Local SEO for a Business with Several Locations

Short answer: Give every real, staffed location its own Google Business Profile with an identical brand name and matching core category, then give each one its own page on your website with genuinely local content: address, hours, staff, services offered there, directions, reviews. Keep the name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear, and collect reviews per location without offering incentives. Duplicate pages with only the city name swapped, and profiles for addresses you don't really operate from, are the two mistakes that cause the most damage.

Running three clinics, five stores or a dozen branches gives you more chances to show up in local results, but only if search engines can tell the locations apart and trust each one. Below is a plan you can follow in order.

Step 1: Audit what exists

Before changing anything, take stock.

List every real location with its exact address, phone number, opening hours and the services offered there.
Search Google Maps for your brand in each town. Note duplicate profiles, closed branches still showing, wrong pins, and profiles created by former staff or agencies.
Find everyone who has access to your profiles. Old agency logins are a common cause of surprise edits.
Crawl your website's location pages, if any. Flag thin ones and ones that are copies of each other.

You'll end up with a spreadsheet that becomes your single source of truth for every later step.

Step 2: One Business Profile per real location

Google's guidelines for representing a business allow a profile only for a business with a physical location customers can visit, or one that travels to customers. For multi-location businesses the rules worth knowing:

One profile per location. Google says not to create more than one page for each location, and that duplicate profiles cause problems with how information displays on Maps and Search.
No virtual offices. A rented mailing address where you don't operate isn't eligible. A co-working desk only qualifies if it has clear signage, receives customers and is staffed during business hours.
Service-area businesses (plumbers, cleaners, mobile services) should have one profile for the central office with a defined service area, not a profile for each town they drive to.
Same name everywhere. For chains and brands, all locations in the same country must use the same name. "The Home Depot," not "Home Depot Springfield." Exceptions exist for distinct sub-brands or departments and for locations that consistently use a different name on their storefront and stationery.
Same core category for locations offering the same service. Additional categories can vary to reflect what a branch really does.

Don't stuff city names or keywords into the business name. Location details belong in the address and description fields.

Step 3: Build location pages that aren't duplicates

Every location needs its own URL on your site, such as /locations/leeds/, linked from the matching Business Profile. The test for each page: would it be useful to someone who has already decided on that branch and wants to know more?

Include:

The full name, address and phone number, in exactly the same format as the Business Profile.
Opening hours, including holiday changes.
Services or products available at that branch, with differences called out ("MRI scans only at our Riverside clinic").
The people. Branch manager, practitioners, team photo.
Getting there. Parking, public transport, accessibility, landmarks, an embedded map.
Local proof. Reviews or testimonials from that branch, local partnerships, community involvement.
Branch-specific FAQs drawn from real customer questions at that location.

Avoid:

one template with only the town name swapped;
city pages for towns where you have no location (call these service-area pages and make them substantially useful, or skip them);
burying location pages so deep that neither visitors nor crawlers find them.

Add structured data

Mark up each location page with LocalBusiness schema (or a more specific type like Dentist or Store), including the address, phone, opening hours and geo coordinates. Keep the markup consistent with what's visible on the page.

Step 4: Make NAP consistent everywhere

NAP stands for name, address, phone. Inconsistent details across the web make it harder for search engines to connect mentions to the right location, and confuse customers.

Pick one canonical format per location (for example, "Unit 4, 12 Mill Lane" rather than mixing "Unit 4" and "4/12").
Use it on the profile, the location page, the footer if branches are listed there, and in schema markup.
Update major directories and industry listings to match.
When a branch moves or changes number, update everything on the same day, starting with the profile and the website.

Use a local number for each branch where possible. A single central number on every profile makes the locations harder to tell apart.

Step 5: Reviews per location

Reviews attach to individual profiles, so a strong rating at one branch does nothing for another. Build a habit at each branch:

Ask every satisfied customer at the point of service. Google lets you share a review request link or QR code from the profile.
Never pay or reward for reviews. Google's Maps content policy prohibits offering incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods for posting reviews or removing negative ones, and says paid reviews will be removed.
Don't cherry-pick. Soliciting only from happy customers to skew ratings falls under fake engagement rules.
Reply to reviews, positive and negative, ideally from someone at that branch. You need a verified profile to reply.
Track ratings per location monthly. A branch whose rating drops often has an operational problem worth knowing about.

Step 6: Add a store locator people and crawlers can use

A locator helps customers find the nearest branch, but many are built in a way search engines can't follow.

Keep a plain HTML list or index page of all locations, linking to each location page, alongside any interactive map.
Make sure each result in the locator links to its location page, not only to a map pin.
Let people search by town, postcode or "near me" with location permission.
Include key details in results: distance, hours today, phone, directions link.

Step 7: Measure by location

Report each location separately, not as one blended number:

profile views, calls, direction requests and website clicks from each Business Profile;
organic traffic and conversions to each location page;
rankings for core services in each town;
review count and average rating per location.

When one location lags, compare it with the strongest: profile completeness, page depth, review velocity and photos usually explain the gap.

FAQ

Can I create a Business Profile for a town I serve but have no office in?

Not as a separate location. Google says service-area businesses should have one profile for their central office with a defined service area. Virtual offices aren't eligible.

Should each location have its own website?

Usually not. One domain with strong location pages is easier to maintain and builds authority in one place. Separate sites make sense mainly for genuinely separate brands.

Can location pages share some content?

Yes, shared brand information is fine. The problem is pages that differ only by the town name. Each one needs details that only apply there.

What if two of our brands share one address?

Google's chain guidelines say not to combine brands at a shared location into one profile name; each brand that operates there should be represented separately and accurately.

Planning location pages for several branches? Tell us how many you have and where.