Location pages are essential for strong Local SEO and rankings, especially in larger cities and markets. Each component on the page plays a crucial role to support overall rankings. However, many location pages are incomplete. If you are missing important sections of your location pages, you can’t maximize the power of the page and your clients will have less than stellar results.

Our location page formula is proven to maximize local impact, but it must be implemented properly. That’s why we created our Local Page Audit Checklist. Location Page auditing will help build and strengthen the local relevance, while expanding your client’s reach to get in front of more potential customers. Below you will find our complete 20 point Audit Checklist to increase rankings for locally modified keywords.

 

What is a Location Page?

Location pages, or city pages, are web pages that build local relevance in areas surrounding a business. These pages contain necessary information on the local business, including products or services, phone number, business hours, the address with local driving directions, social accounts, and review links. In order to build and expand local relevance, location pages should also include locally optimized content and relevant points of interest in that area.

Below is how we structure each location or city page.

 

Tools to help with the Location Page Audit

Optimizing your Location Page for Local SEO can eat up a lot of time without the proper tools. There are many different programs and extensions that can be beneficial and time-saving during auditing. For example, programs like SEO Minion and Schema Markup Testing Tool make the whole optimization process of your webpage much simpler. They provide the features needed to identify and fix errors on your page that would otherwise slip unseen and affect your overall ranking in the SERPs.

 

What does SEO Minion do?

SEO Minion is a great tool to have when auditing any webpage. This extension shows the user the total words and characters on the web page, all the images without alt attributes, and alerts you if there are any issues. It can pull data like heading structures, page title and meta description so you can quickly review too.
This tool can also highlight all the links on the webpage, both internal and external, making it easier to spot them. It can also highlight broken links in different colors and tell whether they redirect to another page or not. This can help you catch any broken or missing links.
SEO Minion even has a SERP Preview feature that lets you update the title and meta description and preview the changes in real-time on google. It also allows the user to view specific keyword searches on two different locations.

 

What does Schema Markup Testing tool do?

The Schema Markup Testing tool is split into two different programs, Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator. Both programs check the website’s code and alert if any errors could create difficulties for the search engine bots. If the code isn’t neat and tidy, the website’s overall rankings can be negatively impacted, making your site harder to find.
The difference between the two programs is that the Rich Results Test checks the code based on Google’s supported structured data schema, while Schema Markup Validator goes beyond Google’s supported structured data allowing the user to debug many more errors that would otherwise go unnoticed with the Rich Results Test.

Location Page Audit for Local SEO Checklist

Many things must be included on your local pages to successfully optimize and begin increasing its visibility. This audit checklist will guide you through all the necessities of a successful Location Page for Local SEO. We recommend using this checklist when creating any location page to ensure all relevant information is included.

 

 Verify the correct location page is attached to Google listing and check for duplicate location pages

First, check that the Google listing  links to the correct location page. If you are working with multi-location businesses, location pages can get mixed up. Then, check there are not multiple pages targeting the same area. Having duplicate pages that compete will hurt local rankings. 

 

 Is the Primary Local KW in Page Title?

The Primary Local Keyword should be used in the title of the page. You can quickly check whether the keyword is in the title by using the SEO Minion tool.

 

 Are the terms Nearby or Near Me in H1 Tag or Page Title?

The terms “Nearby” or “Near Me” are of great importance in local optimization. There’s usually significant search volume for “near me” and “nearby” searches, so be sure to optimize for it! When combined with the main, locally modified keyword it can help increase the visibility of your page to local searches.

 

 Is the GBP Primary Category in H1 Tag or Page Title?

In addition to the main local keyword and the term “nearby,” it’s important to use the listing’s primary category. The primary category directly impacts local rankings and is one of the highest weighted listing features – using it in the page title or H1 tag further strengthens that association.

 

 Are Main Services Listed in an Unordered List?

The main services should be listed in bullet points (unordered list) somewhere on the webpage. This will strengthen relevance for locally modified service terms. We also recommend using the unordered list items as anchor text that links each particular service page to promote deeper linking.

 

 Are Main Services Listed in H2, H3, or H4 Tags

The main services your business offers should be listed in H-tags to give them more weight. You can quick check if they’re in heading tags using SEO Minion.  Ensure all main services are listed, if not add them.

 

 Are there Internal Links pointing to Main Service Pages?

By simply hovering the mouse over a link within the location page, a URL bar will pop up at the bottom left side of the browser showing where the link takes you. Make sure these service links send users to the correct service pages. If any services are not mentioned on the location page, add them and link. 

 

 Do Main Service Pages Link Back to Location Page?

After checking the links from the location page to their respective main service pages, you should check whether these service pages link back to the location page. It’s usually a good idea to link a few of these top-level pages back to the location pages.

 

Is there a Full NAP Section, including Company Name?

Each location page should contain a complete NAP section  containing the company name, address, and phone number. NAP citations are essential to location optimization  This also easily provides the necessary information for users.

 

 Are Opening Hours Present?

We recommend including opening hours in the NAP section as well. The more data you can provide to search engines, the better. 

 

Is There a GBP Map Embed?

In addition to the address, your webpage should embed the listing’s map. Embedding a Google Business Profile Map on the page strengthens local relevance and directly links the listing to the that location page for stronger association. It also makes finding your business a lot easier for the user.

 

Is There an Outbound Link to Google Map Listing?

Even though you have a GBP Map embedded on the page, you should also have an outbound TEXT link to the location’s listing. You can use the address on the NAP section as anchor text.

 

 Outbound Link to Reviews?

Reviews are a strong local trust signal. While you can embed Google reviews on the page, we recommend linking to a wider variety of third-party reviews and trust signals. This includes BBB, Yelp, local awards, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, and industry associations.

 

 Outbound Links to Socials or Local Brand Mentions?

Include links to notable social accounts, especially if you are regularly posting on them. Search engines do pull information from different social channels to better understand the business and verify information. 

 

 List of Zip Codes and Neighborhoods Present?

Whether it’s a single or multi-location business, the location pages must contain a list of zip codes and/or neighborhoods where your business is present. For example, each city page should include the zip codes inside that city. If you use county pages, you can list each city located in that county. 

 

 Does Location Page Link to Itself with Primary Keyword?

The location page should include a link in the first paragraph that links to itself using the primary, locally-modified keyword as the anchor text. Pages with stronger internal linking tend to have higher organic rankings.

 

 Satisfactory Main Content?

Having just the NAP section, socials, a map and an address on your page isn’t enough. Each page must contain quality content that talks about your company, services, and  products – bonus points if it’s locally-optimized! Stuffing your page with keywords and links will not help your location pages rank. It will actually affect it negatively, so be sure to include helpful content in the body of the page.

 

 Error-free Local Business Schema and Rich Results?

After you’ve gone through this checklist, it’s necessary to run your page through the Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator to check for any errors that might have slipped through the cracks. Be sure to address all  errors these tools show you to ensure better rankings for the site.

 

Location Page Checklist Workbook

Checklists make everything easier! You can download your own Location Page Audit Checklist to quickly run through each of the above items. This is the same workbooks our GBP Team uses to audit location pages.