There are few things more rewarding for a business owner than expanding to one or more new locations. Expansion means your business is growing. Sales are likely to increase and the possibilities are endless.
The flip side of expansion - especially if you're using one website for multiple locations - is how to ensure your search engine optimisation keeps pace with your business. As Google's algorithms become more sophisticated, it's essential for businesses to rank for local search terms to keep up with the competition.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do to make sure your SEO doesn't suffer when you branch out.

Create pages for each location

There's more than one way to skin a cat, but let's talk about the best practices for listing multiple business locations online.
You may have noticed that large companies often offer a shop locator tool on their website. Unless you're dealing with thousands of locations like Target or Walmart, your best bet is to do the following.

Create a "Locations" page on your website that contains a list of all locations.
Then link each location to a separate page for that location. For example, you could create URLs like this: http://www.yourcompany.com/locations/service-city-state. This structure ensures that your website is easy to categorise and navigate.
On each page you create, you should include the name, address and phone number of the location. You should also include the location's opening hours and other relevant information. The more useful the page is, the better it will rank on Google.

The advantage of a single domain name is that it costs less than registering multiple domains. It is also clear and easy for potential customers to understand if they want to visit more than one location.
For each location page, make sure your city and state are included in the URL, title tags, H1 tags and alt image tags. This information will help Google crawl and index your site and ensure it gets the search success it deserves.

Standardise your NAP entries

The next step is to standardise your NAP listings. NAP stands for "name, address and phone number", and standardised listings are an essential part of local SEO.
When Google prioritises search results, it wants to ensure that the information it provides is accurate and useful. If the NAP listings for your business differ in any way, it confuses Google's algorithms and dilutes your online presence.
For example, imagine you have one location with 10 NAP entries. If you have two variations of the company name, three variations of the address, and one error in the phone number, you have a total of seven competing pieces of information for that one location. It's easy to see why this can be a problem.
Each time you add a location, take the time to list the name, address and phone number the way you want it. Then check all existing NAP locations and make sure the information matches exactly.

Optimise Google My Business for every location

The next step is to enter every single location of your company in Google My Business and optimise it accordingly. This means:

Check your company name to make sure it is correct and matches the one on your website.
Do the same for your NAP entry for each location and make sure Google hasn't abbreviated anything you've written out elsewhere.
Select up to five relevant categories for your company.
Upload up to ten images and make sure they are unique to the location.
Write a unique introduction to your company. The content here should also be unique. Do not copy content from your website or other listings. You can and should list services and link to the relevant, location-specific pages on your website.

These steps will ensure that your GMB presence is doing everything it can to help each of your company's locations rank independently.

Build backlinks and citations

Link building is an essential part of SEO. The best links are those that develop organically over time, but you can encourage links by:

Network with people from your industry
Network with other companies in your region
Claiming entries on Yelp, CitySearch and other websites

It is especially important to claim listings for each location as this will help you get reviews. The more reviews you have for a location, the more credible your web presence will be.

Encourage reviews

If you have multiple locations for your business, relying on the reviews for your main location isn't enough to boost search engine optimisation and give potential customers the social proof they need.
You may want managers at each of your locations to encourage customers to leave reviews. There are company-wide policies you can try, such as setting up a points programme to encourage customers to leave reviews. You can also print links to your review pages on customer receipts.
Reviews help to raise your company's online profile and make it easier for local customers to find you.

Add fresh content

Finally, remember that Google's algorithms favour fresh content. If your pages for individual sites are stagnant, they won't get as much authority as pages that are updated regularly.
For this reason, you should consider setting up location blogs or at least make it a habit to regularly post pictures, videos and other new content on your website.
The goal is to ensure that your site is always relevant, updated and useful to your customers.

Conclusion

The prospect of ranking every location of your business on Google may seem daunting. However, the key is to have a website structure that allows each location to shine. Then unify your presence across the web, build links and add new content to ensure your site is relevant. If you do this, it will also be reflected in your Google ranking.