Need to Know 

  • Google My Business is a tool businesses use to help consumers find their stores on Google products like Map and Search. To improve their local ranking, Google advises businesses to create accurate, complete, and engaging Business Profile listings.
  • Chatters previously had over 115 Google My Business listings that were missing key profile data and linked to an outdated subdomain.
  • Northern implemented local SEO strategies to optimize each Google My Business listing and location store page on the Chatters website, maximizing organic visibility in local searches.
  • Northern also set up local UTM tracking to ensure each listing directed customers to the correct location page, and to enable accurate tracking and reporting of local traffic.

Client

Chatters is Canada's largest salon chain, with over 115 locations across the nation. They offer professional salon services and salon-quality products online and in-store.

Brief

Northern implemented a comprehensive local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to enhance Chatters’ organic visibility at the local level, reaching audiences in specific cities and regions across Canada.

The goal was to reach new clients with little to no prior brand exposure, and existing clients searching for Chatters’ locations in their area by serving them with geo-targeted content.

Challenge

With over 115 local franchise listings across Canada, the challenge was to ensure Chatters appeared in relevant searches in the areas in which they operate.

While this may seem simple at face value, search engines consider more than just proximity and distance when deciding which businesses to display in  results. For instance, Google also considers relevance (ie. how well a business matches a user search query) and prominence (ie. how well-known a business is) when determining the best match.

This is where Northern’s local SEO strategy came into play to ensure Chatters was sending the right signals to Google and other search engines to improve its local ranking position in search results. Northern also wanted to optimize the ability to track local click-throughs (ie. clicks tied to individual store locations) to improve conversion tracking and measure the effectiveness of local SEO optimizations.

Strategy

Northern developed and deployed local SEO strategies for both the local Google My Business (GMB) listing and individual store location website pages.