Local Results for Regional Headquarters
-
A potential client of mine is an appliance and furniture retailer in the region with several brick & mortar stores. They have their headquarters (and main store) located here in town, and then in several towns within an approximately 25 mile radius, they have satellite stores that specialize in certain products.
They see their best results both for hits and for in-store conversions from Google Local results, wherein people search for "Furniture" or "Television Stores" and they appear in the top two or three results. The problem is, the satellite stores have a limited inventory (they are actually brand specific stores operated by the client in a sort of franchise concept. Each one has their own website). The client wants to optimize for the headquarters, and I am considering various options.
I know that since they have a presence in these towns that are within 25 miles, I could set up an "area of service" listing by verifying their other stores as locations for the main store, which would get their central store and main website listed in the local results in those towns. However, if this project comes together well, I will also be doing SEO for their satellite stores. I don't want to list those locations as part of the headquarters store, and then later be unable to list them as their own business locations, as well.
Example:
- Customer in HOMETOWN searches "Furniture" - They get headquarter's local listing and website.
- Customer in SATELLITE AREA A searches "Furniture" - They get satellite's local listing and website.
- Customer in SATELLITE AREA A searches "Television Store" - Satellite Store A doesn't stock TV's, but the HOMETOWN store does. Customer gets headquarter's local listing and website based on "area of service" set up through SATELLITE STORE A.
Is there a way to do this? This isn't black hat at all, even if it seems slightly iffy. The store is still local (just less local than some others), and the company does sell those products. Just not at the satellite locations. Because of the Franchise style of the Satellite stores, they're not allowed to associate those products directly with the satellite stores in any way.
-
Hi 20_Creative,
Linda has given a very helpful and on-target answer here. Your potential client is certainly entitled to having more than one website (though I find that can be a sort of complicated approach vs. simply having a landing page on the website for each store) and a Google Place Page/+ Local page corresponding to each physical store, but each location is only likely to rank for its city of location, so this needs to be understood as you plan your Local SEO approach. I recommend a quick re-fresher on the Google Places Quality Guidelines:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
-
"I know that since they have a presence in these towns that are within 25 miles, I could set up an "area of service" listing by verifying their other stores as locations for the main store, which would get their central store and main website listed in the local results in those towns."
Actually that's not how local works and would cause problems on a few levels. The service area setting is only for businesses that go out to the customer - like plumbers. It's not for retail stores.
Plus setting service area does not help the slightest bit as far as ranking in other cities. It only shows customers how far you will drive to service them on-site.
In local if the competition is medium to heavy and decent size town you typically will only rank in the city you are located in. So the main store is not going to rank in city A unless competition is very low. You can test by searching City A + KW and see if only businesses from that city show or if listings show for the city the main office is in.
So best strategy is to optimize each location for their primary categories in the city they are actually in.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Confuse search engine result
When We check few keywords in Google.com from India, we can see these keywords perfectly listed in the first google search result pages. But when I checked these keywords in USA chorme, Mozilla, internet explorer Brower using one of our USA client pc using remote desktop, we really shocked that these keywords not listed in the USA country. Which means I am an Indian, if I check these keywords from India using google.com, I can see but if I check these keywords in USA country PC browser, I do not see. Please help us
Algorithm Updates | | Intellect0 -
Has anyone seen any research regarding URL structure correlating/impacting rank brain results?
We are currently writing some "rank brain-friendly" content and were wondering if anyone had seen or conducted research on best URL structure practices. Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks, Zach
Algorithm Updates | | Chris-2417530 -
Importance of Links for Local Search
**According to an article about the "no no's for local SEO" links are not very important. Here is an excerpt: "**Local SEO is very different when compared to traditional SEO. The importance of backlinks in local SEO isn’t as important. In other words, links simply don’t matter as much when it comes to local SEO. Googles’ local search algorithm treats links completely differently than its standard algorithm." How accurate is this statement? Wouldn't more links help your local pages rank better in non-local organic results such as the results outside of the new carousel?
Algorithm Updates | | pbhatt0 -
Local Vs National SEO Rankings
Hi Guys, I just had a quick question, is it truly possible to rank number one worldwide/nationally for a keyword phrase these days such as, Computer repair services. I'm not too concerned with the local serps that come up above the fold. I'm just more concerned, if Google is looking to serve more local results into the regular serps listing? I hope that makes sense thanks. Best, Peter
Algorithm Updates | | PeterRota0 -
Good results in Web Search, getting worse in Mobile Search
We are redirecting mobile visotors from http://www.1website.com to http://m.2website.com. 1website position in web SERPS is always the same. But mobile search brings less visitors now, 1website is loosing positions there. I know keywords volume is increasing. What could be the reason? (m.2website mobile version is high quality and have very good bounce, pageviews, time on site)
Algorithm Updates | | bele0 -
What is the best way for a local business site to come up in the SERPs for a town that they are not located in?
At our agency, we work with many local small business owners who often want to come up in multiple towns that are near to their business where they do not have a physical address. We explain to them again and again that with the recent changes that Google in particular has made to their algorithms, it is very difficult to come up in the new "blended" organic and Places results in a town that you don't have a physical address in. However, many of these towns are within 2 or 3 miles of the physical location and well within driving distance for potential new clients. Google, in it's infinite wisdom doesn't seem to account for areas of the country, such as New Jersey, where these limitations can seriously affect a business' bottom line. What we would like to know is what are other SEOs doing to help their clients come up in neighboring towns that is both organic and white hat?
Algorithm Updates | | Mike-i0 -
How do you properly target locally with anchor text?
I'm trying to figure out the best method for externally linkback anchors to my site for local results. What would be the best way to do this for some local SERP love: Cheeseburgers Chicago, IL Cheeseburgers Chicago Cheeseburgers Chicago illinois
Algorithm Updates | | Goetzman0 -
Location and how it affects search results
I'm ranking in the top 3 for a keyword in Google but when I change my location to a state of city I'm at the bottom of the page. Can anyone help? I made sure that the state I want to rank for is both in my title and body. The page has been up for almost a year and is a PR3. It is not my home page but a sup page under "areas we serve." I'm looking for someone who can explain how I can optimize for a state or city. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | donnye0