Also read: The optimal online marketing strategy for your (franchise) formula
3. Geotargeting and indexing
In itself I don't think it's necessarily bad if you push a location based on someone's user location. But make sure that the visitor can search for other locations themselves. It is essential that the geotargeting does not prevent Googlebot from reaching other locations (and therefore from indexing those other location pages).
Again, store locator is a part of local SEO, but it is an essential part. Optimizing store pages is a second step, which will allow you to rank for terms other than your brand name.
Three store locators under the microscope
I looked at the store locators of three companies through an SEO lens: H&M, Gassan and our very own Kwalitaria. I chose these because they are in different industries, have different interests in local findability and all three do different things right and wrong.
Example 1: H&M
This is what the H&M store locator looks like.
H&M is a huge company with many locations all over the world and also has a store locator on the website. As I experienced, this does not work optimally from an SEO point of view.
Good points
Mobile friendly
Search by country, city/area and postal code
Filter options by style
Works logically
Bad points
Establishment pages are not indexed (fragment urls), so they do not rank and therefore miss out on search traffic
Example 2: Gassan
The overview page of Gassan.
Gassan is a jeweler with twelve locations in Amsterdam, hospital cfo email list Schiphol and Singapore. They also offer tours of their grinding shop. Of course, online sales are a big part of their business, but more customers in the shops is always a bonus!
Good points
All locations on one overview page
Specific keyword (brand name) at the front of some locations
Photos at locations
Bad points
No indexable location pages at all, so no ranking, so potentially a lot of missed search traffic
No search function, although that is not necessary with twelve locations. However, the company is active in several countries. In that case, some search/filter option seems useful to me.
Example 3: Kwalitaria
The Kwalitaria homepage provides plenty of space for the branches.