Optimizing Product Catalogs for Multiple Brick & Mortar Locations

[RobertFisher]

Sorry Craig, 
I got pulled away literally. Knee surgery so I am at the mercy of others right now. (Humbling).

As to this particular set of issues here, let's discuss some things that may provide additional clarity for you:

To a certain degree you are asking about eCommerce as if this were eCommerce while also asking about localization which is antithetical to eCommerce as it is viewed today. (I will refrain from an example by name, but say think of many large computer or electronics retailers who have an online site and locations.) (Also, I have no desire to venture toward the conversation around various apparel colors please, but I do have a few opinions I will give here.)

There is nothing good or bad in what you are doing inherently. Using auto parts, you could be the local Bob's Auto Parts who grew and is now also facing the Internet and trying to come up with options. You could be a huge National Auto Parts Chain that lazily was pushed into the 21st century and realizing they own real estate all over must also deal with this "internet thing." There is nothing wrong in either. If you are an online concern who is trying to appear local by having a few pseudo local operations, I don't like it because you may be messing with a client of mine or two (So, yes, I have skin in the game) but there is still nothing inherently wrong with the attempt IMO.

The mixing of the two is causing you a problem but I do not think it is as big as you think.

What I do think is you may think you are not ranking for reason A, but actually it is reason something else. But, that is a real issue for you. So, let's try and approach it less globally and more specifically:

• From the eCommerce side you would not want to have duplicate product pages - but you are only in 5 markets. (Interpretation - I do not believe google will in any way penalize you for the product - broccoli seeds - being identical on all 5 city sub pages. (I would not use someone elses product page 5 times though.) Oh, proof is needed of my opinion... GWMT duplicate content issue per Webmaster Blog. 
• That said, the issue is ranking in individual cities for these products - (But you throw in a curve if at any time you are saying that some cities won't have the item all the time). So back to broccoli, if Rocky Mt. is not going to have broccoli seeds, I do not think you get a broccoli seed page there. But, assuming they all have Broccoli seeds and you use the same product verbiage identically, no problem. You are going to have different city verbiage though - **Is that correct? **If not, and you are just using the city in Places and Title Tags, you have a different problem in that you are not optimizing locally IMO. Your Rocky Mt. Page must differ from Fredericksburg from Charleston, etc. "That's a fact Jack."
• Next, you seem stuck on Business name first and you state: _"We see a substantial amount of their traffic coming in from direct company name queries, company name + location name,..." _So you are seeing a query for the company name and location or you are seeing a query for Company name + Location + Item or Company name + Item + location? Not Direct traffic - Queries from WMT?
• I think one problem is possibly not attaching enough value to the Title tag and URL structure. I would be surprised to see queries as you state (not that I am saying you do not, it would simply surprise me as that is not something I have seen before - and I have yet to see it all.) I cannot say enough that IMO its Product, location, Brand.
• Next, you are using place schema and that is great. Are you using review schema? Think about it and yes you can use both (Yes, we do.). Frankly I would use authorship as well, but you cannot have both authorship and review schema show in a serp. (That is why I suggest reviews) and most CMS (more common) have review plugins that work fairly well.

So, that is the approach I would take. Where you can locally, I would insure I had my own local pictures and they contain the appropriate Exif data, etc. In other words, I would nail my local optimization at every turn. I think then you will be fine with the products in those markets.

But, hey, it's just an opinion.

I would love to know how you handle and how it works out. After you are down the road PM me please. All the best, I'm gonna wheel on outta here.......

[RobertFisher]

Craig,

Listen to what EGOL says, especially this line: "There will also be a few types of products/services that I like to sell/provide.  So I would identify the targets on the basis of profit volume, success rate and services that make us whistle while we work.  I would attack these with  vigor."

When we interview our potential clients we go about his point this way: What do you sell, provide, etc. and, typically we get the laundry list. We then ask this: Every business sells a lot of things and over time they learn that they can sell a thousand widgets and it takes a ton of work and they only make $20. But, they can sell 20 hungtuns and it takes just an hour each and they make $1,000 per. We need to know which of these products are the hungtuns, the ones you really, really, want to sell.

Every business has just a few of these typically. I would rock these pages just like he says.

Best, great job as always EGOL.

Robert (Now I am really rolling out!)

[KeriMorgret]

To everyone who contributed to this thread, thank you! I'm humbled to see that there have been 12 responses in 12 hours to this question, on a Saturday, and on a (US) holiday weekend.

Thank you all for your answers, your time, your encouragement towards each other and towards all of the people in our community. I'm awed by all of you tonight.

[cballinger]

Thanks Robert. I think you really hit the nail on the head here. Your statement: "To a certain degree you are asking about eCommerce as if this were eCommerce while also asking about localization which is antithetical to eCommerce as it is viewed today." both describes my dilemma and my confusion. To your concern, we're squarely in the "local interest moving online" and not the "online interest appearing local" camp, we're also not specifically in the auto parts market.

Regarding your points:

• This point, I believe, really answers my question
• We will certainly attempt to localize each location + product page as much as possible. While it wouldn't be reasonable for us to be able to put a tailored blog article (or something similar) on 1000 products x 5 locations = 5,000 product + location pages, we could wrap the product with other store location level information like coupons, events, job opportunities, etc.
• I'm not really stuck on anything, it's likely we'll try variants of the title tag format you recommended, but I have suspicions that having the brand/company at the beginning of the title may be helpful for us. These are small local shops, some of which may been around for decades, while certainly not Nike, the local shoppers we're after know and trust the name. Imagine a search for "AEM Cold Air Intake" may result in "Bob's Auto Parts | AEM Cold Air intake - My Town, NC" which may result in "Oh, I didn't know Bob's carries AEM cold air intakes, I'll just drive down there and pick it up instead of ordering it online and having it shipped".
• The queries we're after aren't specifically company related, they're product ("AEM cold air intake") or manufacturer ("AEM My Town, NC").
• We're not currently using review schema, I'll certainly take a look at that.

Thanks again your thoughts and insight on this. This isn't a strategy I've found much information on (and I've done quite a bit of looking) so your recommendations are really valuable and appreciated. I wish you a speedy recovery!

[RobertFisher]

Keri,
I would appreciate it if while I am taking certain medications you refrain from emotional statements. People in this place know me as a former Marine and I am having to explain the difference between misty eyes due to allergies and that other thing that occurs to those less uh, you know, uhh strong manly Marine types.

Best to you and anyone whomever called themselves a Mozzer.

[EGOL]

lol...

Robert,  I am sure that you will be back to kicking ass by the end of this week.

Carry on!

[KeriMorgret]

Here's some manly maritime footage that might help with the allergies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iVaVqBjiqM

[RobertFisher]

84 Thumbs UP!!!!! Override the system Rand. This is true Rock and Roll...over.

Made my week. I have to have 5 of these. Really, really, really.

Oh, I am in trouble now with a new Hobby. Robert, Marine and now, Naval Captain!

[KeriMorgret]

You might want to check out my profile links.   My husband was just down in Houston in July for a national battle, but I don't see any more battles planned down that way for the rest of the year.

[MiriamEllis]

I just want to second Keri here in saying that this thread is AWESOME! I want to thank each of you for taking the time to contribute such carefully considered ideas. Just terrific.

And Robert, best wishes for a speedy recovery! Sending good thoughts your way.

[RobertFisher]

Thanks to you both. If anyone has any Unicorn dust or batwing hair, I could use it.

Still smiling cause I just love what we do.

Best

[BlueprintMarketing]

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone.

I wish you a speedy recovery Robert Godspeed.

Keri, thank you for your kind words.

Was that the Bismarck that was sunk in the video? I  have a business that sells plastic to Blohm & Voss that they use when manufacturing new ships.  I love remote control cars the ships look awesome.

17 years ago now I just turned 36 on August 24 I served in the German military as part of compulsory service or Wehrpflicht I did this for nine months although I live in the United States most of the time now I was born in Germany and still hold my citizenship. I never was deployed In an engagement. However I have the utmost respect for people who have served their country.

Creg,

I agree with what everyone has stated. It is fantastic advice.

To everyone.

I really enjoy search engine optimization as well and truly enjoy answering questions.

All the best,

Thomas

[Malika1]

Hi Thomas,

Before I ask in the community to everybody, I thought I would ask you since you know great deal of technical stuff. You helped me with Screaming Frog couple of months away.

Sorry OP for putting my question here.

Thomas, is it possible/good to have CDNs for different cities within the country to improve speed of loading? I just used GA to find out if there is difference in loading speed in different cities in New Zealand for a website and it seems like some of the cities have massively high page loading time than the other cities.

I do understand that some cities dont have super fast connections. I would like to know can I have CDNs for different locations within a country? Or am I thinking way too much stupid?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks

Malika