Local SEO for Multiple Locations: How to Manage Several Branches Without Losing Track

With one shop, local SEO is a list of tasks. With five, it becomes a question of organisation: who answers the reviews of the second branch, which phone number is on the profile of the fourth, why the third has disappeared from the map this month. Local SEO for multiple locations uses the same rules as for one, applied with method.

Does each location need its own Google Business Profile?

Yes, if customers are received there or if staff are based there to serve an area. Each real location has its own profile, with:

• its own address;
• its own phone number, ideally a direct line to that branch;
• its own hours, including its own special hours;
• its own photos, taken at that branch.

Google's help explains that a business with ten or more locations can request bulk verification instead of verifying each profile one by one.

Do not create a profile for a town where you have no premises and no staff. It is against the guidelines and puts all your profiles at risk: see suspended profiles.

How should you name the branches?

With the name on the sign, the same for all of them. Google's guidelines ask for the real-world name and say that location details belong in the address field. "Dumas Bakery" in three towns is three profiles called "Dumas Bakery", told apart by their addresses.

The exception is a branch whose sign really carries a different name.

What should your website contain?

One page per location, linked from the profile of that location. On it:

• the name, address, phone and hours of that branch, as text;
• a map or directions, parking and access;
• the services offered there, if they differ;
• photos of that branch and, where you can, the people who work there.

Avoid pages that are the same text with the town name swapped. They give a customer nothing, and search engines treat near-duplicates accordingly.

Each profile should link to its own page, not to the home page. A local SEO audit checks that the phone number and the address on your pages are consistent.

How do you organise reviews across branches?

Decide who answers, for each branch, and within what delay. A review left without a reply at one branch is seen by the customers of that branch only, but it is seen.

Each branch has its own review link: use the right one on the right counter. See how to get your Google review link.

Compare branches fairly. A branch open for ten years and one open for six months do not have the same number of reviews for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the team.

How do you follow several branches?

Separately. Each one has its own competitors and its own neighbourhood. I would look, for each branch:

• at its positions on its main keywords, around its own address, with a position map;
• at its rating and the pace of its new reviews;
• at the consistency of its details on directories, with a citation checker.

An average over all branches is comfortable and useless. The branch that needs your attention is the one the average hides.

What goes wrong most often?

• An old profile for a branch that moved, still showing the former address.
• A central phone number on every profile, so that customers cannot reach the branch.
• Duplicate profiles created by different employees over the years.
• Special hours set for one branch and forgotten for the others.

Summary

My opinion: with several locations, discipline beats talent. A simple table listing each branch, its profile, its page and the person responsible avoids most of the problems above.