to Include on a Location Landing Page
- Location-specific info – address, manager name, products sold, etc.
- Images of the location
- Store-specific offers, coupons, and notice of upcoming events
- Customer reviews for the location
- Areas serviced by the location
- Hours of operation (include pertinent holiday or seasonal hours)
Now that you know all about the benefits of creating location landing pages and what kinds of information to include, it’s time to start creating some great landing pages! Local presence management for a multi-location business is doable with the right tools and process in place.
Are you convinced of the necessity of having a landing page for each location? Yes or no? Share your point of view in the comments below!
