Local SEO presence improved by 500%

27 Dec 2018 Dominic Comments Off on Local SEO presence improved by 500%

When working with retailers, I consider the full Omni Channel setup and particularly if they are appearing in local search – ie how easily does one companies results appear at a local level if, for example they have local stores?  In my experience, this is one area small to medium  sized retailers either do not focus on or get wrong. Local search results can result in a lot of extra website traffic plus it is a footfall driver in store (ie drive instore, data capture at till and transact online).

A recent company I worked with needed a complete review of their online presence and, aside from looking at onsite conversion, traffic and the commericals of the model, they also needed a lot of work done in terms of synchronising their online offer to their in store offer – ie there was a complete disjoint in terms of offers, strategy and brand activity.

After quickly establishing a strategy as suggested by PPC Austin to deliver growth, I wanted to focus on SEO to get non brand traffic to improve – you can read about this here – I also wanted to focus on improving Local SEO – to get more traffic to the website and to drive more footfall in store.

Local SEO plan

The original store page was not dyamic – ie it was just one page with every store listed within that page. The impact of this was that if someone was for example searching for that store in Glasgow and a Glasgow store existed, whilst it would show up on the site, this result would not be too visible on Google. Therefore the primary goal was to work on getting a dynamic version of each page to ensure all stores (120) were more visible to local search traffic (ie every store had it’s own page).

Local SEO focus benefits

Local SEO campaigns can increase your reach for new customers as well as providing more sales opportunities from better presence and integrating Google Reviews for each store page.

• Increase footfall into our stores by supplying contact info, opening times, images of the store and directions.
• Appear alongside and eventually above our competitors for non brand searches in local areas.
• Increase authority of our brand in the eyes of Google – and implement Googel Reviews.
• Dominate search results at a local leveal.

Local SEO phased plan

We approached the project in 3 stages to ensure we could consolidate all the relevant data from each store – some of which were being managed locally. A project this size needed careful management over the period to ensure accuracy.

Phase 1

Update and enhance store finder on VIP website and create Google My Business pages for all stores/kiosks. This includes gathering all data (opening times, images ect.). The link the My Business listings to VIP Store Finder pages. This is the current phase – and we are nearing completion.

Phase 2

Acquire reviews from customers (this is what gives the listing authority). This will increase visibility with local search. Once we have a substantial amount of review we can begin to look at Phase 3. This will be the next stage and will improve conversion as we start focusing on Google Reviews implementation for each store.

Phase 3

Meta Optimisation. Once all the pages have over 25 review, we can begin to further optimise these pages to be served for different local search terms. This will be an ongoing task where we can further enhance the images within the listings and their metadata.

What do Local SEO changes look like

The impact of the focus on improving Local SEO was across 3 main areas which Google use to push local organic seeach listings:

Impact of Local SEO changes

The Local SEO project (phase 1)  took around 4 months to complete – re-arranging all the current SEO accounts, setting up new accounts, adding and collating imagery – plus meta optimisation of account and working with SEO agency to ensure everything was set up correctly. With dedicated focus, we were able to drive significant improvements to the visibility of local stores presence.

What do these Local SEO improvements mean?

You can see the incredible results above from the impact of the work undertaken. By focusing on improving the store finder on the website, making every store page unique and improving visibility through natural search, we have driven more website traffic and store traffic.

Maps views – an incredible 3000% increase in the number of views of stores on maps.

Total searches – nearly 500% increase in the total searches at local level.

Phone call actions – over 800% increase in customers calling the inbound sales team.

Local SEO Summary

Any business with a stores presence needs to really focus on every part of their operation. Local SEO opportunities are something a lot of retailers forget however by applying a structured approach to reviewing and improving Local SEO, you can significantly improve your brand reach and so maximise website traffic.

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