In our Ultimate Guide to Store Locators, we talked about how adding a basic set of State > City > Location internal links to search-only store locators can improve SEO performance for the Location Pages.
A search-only locator page usually includes a store locator map and/or store finder that searches a number of locations to find the nearest store. You’ve likely interacted with a few before, where you put in your zip code and it returns the nearest location or locations in a Google map type of display. They can sometimes have unique map styles, store pickup options, a user guide, map zoom level, and the works. Basically, it’s built by someone who likely knows a thing or two about javascript, html, geocoding APIs, or web development.
It’s much more functional from a user experience standpoint and an improvement on the single-page solution. However, it’s still not the best solution because the search results page is generated by user input (adding the zip code). So, Google has no way of finding this location information. In short, the internal search result helps users get the basic location information they need to know, but it’s not great for SEO purposes.
In fact, we have done studies that show that search-only store locators often rank for 50% fewer keywords than those with the State > City > Location internal links setup.
We recently worked on a multi-location site that has had the search-only locator issue for years. A few weeks ago, they launched a simple State > City > Location directory and so far, this is the result:
Non-branded Google queries – Clicks & Impressions
This site still has a long way to go. We haven’t updated the content on the Location Pages in years, so it’s due for a refresh (we will be using our internally built Location Page AI tool to do so), but if you are looking for proof that it’s worth it to update your store locators, here it is.
Need help with Local SEO? Hit us up at LSGSEO.com.
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