Blueprint for Multi-Location Local SEO Success

[Linda Buquet]

Do you manage SEO for a franchise or large chain? Want to get schooled on multi-location listing management?

Who better to learn from than Bill Connard, the VP of Local Search Solutions at Rio SEO.
Here are 2 great posts from Bill over at Search Engine Watch.

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<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2328576/Local-SEO-Listing-Management-A-Blueprint-for-Multi-Location-Brand-Success">Local SEO & Listing Management: A Blueprint for Multi-Location Brand Success - Search Engine Watch</a>

Ninety percent of consumers now use search engines to shop locally; these queries are happening from the desktop, on the mobile web, in apps, from maps, and even from GPS and other in-vehicle devices. Each and every internet transaction has a local connection, via the user on a device tied to a geo-coordinate.

Basically, wherever your consumer is – whatever device they're on – you need to be there when they are displaying intent and searching locally for either your brand or your service.

Local SEO and local listing management are two completely different tactics, yet completely intertwined, and the top brands should know that each is critical to ranking individual locations on Google. The search giant ranks multi-location brand websites based on three common sense factors:

- Best practice on-page validation factors (Local SEO)
- High quality local landing page user experience
- Relevant backlinks on directories and IYPs through listing validation.

Local SEO and SEM are time consuming and tedious, though. In order to achieve optimal results at scale, you need to automate processes where possible.

And here is a follow up post from yesterday

<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2343595/Local-Listing-Management-Priorities-How-Where-to-Syndicate-Local-Data">Local Listing Management Priorities: How & Where to Syndicate Local Data - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)</a>

Multi-location businesses face unique challenges in the management, optimization, and distribution of local business listing information. Accuracy is critical for every business, but those with a number of locations must also master scale.

It's easy to get bogged down in spreadsheets and a hodgepodge of tools. After all, most marketers struggle to see the ROI from local campaigns, so it can be difficult to justify putting budget here to streamline your efforts. You might simply rely on Yext, or have an agency do the work for you.

My last column looked at on-page validation or SEO factors, local landing page user experience, and local listing management together as components of your blueprint for multi-location brand success. This post will dive deeper into local data syndication – where to focus your efforts, how to do it properly, and scaling your efforts for maximum ROI.