If you own a local company, store, café, or restaurant with a website, it is crucial to provide your clients the greatest possible purchasing experience. Even while the map pinpoints your position, that is insufficient for customers to find the store or restaurant. Give them several methods to contact you, including your address, phone number, business hours, etc. Adding your location to various business directories like Yelp and Google My Business should be done consistently. For improved visibility in search results, use schema markup. Make it simple for users to access the page that allows them to discover the closest shop. Verify that maps are operating correctly on mobile devices.
Map
Using Google Maps or Mapbox, you can make a basic store location map. You must achieve this by supplying the latitude and longitude of each retail location. Using an API, you can learn what those coordinates are. Then, all you have to do is enter your company name and address data along with them in the location field of the Google Maps or Mapbox HTML editor.
City and state search
Offering a search box is a fantastic approach to assist your consumers in finding a place close to them. By offering autocomplete, suggestions, and/or map results, you can make it simple for them.
You should offer suggestions and map results within the search field itself since some users of autocomplete desire something more detailed than just a list of nearby companies (and not just once users start typing).
Responsive design
The page will adapt to the size of the screen thanks to responsive design. Some of your consumers may use mobile devices, thus it's critical to ensure sure the page is responsive to all screen sizes. With the help of tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights, you can test your site on various devices to see how it responds to different browsers and mobile devices.
It's also crucial to remember that responsive sites don't necessarily have to appear identical on all platforms as long as they offer simple navigation and information that meets the requirements and expectations of their target audience.
Quick loading time
Any company with many locations has to have store locator sites. Visitors should be able to easily discover their neighborhood store on the page and schedule an appointment if necessary. A shop location page should be simple for you to maintain as well, which is why we advise against developing your system from scratch and instead using a third-party app like Google Maps or Bing Maps.
To create a good store locator page that loads quickly, follow these steps:
- Choose between Bing/Bing Maps and Google/Google Maps as your mapping service provider
- Set up your map on one of those platforms (or both!)
Proximity search with geolocation support
Finding an object's actual geographic position, such as the location of a computer or a mobile phone, is a process known as geolocation. It is utilized in many different applications, such as local search, mapping, and navigation. In order to determine where you are at any given time, geolocation depends on having access to positioning information (such as that provided by the Global Positioning System).
There's no denying that the popularity of location-based services like Google Maps and Yelp reviews has led to a widespread adoption of geolocation technology in recent years. These days, having some sort of geolocation functionality on your website allows visitors to determine their actual location before physically traveling there pays off handsomely if you want your firm to stand out from the competition.
Search autosuggest
Your users may locate the desired place easily using the search autosuggest tool. This is crucial since it will allow them to focus their searches if you have several locations. Do you think they'll remember which sushi restaurant is closest to their home if they put "sushi" into the search box and there are ten of them in town?
Your shop locator page (or any other content) should employ search autosuggest as a filter so that customers may find what they're searching for without having to navigate through the pages of results. Additionally, it is advantageous if a company or brand has many stores: Filtering by store name (such as "Sushi"), city, or state may be done using search autosuggest ("California").
List of locations with filters, sorted by distance
You may offer a list of places with filters and order them by distance. The user has the option of seeing results in alphabetical, name, or address order. A paginated list will be provided if there are more than 30 results. Additionally, you have to be able to display all of the locations on a single page (e.g., when you have too many locations).
Providing your consumers with the finest shopping experience is crucial if you operate several outlets.
The ideal shopping experience for your consumers is crucial if you operate several stores. Both foot traffic and online sales may increase as a result. Create a store locator page to make it simple for consumers to discover you.
While the map shows your location, that is not enough for people to reach the shop
You must include more information, such as your location, phone number, business hours, etc. When adding your location to several business directories like Yelp and Google My Business, the information should be consistent.
Offer them different ways to find you, like address, phone number, store hours, etc.
- Address: The address of your business is a must-have for any store locator. Include the street address, city, and state, depending on what you're most comfortable with.
- Phone Number: Let customers know how to contact you if they have questions about the store hours or want to make an appointment. If you have multiple locations with different phone numbers, be sure to include all relevant information in this section so people can find the right number quickly and easily!
- Store Hours: Providing an accurate list of hours that indicate when you're open will help people make better decisions about when they'll visit your location or not. It also provides credibility for businesses that claim 24/7 availability but is closed at certain times (and let's face it — there are plenty out there).
Adding your location to various business directories like Yelp and Google My Business should be done consistently.
Make sure to include your company's information in the most well-known directories, like Yelp and Google My Business. This will increase the visibility of your shop locator page in search results, making it easier for consumers to locate you.
In order to appear more prominently in search results, add your location to various business directories.
Give precise details about your company, including the address, phone number, operating hours, and more.
Use schema markup for better visibility in search results
Rich snippets can be displayed in search results thanks to schema markup, which aids search engines in comprehending your material. This is particularly useful when it comes to local listings since it makes your company more visible and raises the likelihood that people will click on it.
You must contribute information about each website that utilizes Schema.org markup using a Structured Data Markup in order to add schema markup to your shop locator page (SDF). To do this, take the following actions:
- Add a list of all locations with their addresses and phone numbers (e.g., “locations”: [{“name”: “Store 1”}])
- Add any additional information you want to be displayed alongside each location (e.g., “locations_hours_text”: { "default": "Our hours are 10 am - 6 pm", "en-US": "Our hours are 10 am - 6 pm" } )
Make it simple for users to access the page that allows them to discover the closest shop.
You may either put the link in a prominent spot on each page of your website or put it in the footer to make it simpler to locate.
Make sure maps are working properly on mobile devices
Make sure the maps are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Responsive: A good store locator should work seamlessly on all devices, including desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets. Your site should be designed to respond to screen size to accommodate users with different device sizes (e.g., a phone vs. a laptop).
- Mobile-friendly: Google recommends that your website has a mobile-friendly design if you wish to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s also important for users who are using their phones or tablets because they tend not to spend as much time browsing as they do on desktop computers—and this is especially true when it comes time for them to make purchases online! A good store locator will load quickly so customers aren’t left waiting around while they try out different options from their mobile devices; moreover, it should be easy for those same customers
For clients to discover you simply, you need a store locator page. Both foot traffic and internet purchases are boosted by it.
For clients to discover you simply, you need a store locator page. Both foot traffic and internet purchases are boosted by it.
It benefits both the company and its clients, who were the primary drivers behind your decision to launch an eCommerce website in the first place.
A shop location page will aid your company's SEO efforts and boost organic traffic to your website by increasing its exposure on search engines like Google and Bing. Additionally, by raising consumer satisfaction levels through improved accessibility & ease, it also contributes to enhancing company image.
Conclusion
In creating the finest shop locator page for your website, we hope this post will be helpful. Please ask us any questions you may have!