Key takeaways
- Relevance, distance and prominence are judged per location. A strong brand does not carry a weak profile.
- Distance is measured from each storefront's real address, so territory lines on the franchise map mean nothing to Google.
- Fix the name, categories, hours, location page and review pace one location at a time.
- Track direction requests as well as calls. For a storefront they are often the clearer signal.
To rank on Google Maps as a multi-location franchise, each location has to earn its place on its own. Google picks Map Pack listings on relevance, distance and prominence, judged for every profile separately. The brand name gets people searching. It does not lift a location with thin details, few recent reviews or a website link that goes nowhere useful.
How the Map Pack picks businesses
Google weighs three things for every location, and says so in its own help pages (Google's local ranking factors).
Relevance : How well a location's profile matches the search. Google reads the categories, the services list, the description, the words customers use in reviews and the page the profile links to. Two locations of the same brand can differ sharply here when one lists its services and the other does not.
Distance : How far the location's address is from the searcher, or from the place named in the search. For a storefront brand, this was decided when you signed the lease. A customer who lives between two of your locations is usually shown the nearer one, or the stronger one, whatever the territory map says.
Prominence : How well known and well regarded the location is: review count and recency, mentions around the web, links to its page. Some of this the brand shares, such as a recognized name. Most of it, reviews above all, belongs to each profile alone.
How the Map Pack picks businesses
The Map Pack The local results under the map
- Relevance How well your profile and pages match the search
- Distance How close you are to the searcher or the area searched
- Prominence Reviews, links, mentions and how well known you are
The fixes you control
- Lock the name. Use the name on the sign, in the same pattern at every location, with no neighborhoods or service words added (Google's guidelines).
- Match the primary category across locations. A brand whose locations disagree on their primary category is asking Google to rank them for different searches. Pick one for your core service, use it everywhere, and add secondary categories only where a location offers that service.
- Fill in services and attributes. List what this location offers, including anything the other locations do not.
- Point the profile at the location page. Not the brand homepage. The page should repeat the location's name, address and phone and describe what happens there.
- Keep hours exact. Enter holiday and special hours ahead of time. A customer who arrives at a locked door tends to say so in a review.
- Build a steady review pace. Ask every new customer at every location, every week, so no profile goes quiet.
- Add photos only this location could post. Its own sign, its parking, its staff and its space on a busy day, refreshed each season so the newest photo is never years old.
Why competitors outrank you
When a competitor sits above one of your locations, the cause is usually visible if you compare the two profiles side by side.
| What you see | Likely cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| A competitor outranks you near your own door | Better category match or more recent reviews | Their categories, services and review dates against yours |
| Your sister location shows up for customers on your side of the line | It is closer to them, or more complete | Both profiles; the weaker one needs the work |
| You rank near the store but disappear a short drive out | Distance | Your location page and area pages |
| A new listing jumped ahead quickly | A name stuffed with keywords | Whether it breaks the guidelines; suggest an edit if it does |
| Several of your locations dropped on the same day | A brand-wide bulk edit to categories or hours | Each profile's edit history |
The sister-location problem needs a conversation, not a tactic. Google will not honor the territory map, and neither location gains from a fight over it. What each franchisee can do is make sure their own location is the most complete, most reviewed answer for the customers nearest to it.
Tracking Map calls
Count what customers do from each profile, then connect it to new customers in your own system. The profile's performance view shows calls, direction requests and website clicks per location. For a storefront, direction requests often say more than calls, because many first-time customers simply drive over.
- Tag each profile's website link with the location's name, so your analytics separates profile visits from other traffic, location by location (Analytics setup).
- Give each location its own tracked number on the profile, so calls are counted per location.
- Record the source at the counter. Add a "how did you find us" field in your multi-location CRM or point of sale, and have staff fill it in for every first visit.
- Report per location, monthly. A brand total hides the location that is slipping.
The performance numbers are counts of actions, not customers. Only your own records turn a direction request into a new customer. The Google Business Profile page for multi-location brands covers how we set up and run each profile.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We compare every one of your locations with the competitors around its address, fix the profiles in the order that moves the most new customers, and work with the franchisor on anything they control. Your profiles and tracking stay in your name, and each project has a result and a date. Reports show new customers from Maps for each location. Book a growth consultation to see where each of your locations ranks today.
Sources
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Set up Analytics for a website and/or app, Google Analytics Help