Store Locator: review of best practices
The Store Locator, a must-have for any local digital marketing strategy, is the service that allows you to locate the physical points of sale of a brand on its website or via a mobile application. Its operation is based on geolocation or user query to display points of sale near a position or entered location.
Linked to the Store Locator is also the Product Locator, and as its name indicates, the focus is on a specific product or service, which allows internet users to know in which nearby establishments they can find it.
How does a Store Locator work?
Access to the Store Locator is generally done via a menu type Find us, Our stores, Our restaurants, Our locations, etc. The user then arrives on the search page: a map with store location markers (location pins) and a list of identified locations.
By interacting with buttons like Learn more, View local page, etc., the user will be able to view the local pages of the points of sale
The Store Locator promotes web-to-store activations through different calls to action (generate a route to the point of sale, call the point of sale, consult the local page, make an appointment, reserve a product, consult an offer, etc.) and good web ergonomics (content utility, ease of use, design).
A Store Locator must be designed for Google!
In addition to being part of the consumer purchasing process, the pages of a Store Locator must be optimized in order to be properly positioned in Google search (following a query of type [name of establishment + city]).
- This SEO optimization begins with the creation of a specific URL and the proper referencing of basic information for each establishment.
- Regularly publishing unique and local content
- The integration of inbound and outbound links to and from your website and external pages (Google, Facebook, directories, etc.)
- Compatibility for mobile display.
- We will also note the structured data, this information contained in the code that Google can easily exploit. A phone number published on a page of your website can for example be displayed between tags notifying Google: this is a phone number. This data then allows Google to display in its search results additional information concerning the pages of your site.
And data management in all this?
Earlier in this article, we discussed the various interaction tools available to consumers on Store Locators. Behind these tools, there is information to be managed: generating a route requires a correct destination address, a call to the point of sale via its web page requires a correct phone number. And opening hours, promotional content, or customer reviews are all data that must be correctly integrated into the brands' website.
However, if they want to be able to generate a maximum number of visits to a store, restaurant or agency, they must take into account two elements:
- Having the right tools at your disposal to manage this information. For example, it is interesting to use a tool that centralizes the data of points of sale that are distributed on different media (including your Store Locator).
- Inform and empower local teams on the brand's digital strategy.
Want to know more about store locators?
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