For any business with multiple locations, creating location pages for each area is a great way to boost your local visibility. Not only is this beneficial for your potential customers, but it’s also an important local SEO factor with search engines. The content and keywords you include on these pages will help build trust and authority in your search rankings, better target your key demographic, and gain a boost in search rankings.
Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar business, service area business (SAB), or multi-location business, a location page with help boost your local SEO efforts and create a helpful user experience for local customers.
If you don’t have location pages on your website yet or are unsure if it’s properly optimized, this article is for you. Here are some best practices for correctly optimizing your location pages for SEO.
What are Location Pages?
Location pages, also known as local landing pages, are highly focused web pages within your site that encompasses all of your business’s key information for customers and search engines. Location pages make it easier for customers to find specific information surrounding your business’s location, and many of these components serve as ranking factors for local search results.
Information such as where your business is located, how to contact you, hours of operation, and so on are just a few must-haves to a location page. That said, there are certain components and specific content that also needs to be included regardless of your business’s location type (brick-and-mortar, SAB).
Location pages are ideal for these types of businesses:
- Businesses with multiple locations/brick-an-mortar that need to market in those various areas
- Businesses with services in several cities/zip codes that want to market to customers in and around those areas
So what exactly are search engines looking for, and how can your location pages be in local searches? Read on to find out.
1. Your NAP Information
Your business name, address, and phone number should be consistent across all of your online business listings and should be prominently displayed on each location page. You’ll also want to include your hours of operation and helpful CTA buttons to help customers easily take action.
It’s also helpful to embed a Google Map. That way, customers can easily get driving directions to your location if needed. It also signals to search engines that your business is located in that area or that you service that area. When embedded properly, the map can also show your Google Business Profile reviews it.
2. Optimize URLS and Images
Include your location within the. URL. If it’s possible to include the product or service as well as without getting too lengthy, then do so. Make sure to utilize proper URL structure with hyphens to separate each word.
Example:
https://website.com/lawncare-birmingham
In addition, you need to make sure your images are optimized for local SEO. Images should be named intentionally to describe what’s in the image along with the location of the image. You also need to use hyphens to separate each word. You also want to add alt tags to your photos when you unload them on your landing page. You want to try to use the keywords you are trying to rank for and the city name, but it also needs to describe the image accurately:
tree-removal-birmingham
3. Use Meta Tags and Headers
Use title tags and meta descriptions that include your business name, city, and keywords relevant to your business and location. Title tags provide users and search engines with a concise description of your location pages, including the name of the business, the geo-location, and the service or product, if applicable.
Meta descriptions are necessary to briefly describe what’s on your page. They are often featured in the preview snippets in SERP (search engine results page). So it’s important that your meta description copy entices users to click through to your site.
Header tags are like secondary titles that help structure and organize your landing page content. They also help better communicate the main topics of your page to search engines. These headers should also include keyword phrases and the location.
For example, if you include before and after images of a project your business completed, create an H2 above the images that mention the product or service and the area where those images took page:
[H2] “Before and After Tree Removal in Birmingham, AL”
4. Create Location-Specific Content
Another way to naturally work in location-specific content is to talk about the city itself and how your business benefits the area. Highlight things to do in the area, local landmarks, popular local events, and anything else that makes it a hidden gem.
You can also include your own pictures of the area, parks, buildings, and other original images that show you are part of the community. If possible, sprinkle in some of your relevant keywords within the written content and your images. Write unique and relevant content, including information about the local area and any events or promotions specific to that location for each location page you create.
5. Add Customer Reviews
Having a steady stream of positive reviews can significantly help with your local SEO. Make sure you consistently encourage customers to leave reviews for each of your locations and display these reviews on your location pages. Each online review is treated as a new piece of content. Fresh and informative content means a great deal to search engines as they want the most relevant content on their search engine results page (SERP). While online reviews work as trust signals to potential customers, they also improve your online rankings when used effectively.
6. Add Product or Service Descriptions
You don’t need a specific product or service page for each location, but you definitely need to make sure you list to consumers what you sell. You can use your location page to feature and describe specific product or service categories along with a brief section of each.
7. Use Schema Markup
Schema Markup is a vocabulary of tags or microdata that you can add to the HTML of your location pages to help search engines read and understand your web content. These tags allow search engines to crawl your page and identify text for the local information they need to pull for their search results. It’s important to leverage the power schema markup to provide additional information to search engines about your business, such as business hours, reviews, and contact information.
Final Thoughts
When local customers need to make a purchase from a nearby business, they turn to the internet. Location pages are a fundamental component of your local SEO strategy and serve as a vehicle to help local customers find your business. By implementing these strategies, you can help improve the visibility of your location pages in local search results and drive more traffic to your business.
Want to crush your local SEO game? Contact our team to learn how we can maximize your brand’s online presence and get more business.