Local Listings SEO: Which multi-location retailers are doing a super job with local listings? I'm also interested in finding retailers who are using schema.org microdata format to structure their store-level data.
-
Do you know of any enterprise level restaurant or retail chains that are doing a great job with their local listings content? Just looking for some links/examples of best practice executions. Also, I'm very interested in finding retailers or other multi-location businesses that are using schema.org microdata format to structure their local store location data.
-
Good for you for finding at least two, Sonia!
-
I am surprised you found 2/10.
-
FYI - in case anyone is interested...
- Costco.com store finder uses Schema.org/store and /postaladdress on individual warehouse locator pages
- Walgreens.com uses Schema.org/pharmacy, /postaladdress and /local business on individual store finder pages
I also looked at JCPenny, WalMart, Target, WaWa, Macys and several others and was unable to confirm that they use Schema.org or other formats to structure their store finder location data for the semantic web. I'm still looking for examples in case you happen to know of any especially good ones.
Thanks!
Sonia
-
Let me see...
Getting a group of franchisees to agree on marketing could be replaced with herding cats, pulling teeth, root canal, flat tire on freeway, all at the same time and you would avoid a lot more headaches.
Best
-
Thanks, Robert. I really appreciate the tip. I do think that it is an issue that is probably hard to gather a lot of franchisee support around.
-
Sonia
I do not disagree. I was a large equity holder in a national franchisor and my experience was that the franchisees still had say in what happened on the local level. Similarly, we have a client who has franchisees and even though the franchisor controls the portion of the fees that are allocated contractually to the "local" spend, the franchisee's have a committee that rules on a lot of that.
With something like McDonald's where they seem to have and exert a lot more control, it would make sense that they handle it (as you said, they achieve economies that way).I would suggest at least an email to Jon Schepke at SIM and you are free to let him know I suggested you contact him. If anyone would be able to give an expert answer to your query, it would be Jon.
Great question Sonia,
Robert
-
That's true in some cases where franchisees run a lot of locations, but largely the national company is responsible for national media buys and investments - which should include local search presence at scale.
-
I was pondering this and I think on the large restaurant chains they run into a problem we used to run into when I was involved with a franchise group. You have all these locations that are owned by individuals and not one person/group owning everyone in a larger city. It is very difficult to convince each one to spend money, etc.
Just a thought,
-
Hi Robert,
Thanks so much for weighing in on this. I really appreciate the wider input on this topic, as my own view could be slanted by the fact that I tend to try to shop small local brands whenever I can. Even my favorite grocery store is an independent one - hard to find these days in the USA. Interestingly, Sonia started two threads on a similar topic, and on her other one, David Mihm was able to point out one larger retailer that is doing a good job...REI.com. Check out their location pages. I was impressed!
But when it comes to restaurants, I just have not seen anything like this in looking at the biggies like fast food chains. I find this interesting, because with their enormous incomes, they would certainly have the money to do this, but as things currently are, there's not much incentive to do so. It's easy to find McDonald's or Burger King in any town, regardless of a lack of Local SEO.
Appreciate your feedback. Maybe someone can dig around and find the food franchise that breaks the mold on this
-
Miriam,
You are so correct on this. It always amazes me how many large companies rely on their brand, people know them, etc. and are just unwilling to even look at the improvements they could make with SEO.
One of the first people I ever heard the term SEO from was Jon Schepke who with his cousin Steve were co-founders of Meandur Internet (Proceed Interactive). Jon is CEO of SIM Partners and I know they do local on an enterprise level. Out of curiosity, I looked at their clients page and did not see any retailers that I recognized. What stood out is that companies involved with destinations are all over local.
I do not see larger retailers who are making an attempt at really making local work for them (and you and I know it would), no microdata, etc. But, when things start going a bit South, I am guessing we will see it then.
Best
-
Hi Sonia,
This may be a toughie because, in my experience at least, most enterprise level chains have pages like this to help you find a local location:
http://www.bk.com/en/us/restaurant-locator/index.html
You type your location into a search box and are typically only shown a map and address. There isn't really content here. Maybe someone in the community knows of someone who is doing this better, but it seems to me that big franchises can lean on the strength of the branding and expect Google to 'figure it out' rather than having to make the efforts smaller businesses do. Does the community agree with me on my take on this? I'd like to know!
Regarding the Burger King results page, I can't even find the address I've searched for on the page source code, so I can't tell if they are using schema.
You've asked a good question and I'll be interested to see if anyone can provide an example of what you're looking for.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Tracking Phone Numbers in Google My Business Listings and Beyond
Hey all, Wanted to run something by you. I am getting pressed to use tracking phone numbers for all of our GMB pages for over 100 locations across the country. Has anyone done this for their own listings or for their clients? Because I will have to do it for GMB, this means I will be sending these same phone numbers out to the other major directories and data sources around the web. The phone numbers do contain the local area code for each city and do directly connect our customers to their specific location without any kind of redirecting. How is Google looking at this? I have read before it is a no-no but have also read it is not a big deal. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! -Ben
Local Listings | | Davey_Tree0 -
How do I measure the results of my local spam crackdown?
I've recently been cracking down on some spammy listings. How do I measure the success? Can I only do so with a third party tool like Moz? Thanks!
Local Listings | | DigitalMarketingSEO1 -
Should I claim a non-local Google business listing?
If I have a business which is non-local, but has one location and is showing up with the address and directions already in the knowledge panel, should I claim the business? Eg: the company manufactures a single product and ships directly to customers all over the world. On the one hand, of course it seems I should claim it and get more control. On the other hand, part of that process is setting a service area and I worry that by doing so I may be making the company seem less relevant outside the service area in Google's eyes.
Local Listings | | PlusROI0 -
Creating a new Google local business page vs. adding additional locations to an existing Google business page?
We are a service company that both travels to customer locations and serves customers at our business location. The split is about 80/20 (travel vs. serve customers on location). We just opened up a new office in a city about 1 hour away from our main location. The question is, should we create a new business page and account on Google local or should we add the new location to our existing google local account? The new location has a separate website, phone number, email etc. My inclination is to create a new local business account/page on Google. Has anyone experimented with both solutions and tested which option creates more powerful local signals for ranking?
Local Listings | | Vspeed0 -
SEO strategy local service area business
Hello, I run a service area business that rents and delivers moving boxes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our service area spans 75 cities and many millions of people, and several major metropolitan areas, including San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, but there are also numerous smaller cities that collectively represent a large number of monthly searches. I would like to rank well for the higher level search terms, like “moving boxes” and “moving supplies”, but also city-specific searches like “Moving Boxes San Francisco.” What’s unclear to me is the best strategy for organically ranking on the specific cities in our service area. As I see it, it seems there are several approaches. Is the best approach to either to: A.) Create clean “universal” web pages for pricing, products and landing pages and use blogs to build up content keywords for each of the cities B.) Create 10-15 city-specific web pages with the hope they'll each rank well (e.g. Moving San Jose, Moving in Cupertino) C.) Other? Thanks for your comments.
Local Listings | | bruteboxmoving0 -
Is there a way to see if a Bing Places Listing is verified?
For example, Google has a badge for verified listings. I was wondering if Bing had something similar.
Local Listings | | bks_seo0 -
Map-pack results for multiple locations in the same city
We just started working with a local business with several offices across Virginia. All of their locations have G+ local pages, and all rank pretty well in map-pack results for their respective cities....except for one location. Two of their offices happen to be in the same city. One ranks well in the local pack, and the other one is totally buried. This is the only location that doesn't rank in the map-pack for its target local queries. This company still has a TON of work to do to clean-up their citations and improve their G+ local pages across all the locations, but I'm wondering if there are any best practices for handling two locations within the same city...we obviously want both offices to rank in the map-pack, and don't want to do anything that might hurt the one that is currently ranking well. I'm confident that generally cleaning up their profile across the board, and adding new citations for all locations would be beneficial, but would appreciate any suggestions or best practices for getting both locations in this one city to perform well. Thanks!
Local Listings | | djreich0 -
Google Local Search
I have a customer who is frustrated that Google local search seems to favor businesses that are closer to the center of the city. He wants to be on the local results area on the SERP with his (keyword + city, state). His website is optimized, Google+ is using the keywords, more reviews than his competition and his MOZ local rating is 88.. It seems the only problem is his business is on the edge of town(same zip code). Google fills the local search area with businesses that are "downtown". Is there a way to overcome this?
Local Listings | | seomn0