In Part 1 of this two-part series we shared five tips on how multi-location national brands can take advantage of trends in local SEO in 2023. Here we round out the list with five more, plus one bonus tip.
6 – Be near your customers.
When it serves up results to searchers, Google pays attention to where your business is located. It pays, then, to make sure your physical locations are near your target market—even if that means having satellite locations or mail delivery spots to signal your physical presence. This should also be a consideration when expanding or adding additional sites for in-person service. If possible, locate in or near city centers versus in the ‘burbs to get the best local organic results.
7 – Incorporate traditional marketing to boost your brand.
We’ve talked a lot here about digital marketing SEO efforts that can help you boost your local search results, but we can’t overlook the value of traditional marketing to support your brand. All of your marketing communication (MARCOM) efforts should be brand-supportive, aligned, and consistent. That’s the way to build a powerful brand that will aid in consumer awareness, preference and, ultimately, purchase.
8 – Create compelling local content that is evergreen: E – A – T.
Evergreen content is the “gift that keeps on giving” when it comes to building website authority. That means taking the time to create unique, high quality content that is localized and leveraging that content over time to continue to reap the benefits of local search.
The acronym EAT stands for expertise, authority, and thought leadership. These should be your focus as you create content that will serve the needs, provide the information, and answer the questions that your target audience has about what you have to offer. And answer it better than others in your market do.
9 – Personalize your content to the market.
We know it can sound intimidating to think about creating personalized content for dozens—even hundreds—of local sites. Keep in mind, though, that you’re likely to have some base content that is relevant across all of your locations. Your service descriptions, for instance, are likely to be entirely, or almost entirely, the same. A service is a service is a service.
Your task then becomes to add in a level of personalization to that standard content to help make it real, relevant, and local to get attention and action in the local market.
10 – Make sure all your business listings are up-to-date and relevant.
Too many local businesses focus too heavily on their Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) listings. And, yes, these are important and should be kept accurate and up-to-date. But there are a wide range of other potentially relevant business listings that can also help boost your authority—and EAT. Like Yelp!, for instance, or a myriad of industry and service-specific listings and review sites that could benefit your multi-location brand’s visibility in local markets.
Finally, an important “bonus tip” you shouldn’t miss.
Bonus – Don’t overlook the potential power of paid search/ads.
While we certainly believe that multi-location brands have a significant opportunity to better leverage their local SEO results, we don’t want to discount—or diss—the value of paid search and paid ads when relevant and realistic. When the price is right, and it fits with your overall strategy, this can still be a great way to augment your organic search efforts.
MarketSnare’s local marketing automation platform empowers marketers to efficiently scale local marketing programs across many locations through unique centralized tools and services designed for multi-location businesses. Take control of local websites, listings, reviews, social media, lead nurturing, and digital ads to create marketing programs that deliver unrivaled results in each local market.