Some people allow their site to sit on the web like a glorified business card. But smart business owners know that their website is the most valuable employee they have. They can put their site to work, saving them money in the long run by automating tasks and integrating business solutions. It can also be a powerhouse sales tool when optimized for search engines and user experience. One tool you should have on your website is a business locator.
Business Locator
If you have more than one brick and mortar location, having a location page is an essential complement to your local SEO because it is a great way to target location-specific long-tail, location-specific keywords.
Hirshfield’s
One great example of a store locator the one Iceberg Web Design built for Hirshfield’s. For this page, the customer has several ways from which to choose a location.
- If they want to allow location services, GPS will enable the list to automatically show the closest stores to their location at the top of the left sidebar. You can accomplish similar results by putting in the zip code of the area you are looking for.
- Perhaps they have a favorite store already. In the lower-left is an alphabetized list of links to all Hirshfield’s stores.
- You can also look at the interactive map. The map links to store hours and other information a customer may want to have.
For a business locator as in-depth as this, it is important to ensure that all locations have a unique page for that specific store only. The address and GPS location allow location services to find the store that the customer is looking for quickly.
Stonegate Builders
Thinking outside of the box can lead to new ways of using old tools. For Stonegate Builders, a Division of Gonya Homes, we built a location page to help potential homebuyers find where they had available homes for sale. The way theirs works is through a map that shows the various neighborhoods with Stonegate Builders homes for sale. When you click on the link, it takes you to a page where you can learn about the community, the houses in it, and how to get more information.
Stonegate Builder’s location page is different from Hirshfield’s because each of their customers has their own unique buying habits. In the end, it comes down to what the customer is going to respond to best.
Select Eyecare
Select Eyecare is an eye care clinic with an in-house lab and three locations in the northern Twin Cities metro area. Iceberg Web Design created a location page for Select Eyecare that had their locations on a single page as part of the company website. We chose to have their location page laid out this way because it best suits their needs and customers’ needs.
Avoiding Doorways in Your Location Pages
It’s essential to make your location page unique and useful for users, and if possible, have one location for each of your physical stores. That’s because of something known as “doorway pages.” This black hat SEO tactic can become a trap that is easy for you and your customers to fall into. To learn more about doorway pages, read this article by Google Search Central. Follow Google’s recommendations, and have a separate Google My Business page for each location.
To avoid any pitfalls and reap the rewards of a business locator page, it is best to use an experienced website developer like Iceberg Web Design. We would be happy to meet with you and discuss your next project. Contact us today!