How Multi-Location Businesses can Build Local Search Relevance to Maximize Local Marketing ROI

In today’s digital age, businesses that operate across multiple locations face unique challenges when it comes to marketing and building their online presence. One key factor that can make a big difference in their success is building local search relevance. In this article, we’ll explore why local search relevance is so important for businesses with multiple locations, and offer some tips on how to achieve it.

First, let’s define what we mean by local search relevance. Essentially, this refers to the extent to which a business’s online presence is optimized for local search queries. For example, if someone in a particular city searches for “plumber near me,” local search relevance would determine whether or not that business appears in the search results, and how high up on the list they appear. When a consumer searches for a product or service that Google determines has local intent, their algorithms reward businesses that have built trust, authority on the specific topic being searched, and have a high degree of relevance to the local market. After all, consumers in Austin, TX don’t care about pluming services offered in St. Louis, MO.

Achieving strong local search relevance requires a combination of factors, including:

• Showcasing a local web presence with a large content set that is unique, high quality (useful to consumers so they actually read it and get value from it), topically on point, and relevant to the local market using the name of the primary local market and other local information
• Internal linking strategy that has a clear main page for each topic (often referred to as a pillar page) with supplemental content pages related to the main topic that link back to the target pillar page
• Having a Google Business Profile listing for each location, with accurate and up-to-date information
• Ensuring that the business’s website is optimized for local search terms, such as including the name of the city or neighborhood in the page titles and meta descriptions
• Building local backlinks and citations, such as getting listed in local directories and partnering with other local businesses

So, why is local search relevance so important for businesses with multiple locations?

1. It helps customers find you: Perhaps the most obvious reason to build local search relevance is that it helps customers find your business when they’re looking for a product or service in their area. When you have strong local search relevance, your business is more likely to appear at the top of search results when someone searches for relevant terms in your area. This can help drive more traffic to your website and more customers to your physical locations. For example with organic results in Google, the first overall listing will get around 35% of the clicks and it goes down from there at a rapid rate where the 5th listing gets less than 3% of the clicks. So the difference between 1st and 5th place is at least 7x more clicks from people looking for what you do!
2. It boosts credibility and trust: When a business has a strong online presence with accurate and up-to-date information, it sends a message to potential customers that the business is reliable and trustworthy. This is especially important for businesses that operate across multiple locations, as customers may be less familiar with the brand than they would be if it were a local-only business. By building strong local search relevance, you can help establish your business as a credible and trustworthy option in each of the markets where you operate.
3. It improves local Google Business Profile (map pack) rankings: Search engines like Google are always striving to provide the most relevant and useful results to users rely on proximity to the searcher as a major ranking factor. When a business has strong local search relevance, it’s more likely to appear in the page one “map pack” listings for relevant local queries across a wider area in the markets services from each location. This, in turn, makes it easier for potential customers to find the business at a greater distance from their physical location.
4. It drives more foot traffic: Finally, having strong local search relevance can help drive more foot traffic to each of your physical locations. When someone searches for a relevant term in your area and your business appears at the top of the results, they’re more likely to visit your location than if you didn’t appear in the page one search results at all.

So, how can businesses with multiple locations build and maintain strong local search relevance? Here are a few tips:

• Use local marketing automation tools such as MarketSnare to deliver a steady stream of high quality, unique, and locally relevant content to build local relevance across each location. Without the use of local marketing automation tools the amount of labor to manage this effort is to high, but without it, multi-location brands will struggle to compete with local businesses or national brands that are effectively leveraging this technology.
• Make sure each location has its own Google Business Profile that is actively being utilized to respond to customers, is publishing content updates and has timely and accurate information. Once again, the use of local marketing automation technology can make this effort much more efficient.
• Optimize your local websites for local search terms, including the names of cities and neighborhoods where your locations are based
• Build local backlinks and citations by getting listed in local directories and partnering with other local businesses
• Regularly monitor and update your online presence to show that you are an authority in your industry and local community.

By following these tips, businesses with multiple locations can improve their local search relevance and ultimately drive more traffic and sales across all of their locations at a fraction of the cost of paid search ads. In our experience, when multi-location businesses properly leverage their size and utilize the right tools and strategies, they can generate organic search leads at 1/30th the cost of paid digital ads. Most multi-location organizations are only scratching the surface of their local organic search opportunity which has the potential to be a game changer for their organization. By replacing a small percentage of their digital ad budget with an effective local organic program using some of the technologies mentioned in this article, marketers can dramatically improve their results without increasing their marketing spend.