It can be tempting to try to save by creating an in-house locator but consider the trade-offs. Aside from a basic search platform and navigation service, locators should provide enhanced services such as IP and GPS detection of user location in order to achieve peak performance. You must ensure that your location data is always up to date and accurate and that your locator conforms to Google’s latest local and mobile SEO requirements. Many companies find that the benefit is an effective lead generation of working with a locator specialist far outweighs the cost, though of course this decision will be based on your company’s individual needs and priorities.

A strong store locator gives your customers all the information they need to find their nearest store, which increases their likelihood of visiting and spending there. It also speeds up their research process and removes potential frustrations

By integrating a store locator into your website, you can use website analytics tools to monitor where exactly people are searching from, their demographics, how often they search, and a lot more. You can use this data to continually improve and optimize your store locator, and understand your customer base in much more detail. 

Through the way it is structured, a store locator on your website also improves your business’s local search rankings, giving you a key advantage over your competitors when it comes to customer acquisition. By having a store locator with clickable results that push to a dedicated page for each store location, you significantly increase your chances of ranking higher for both ‘direct’ searches (where people specifically search for your brand) and ‘discovery’ searches (where people search for generic products and services). Having well-ranked pages for each store location in turn boosts rankings for both your main website and online listings with providers like Google My Business.