What you will learn in this post:
- The 5 most common challenges brands face when creating local landing pages
- The most important tools, features and areas of focus you should implement for all your local landing pages
- How Rio SEO’s Local Pages can help multi-location brands convert online search users to in-store customers.
How do most customers find the local products and services they want? They conduct a Google local search on their phones, tablets or computers. If you run a multi-location enterprise, then, your foot traffic for each location is directly linked to your local online visibility. In other words, you must leverage the trends and tools of Google’s local search offerings to increase awareness of your brand, stand out against your direct competition and entice more customers to step inside your doors.
One way to do this is by creating local landing pages that are unique for each store location and region. But simply creating local landing pages is not enough. These pages must be optimized for local search inquiries and lead customers from their initial search to an in-store visit. Here are five challenges brands often face when creating local landing pages and how Rio SEO’s Local Pages can help.
1. You are not appearing in relevant searches.
Word of mouth may still be a powerful force, but it will only bring in so many new faces. And not many customers will just stumble across your business location data. The bottom line is this: if consumers do not know you exist, they will most likely not enter your store. And today, showing up in relevant Google searches is the best way to let people know that you are just around the corner.
This means your landing pages (and online presence as a whole) must be built for search engine optimization (SEO) – more specifically, local SEO. Maintaining a strong local SEO ranking means your brand and location will appear in more searches relevant to your business. Rio SEO’s Local Pages are optimized for mobile users and feature-complete SEO integration, from schema to open graph markup to help customers more easily find your location in search inquiries.
2. You are using local pages, but lack features that give you a competitive advantage.
Staying on the first page of a relevant Google local search is an important step in achieving online visibility. However, you must also stand out against your direct competition in other ways. Consumers are not necessarily just looking for the business closest to them, they also consider the business with the best reviews, lowest prices and most detailed information. Keep these factors in mind when creating your local landing pages.
Rio SEO’s Local Pages can prominently feature engaging content and local business reviews so online users can easily access them. Additionally, you can gain valuable insights and analytics to track how well your local pages are doing and how consumers are interacting with your brand online. These features help give you the competitive advantage necessary for increasing customer engagement and foot traffic.
3. You are not leveraging the power of local pages for unbranded search.
Your brand is important and powerful, sticking in the minds of previous customers and making a strong impression on new eyes. But until a user knows your brand name, they will not conduct a search directly linked to it. Instead, they will run an unbranded search, such as “best mattress seller” or “cheapest cheeseburgers.”
These generalized searches are common, especially when the user is unfamiliar with an area or industry or is simply looking for a new business near them. Of course, you want your brand to appear after someone conducts a relevant unbranded search. Your local landing pages should be marked up with keywords and content that apply to these broader searches. The powerful SEO integration of Rio SEO’s Local Pages will help you leverage unbranded local searches. Local Pages can also be implemented for specialty products or services you may offer.
4. You do not have a simple way to push national events and promotions to each local store’s online presence.
When your business decides to run enterprise-wide promotions or events, this information must also be relayed to each location. Your local landing pages must be easy to edit so you can keep each one up to date during these promotions. Having inaccurate or outdated data on your landing pages means you are missing out on customer engagement opportunities.
Using Rio SEO’s Local Manager and Local Pages, all of your brand’s events, promotions and information can easily be delivered to each landing page in real time. You can also schedule events or promotions by intended audience, store, state or region, and choose single or multi-day pre-event scheduled publishing.
5. You are not effectively tracking or streamlining your customer’s journey from search to sale/in-store visit.
Ultimately, your goal is to drive more customers to your various locations. This not only requires maintaining an accurate local business listing, but also finding ways to encourage online users to venture to your store. To increase these conversions, you must have access to relevant user data, and streamline the customer’s journey from their online search to their in-store visit.
Rio SEO’s Local Pages grant you a customizable mapping tool that attaches to your local landing pages. You can also showcase products, vendors, retailers or service professionals with key search words to draw more customer attention. Plus, using our dealer locator tool, further engage your consumers with flexible search options, search filters, and driving directions. With all of these tools at your disposal, you can easily convince users to check out your location while making it simple for them to find you.
See how your locations stack up in local search—take advantage of a free local search audit.
