Local SEO has two main parts: Onsite and offsite. If you own a multi-location business, the opportunity for local SEO is great, and onsite optimization is very straightforward. The first step to improving local SEO is providing your site visitors with useful, unique information about each of your locations. The second step involves making sure to include a few technical details. Below are best practices for completing both:

• Unique location pages. Each business location should have its own unique page with location-specific content. If your website only has one page for multiple locations, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
• Easily indexed location pages with straightforward URL structures. Ideally, your parent location page should be linked from your homepage, and should provide straightforward links to each of your location pages from that parent page. If you have multiple locations in one city, use language that your target markets will be able to relate to outside of the generic city and state information. For example, if you have a business in downtown Richmond and one in the West End, you could structure your URLs to reflect that - /Locations/Virginia/Richmond/WestEnd and /Locations/Virginia/Richmond/Downtown
• Unique content. Start by asking yourself, “Does this page answer all of my visitor’s questions?”. If you provide a good user experience and include valuable information that is location-specific (address, phone number, hours, contact information, details that make that location unique, etc.), the search engines will be more likely to recognize it as unique and send relevant visitors your way.
• G+ link. Be sure to add a G+ icon to each of your location pages and embed a link to that location’s Google My Business page. It’s one more way to help make the connection for Google between your onsite and offsite elements.
• Include a map. Add a Google Map to your onsite location page. This will help your local SEO and it will also allow visitors to easily find directions to your business.
• Rich snippets. Rich snippets are the glue that holds all of your onsite and offsite optimization together. They are so incredibly vital to your local rankings, and can easily be knocked off of your site during regular site maintenance. Once you’ve added them, be sure to check once every 1-2 months to make sure they are still active.

If you own a multi-location business, the opportunity for local SEO is huge. Combine these onsite elements with offsite local directory submissions and you will be well on your way to increasing your local visibility. Want to learn more about local SEO? Contact us today to get started.