Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands are currently facing a challenging battle to secure prime spots on search engine results pages as brick-and-mortar businesses overwhelmingly dominate organic results through the traditional Local Pack (i.e., Maps) and general organic listings.
CPGs share the same goals as retail stores—driving sales from consumers who walk into stores to purchase products. However, a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) analysis reveals inconsistencies within local pack appearances when consumers search for specific products by brand. For instance, searches like “toothpaste” and “perfume” might not display local pack Google results, but the same queries could appear in Bing results.
Searches for terms such as “lighting,” “sneakers,” “dress shoes,” and similar products may show up within the local pack in Google, but not in Bing. Universal Search results do appear, but search engines often display knowledge graph information, product listings ads, and other info instead of the local pack.
So, how can CPGs help search engines better correlate locations and products? By creating a natural connection to business locations using content on their website properties. Building location pages provides an SEO opportunity for CPG brands to attract more traffic from organic listings and improve their ROI in search marketing. By creating individual landing pages that focus on location-based content, CPG brands can enhance their ability to rank higher on some non-branded searches with the following combinations:
- Keyword + Zip Code
- Keyword + Town
- Keyword + City
- Keyword + Neighborhood
- Keyword + Near me (fastest growing query set)
Here’s how to achieve this for CPG brands:
Step 1: Create a Location Page for Consumer Packaged Goods
Develop a location page on the CPG brand’s domain that promotes store locations where the products are available. These pages can feature NAP details (Name, Address, Phone), product descriptions, and SKUs. By implementing meta and schema markup, brands can provide search engines with more localized info to establish a connection with their products.
This strategy enables CPG brands to rank for individual product phrases and leverage branded phrases and search terms of retail partners (though agreements with partners may be necessary).
It’s important to note that competition will likely come from directories like Yelp and Yellow Pages in this area.
Step 2: Re-Architecting Backlinks and Outreach
There are thousands of internal and external backlinks directed to the CPG brand’s homepage or other site areas. Redirecting them to the new location pages makes sense to pass PageRank and help achieve higher rankings. While Google no longer provides Toolbar PageRank scores, PageRank remains a contributing algorithm factor.
The more external links CPG brands can gain from geographically targeted sites, the more long-term ranking value they accrue. Internal links that are more relevant to the new location pages should also be redirected to pages offering consumers more detailed information.
Step 3: Retargeting Lists
After developing new pages, it’s crucial to ensure a proper retargeting program complements these efforts. Having retargeting lists in place allows brands to show interested consumers product ads, bringing them back into the sales funnel.
Step 4: Internet of Things (IoT) – Use of Beacons
New location pages can be connected to in-store activities using beacons. Real-time data points, such as product availability and stock quantity, can be pushed from physical store locations to these pages based on inventory. With the growing adoption of mobile, beacons allow CPG brands to connect digital efforts to actual in-store sales.
As brands continue to innovate digitally, creating location content presents an opportunity for CPGs to gain more visibility within SERPs. This desirable organic traffic represents consumers deep in the funnel and close to making a purchase. Creating location pages can drive consumers to CPGs’ assets while assisting retail store partners by encouraging more in-store visits.
Image Credits
- Featured Image: Jeffrey Deng/unsplash.com
- In-post Photo: Screenshot by Andrew Beckman. Taken May 2016.
