Local SEO for Multiple Locations - Is this the best approach?

[PelicanStateCU]

Hi everyone!

I previously have worked with single-location companies, and am now working for a company that is continuously growing and adding new locations. We are a financial institution that currently has 12 locations, and we should have 15+ locations by year-end 2017. Seeing as we have all of these locations, I thought the following approach would be the best for increasing our presence in local search. Our primary keyword is "credit union in location".

Our search traffic has increased heavily over last year, but is down from the beginning of the year. I've gone through and done the following:

• Freshened up the content on the main website
• Created pages for each of our locations around April-end
• Attributed these location page URLs to our Google My Business locations
• Verified each location
• Wrote unique content for each page

Our primary keyword rankings seem to fluctuate weekly. My next steps are to get our web design company to add the following:

• Structured Data on all location pages
• The ability to change SEO title and meta descriptions on location pages
• Sitemap (there is none currently, and I've been fighting them to get one added because it isn't needed.)

I also plan on utilizing Moz Local to manage our local listings. After this is done I plan on finding ways for us to build links for each location, like the chambers of commerce in each city and local partnerships.

Is this the best approach for our overall goal, and should I continue? Is there anything I should change about our current approach? I appreciate the help!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Frank!

Your plan sounds good to me. Be sure the set of location landing pages is easily accessible either through a top level nav menu, or via an indexable store finder widget. And, of course, aim for the highest quality content on each of these page. Have you got something like this in place yet on each of the location landing pages: https://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-creating-onsite-reviews-testimonials-pages

Getting your citation management going is critical (great to hear you'll be using Moz Local for this!). Don't overlook the importance of getting reviews. Google My Business reviews should be primary, and then focus on the other platforms your customers would commonly use to review businesses in each city in your industry.

And, finally, in 2017 (depending on the industry) you're going to want to delve into attribution within the Google My Business dashboard, if it's offered. Attribution, IMO, is about to get pretty big.

Hope this helps, and I do believe you've outlined a sensible plan. You might want to through our Local SEO Checklist to be sure you're firing on all cylinders: https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-checklist

Good luck!

[PelicanStateCU]

Hi Miriam!

Thank you so much for the informative response. I appreciate it a lot.

I'll make sure to stress the importance of our locations' reviews, and I'll definitely keep an eye on attribution.

I'll be checking out the blog post you've linked to, and I happen to have the Local SEO Checklist here that I've used as a starting point.

Thanks again!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Frank!

Honored to know our Local SEO checklist provided a starting point for your work. That's great! So glad to be of help.