Local SEO continues to assert its rise and this infographic recalls its benefits and best practices for retail networks. Today, 72% of consumers who search locally visit the nearby point (s) of sale. And 86% of people looking for a business location is searching via Google.
What is outlet’s local SEO?
50% of local mobile searches are for business info such as address
Local search helps to meet the specific needs of Internet users by displaying the closest sales points in the search results. Today, it takes a very important place in the customer journey, as these figures show:
34% of local searches on computer or tablet end up visiting the store during the day
91% of consumers who buy at least 1 point-of-sale product did a local search before.
For a good positioning in the results of this so-called local research, it is important to be properly referenced and exposed on a set of specific media. Starting with Google My Business and Facebook.
A first approach to correctly reference the points of sale
Here are some tips to have a better local SEO:
Enter all information fields correctly in Google My Business (address, opening hours, photos, …).
Be present on national and regional online directories (Yellow Pages, 118000.fr, 1307.be, …).
Manage customer reviews (solicit and respond). The number and average review score published on a store’s website influences local referencing.
Have a correct geo-location of your establishments.
Create a link to your website from your various local web pages (Google My Business page, Facebook page, …).
Store locator: the key tool of your local networking
The Store Locator is a point of sale search tool placed on the corporate website. It has two main functions: to improve the local referencing of the establishments and to increase the conversion of Search / Visits in a physical point of sale.
Best tips :
Create a specific URL (a web page) for each physical outlet.
Plan for clearly visible calls to action that activate in one click. Examples: route requests, calls to the establishment, reservations …
Display a responsive design, to facilitate navigation of the user on a smartphone and tablet.
Provide a simplified search framework so that the user can find the best place in less than 3 clicks (city, zip code and various filters).
Set up an automatic detection of the geolocation of the user to display the points of sale in the vicinity.
Facilitate the exploration, indexing, and display of your content by search engines with structured data (or markup scheme). Thanks to this, the algorithm can identify a phone number or address for example.
