A potential client of mine is an appliance and furniture retailer in the region with several brick & mortar stores. They have their headquarters (and main store) located here in town, and then in several towns within an approximately 25 mile radius, they have satellite stores that specialize in certain products.
They see their best results both for hits and for in-store conversions from Google Local results, wherein people search for "Furniture" or "Television Stores" and they appear in the top two or three results. The problem is, the satellite stores have a limited inventory (they are actually brand specific stores operated by the client in a sort of franchise concept. Each one has their own website). The client wants to optimize for the headquarters, and I am considering various options.
I know that since they have a presence in these towns that are within 25 miles, I could set up an "area of service" listing by verifying their other stores as locations for the main store, which would get their central store and main website listed in the local results in those towns. However, if this project comes together well, I will also be doing SEO for their satellite stores. I don't want to list those locations as part of the headquarters store, and then later be unable to list them as their own business locations, as well.
Example:
- Customer in HOMETOWN searches "Furniture" - They get headquarter's local listing and website.
- Customer in SATELLITE AREA A searches "Furniture" - They get satellite's local listing and website.
- Customer in SATELLITE AREA A searches "Television Store" - Satellite Store A doesn't stock TV's, but the HOMETOWN store does. Customer gets headquarter's local listing and website based on "area of service" set up through SATELLITE STORE A.
Is there a way to do this? This isn't black hat at all, even if it seems slightly iffy. The store is still local (just less local than some others), and the company does sell those products. Just not at the satellite locations. Because of the Franchise style of the Satellite stores, they're not allowed to associate those products directly with the satellite stores in any way.
