The Ultimate Guide To Optimizing Your Local Landing Pages

Diana Trinh | Feb 25, 2019 4:14:15 PM

13 Min Read

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In a time where consumers can easily search for nearby businesses using their phone or desktop, it’s especially important for businesses to invest in local landing pages. If you own a business with multiple locations, you might already have local landing pages for your stores or offices. But are you using those pages to their full potential?

Local landing pages, or local pages for short, are web pages for every store location. They are important for brick and mortar stores with multiple locations, or for service-based businesses that want to inform their consumers about the geographical areas they serve.

Are your Local Landing Pages optimized

The challenge of creating an effective local landing page may be daunting -- especially if you have a large number of locations. This guide is designed to make the process a little easier. Read on to learn more!

Why should you create local landing pages? 

Here are the top benefits of having optimized local landing pages:

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  1. • Organic search optimization: This is the main reason to create local landing pages. Well-designed landing pages will surface on search engine result pages (SERPs) for local searches that contain terms relevant to your business. Organic results carry more authority with consumers and are more likely to lead to conversions than sponsored listings. What’s more, a top-performing local page linked to your Google My Business (GMB) profile helps you rank even higher in Google Maps!

  2. • Promoting unique content: No two locations for a chain or franchise business are exactly the same, and local pages provide a great opportunity to showcase the differentiating features of each of your locations.

    1. • If you have a franchise business model, franchisees can promote different specials or events.
    2. • If you have a service-based business, you can introduce your staff members, reviews, and services, as well as specify the service area you cover.
    3. •For chain businesses, unique content on local pages helps those pages stand out in search. Consider staff profiles, local links, and other differentiating content.
  3. • Lead generation: Integrate contact request forms, appointment scheduling, quote requests, a click to call button, and other features to turn your local pages into conversion opportunities for your business.

  4. • Reputation building: Consumers place a high value on reviews as a source of information that helps them make decisions about who to do business with. You can ask for and republish your own review content right on your local pages, giving consumers honest feedback about your business, and even better, providing Google with additional content that can really make your pages stand out in search.

  5. • Increasing your customer experience: Adding services right on your local pages like Uber or GrubHub can boost conversions and make it far easier for customers to transact business with you.

  6. Now that you’ve learned some of the benefits of local landing pages, let’s dive into some tips and tricks for creating effective pages from an SEO perspective.

6 Ways to Optimize Your Local Landing Pages

  1. 1. Incorporate keywords into the title tag of the page

Title tags are critical if you want search engines to understand what is on your local pages. A title tag is an HTML element that identifies the title of a webpage. Space is limited; Google indexes only the first 50 to 60 characters of a title tag. Include your specific business name and location, as well as the most important keyword you want to optimize for. If the keyword is already in your business name you don’t need to repeat it:

“Build-Your-Own-Pizza in Anaheim, CA”

If it isn’t, you’ll want to add the keyword separately:

“Giuseppe’s -- Pizza in Anaheim, CA”

Action Item: Think about what your customers are searching for to find your business, whether it’s “In-home caregiving services in LA county” or “Healthy vegan and vegetarian cafe in Orange, CA.” Compose your landing page title to reflect that intent.

2. Check image alt text and titles

Alternative or “alt” tags should be applied to all images on your local landing pages. Alt tags provide text descriptions that help search engines understand the content of your images. When you use a tool like WordPress to add an image to a web page, the tool will typically auto-generate a title tag based on the filename of the image. But alt text is often left blank, so unless you supply a description, a simple copy of your title text will appear. Ideally, the text in each alt tag should be different from the other tags on that page. Optimized tags should describe the image accurately, and if relevant, should include keywords you are trying to rank for.

Action Item: Add relevant alt tag content for all images on your local pages. 

Ex. “Cappuccino and mocha espresso drinks served at Cafe Dupont in Anaheim Hills, CA.

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3. Ensure all URLs are clean

Landing page URLs with code-like text such as www.yourbusiness.com/pasadena%20 can lower your ranking. Having a clean URL -- meaning a URL that uses natural language and is fairly easy for humans to read -- is important for search ranking for two reasons. Clean URLs meet Google’s usability standards, and also provide a better user experience for your customers by giving them an idea of what content they can expect from your page.

 SEO-optimized URLs for local landing pages should not contain:

  1. • The text “index.html,” once common on home pages
  2. • %20 and other “special character” codes
  3. • Uppercase letters
  4. • Numbers like “404” or any numerical sequence that would be meaningless to your page visitors
Action Item: Check through your location pages to confirm that all URLs are clean. Note the ones that need to be changed or edited. If necessary, modify your URL templates to ensure all URLs are human readable.

4. Standardize your name, address, and phone number (NAP)

Local pages are the calling cards for your local stores, so make it easy for consumers to get the information they are looking for at a glance. The information on your local landing page has to mirror that of your Google My Business profile. If the information is different, you risk confusing Google’s search index and your page visitors as well.

In addition, make sure your name, address, phone number, and business hours have the appropriate Schema markup. Schema markup helps search engines understand the content on your pages and can also help your content get indexed for voice search. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper tool is a great entry point if you’re new to Schema markup.

Action Item: Double check to make sure all locations addresses, phone numbers, and store hours are up to date. You don’t want to give your consumers the wrong information!

5. Optimize for mobile:

57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. In fact, Google’s “mobile-first” index may already be treating the mobile version of your site as the primary version for search indexing purposes. For these reasons, your local landing page should display correctly on mobile devices. Responsive, fast-loading sites are the best from a mobile perspective, but don’t just rely on responsiveness. Test your pages on iOs and Android phones and make any necessary changes to improve the user experience. Text should be large enough to be readable, page content should format itself neatly within the confines of the phone screen, and navigation tools should conform to the needs of mobile users.

Action item: Check to see if your website is mobile friendly with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test page.

6. Fast loading time:

Did you know slow load times can negatively affect your online revenue? Think about it: consumers nowadays are used to having everything they want instantly; they will go elsewhere if your website takes too long to load on mobile or desktop.

Action Item: Google’s mobile speed testing tool, powered by WebPageTest.org, provides a good indicator of the overall speed of your site. Check your speed and review the recommendations for improvement.
Now that you have a good understanding of some local SEO basics, let’s start creating content for your local landing pages! Before you start, think about what information you want your landing page to display. Don’t forget: You should be writing for your target audience. Think about what would appeal to your ideal reader and what information they would find interesting and useful. Depending on your industry, there may be different products, services, features, and other kinds of content you’ll want to showcase on your landing page.
 
A well-optimized landing page should include

• Location hours, including special hours for holidays or hours that may differ for specific departments

• A map with a pin indicating the store’s location

• A “get directions” CTA button underneath the map

• Nearby locations information about this location including name, address, and phone number tagged properly with Schema markup

• Photo content can be used showcase the store itself as well as the most popular products or services

Keep in mind, however, that a local pizza restaurant will display different information compared to a local gym or clothing store. Each business is different, but here are some of our recommendations. 

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If you’re in the restaurant industry, use your local pages to:

•  Highlight special promotions such as seasonal dishes, chef features, or discounts

•  Location features: If you have a dog-friendly patio, offer catering or host fundraisers make sure your customers know by displaying it on your page

•  Recent reviews : these could be native reviews or aggregated reviews

•  Social media channels: encourage your customers to connect with you on social media to grow your following

•  Most popular dishes

 Those in the Healthcare industry can use local pages to
 
•  Display the services offered at the location: examples could be emergency services or pharmacy services
 
•  Resources and help guides
 
• Insurance information: PPO or HMO
 
• Staff information

 If you’re in the retail industry, you can use local pages to
 
•  Show your customers your weekly ads or special promotions
 
•  Showcase your most popular items or available departments
 
•  Encourage customers to follow you on your social media channels and share their style
 
•  Mailing list integration so subscribers can get discounts and updates on local store promotions

No matter your industry, having optimized Local Landing Pages are extremely beneficial!
  
Download our Local SEO Optimization Guide to take your knowledge from beginner to advanced. This guide will walk you through a perfectly optimized Local Landing Page and also includes 26 different tactics you can implement right now to increase your online presence.
 
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Still looking for more help?

Managing and creating local landing pages can be overwhelming - especially when dealing with a franchise-model company. If you find your day is being spent:

• Updating local store hours for different locations

• Editing location pages to add specific store events/promotions

• Creating CTA buttons for each location and linking it to specific URLs

Then we can help! At Brandify, we offer Local Pages to boost your visibility, increase search rankings and turn online visitors into in-store customers. 

Here are some of the benefits you get when working with us:

•  Quarterly SEO reviews to ensure optimal organic performance

•  Continual optimization to keep you at the forefront of the latest trends

•  Highly customizable designs for seamless integration

•  Ongoing recommendations on SEO and markup best practices

Action Item: Contact Brandify today to discuss creating the perfect Local Pages for each of your business locations at marketing@brandify.com

Download our Local SEO Optimization Guide below!

Topics: Local Pages

Diana Trinh

Diana Trinh

Diana Trinh is a writer, traveler, and food enthusiast.

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