Multi-location SEO strategy: Entity structure and location targeting

Build the right entity foundation and targeting strategy for multi-location Local SEO. Learn to structure entities, prioritize markets, and pick high-ROI locations to optimize.

Multi-location SEO strategy: Entity structure and location targeting

You decide to build location pages for all 15 cities within 50 miles of your headquarters. Three months later, none of them rank.

You wasted time creating pages for markets you can’t realistically serve and cities where competition is too strong.

Most multi-location brands jump straight to tactics. They build location pages, claim GBPs, and start posting without a strategy. They target too many cities, ignore entity structure, and wonder why rankings stay flat.

This happens because tactics without foundation always fail.

This guide walks you through the foundation work that comes before tactics. You’ll learn how to structure your organization entity, map realistic service areas, prioritize locations by opportunity, and build a targeting strategy that actually works.

Entity structure determines how Google and AI engines understand your brand. Location targeting determines where you focus effort and budget.

Get these wrong, and the best tactics in the world won’t save you.

Get them right, and you’ll know exactly which markets to target, how to connect your locations to your brand, and where to invest time for the fastest returns.

Start here before you build another location page.

Why entity structure matters for multi-location brands

Google doesn’t see your business the way you do. You see one brand with multiple locations. Google sees separate entities that may or may not be connected.

Without clear entity signals, Google can’t understand which locations belong to your brand, how locations relate to each other, what services each location offers, or where each location serves customers.

This creates ranking problems. Google treats your Dallas location and your Houston location as unrelated businesses. Your domain authority doesn’t transfer between locations. Your brand recognition doesn’t compound.

AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE rely heavily on entity relationships. When someone asks “best HVAC company in Austin,” these tools look for clear organization entities with well-defined location entities underneath.

Brands with messy entity structure get skipped. Brands with clear entity signals get cited.

Entity structure drives three outcomes.

First, better Map Pack rankings. Google understands which location serves which market, so it shows the right location for the right search.

Second, AI citations. LLMs can parse your structure and recommend specific locations when users ask for service providers in a particular city.

Third, domain authority. Connected entities under one domain build cumulative strength. Each location page benefits from the authority of your entire site.

What entity structure includes:

1. Organization schema defining your parent brand

2. LocalBusiness schema for each location

3. Consistent NAP formatting across all touchpoints

4. Internal linking that shows location relationships

5. Clear service area definitions per location

Example scenario: A roofing company with 5 locations implements proper organization schema site-wide and LocalBusiness schema on each location page. Three months later, they start appearing in ChatGPT responses for city-specific roofing queries.

A competitor with the same number of locations but no schema never gets cited.

The entity foundation for multi-location brands

Your organization entity vs location entities:

Think of your brand structure in three layers.

Layer 1: Organization entity

Your brand as a whole. Official business name. Parent company information. Brand-level social profiles. Main customer service contact.

Layer 2: Location entities

Individual branches or service hubs. Each with its own address or service area. Each with its own GBP. Each serving a specific market.

Layer 3: Entity connections

Schema relationships linking locations to organization. Internal links between location pages. Consistent brand signals across all locations.

How Google sees this:

Organization schema uses properties like “subOrganization“ to connect location entities to the parent brand. This tells Google: “These 5 locations all belong to this one company.”

Without these connections, Google treats each location as a separate, unrelated business.

Create an entity home page:

Your homepage or a dedicated “About” page should clearly establish your organization entity.

What to include:

1. Clear explanation of who you are, what you do, where you operate

2. List of all locations with links to location pages

3. Organization schema markup

4. Brand consistency markers (logo, official name, founding date, awards)

5. Social proof (years in business, customers served, service area coverage)

Why it matters:

This page becomes the entity anchor. Everything connects back to it. Google uses it to understand your brand structure. AI engines reference it when determining credibility.

Example structure:

Homepage or /about:

H1: “About [Company Name]”

Intro: Brand story, mission, service overview

Section: “Our locations” with links to all location pages

Organization schema in footer

Each location page:

LocalBusiness schema with “parentOrganization“ pointing back to main brand

Link back to locations hub page

Brand elements (logo, color scheme, value props)

Entity consistency across all touchpoints:

NAP format rules:

Business name:

Use exact same format everywhere. No variations like “ABC Plumbing” on one citation and “ABC Plumbing LLC” on another. No adding city names to business name in GBP. Google considers this a violation.

Address format:

Match USPS standards. Use same abbreviations (St vs Street, Ave vs Avenue). Include or exclude suite numbers consistently.

Phone number format:

Choose one format: (512) 555-1234 or 512-555-1234. Use same format on website, GBP, all citations.

Where consistency matters:

1. Website (all location pages)

2. All Google Business Profiles

3. All citations (Yelp, Bing, Apple Maps, directories)

4. Social media profiles

5. Email signatures

6. Print materials

The consistency test:

Pull up your website, your GBP, your Yelp listing, and your Bing listing for one location. Do they all show identical NAP? If not, fix it before building more location pages.

Tools to check consistency:

1. Moz Local Check

2. BrightLocal Citation Tracker

3. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

NAP inconsistencies confuse Google. They dilute your entity signals. They delay rankings.

Fix NAP first. Build pages second.

Physical locations vs service areas

The three business models:

Physical storefront (customers come to you):

Examples: Retail shops, restaurants, dental offices, hair salons. Address shown on GBP. Customers visit your location. Service area may extend beyond immediate vicinity.

Service area business (you go to customers):

Examples: Plumbers, electricians, HVAC, roofers, landscapers, pest control. Address hidden on GBP (service area only model). No customer visits to your location. Service radius defined by drive time or geography.

Hybrid (both physical and service coverage):

Examples: Auto repair with mobile service, appliance stores with installation teams. Address shown on GBP. Some customers visit, others receive on-site service. Requires both location page strategy and service area optimization.

How to determine your model:

Ask these questions:

1. Do customers visit your physical location? (Yes = storefront or hybrid)

2. Do you travel to customer locations? (Yes = service area or hybrid)

3. Is your address relevant to customers? (No = service area business)

What this means for your strategy:

Physical storefront:

Show full address on GBP. Emphasize location benefits (parking, accessibility, nearby landmarks). Target keywords with “near me” and specific address terms. Include storefront photos in GBP.

Service area business:

Hide address on GBP, show service areas only. Define service radius by city, ZIP, or county. Target keywords with city names and service terms. Include work site photos, not office photos.

Hybrid:

Show address on GBP. Define service areas in addition to physical location. Separate service area pages from main location page. Make it clear which services require visits vs which you provide on-site.

GBP setup differences:

For storefront: Address visible, service area optional

For SAB: Address hidden, service area required

For hybrid: Address visible, service area required

Most home service brands operate as service area businesses. If customers never visit your office, hide your address and focus on service area optimization.

This distinction affects every decision you make. URL structure. Page content. Schema properties. Keyword targeting. Photo selection.

Know your model before you build location pages.

Map your current and target service areas

Framework for mapping service areas:

Step 1: List all physical locations

Current offices, storefronts, or service hubs. Address, phone, hours for each. Current service area (if known).

Step 2: Define realistic service radius per location

Drive time, not just distance. Consider traffic, geography, competition.

Most home service businesses: 30 to 60 minute drive time. Emergency services may extend further. Specialized services allow customers to travel to you.

Use tools like:

1. Google Maps draw radius feature

2. FreeMapTools radius mapping

3. Drive time calculators

A 30-mile radius in rural Texas is not the same as 30 miles in Los Angeles traffic. Map by drive time, not crow-flies distance.

Step 3: Identify high-value ZIP codes or cities within each radius

For each location, list:

1. Cities within realistic service radius

2. ZIP codes with highest potential

3. Neighborhoods or suburbs worth targeting

Focus on areas where you can arrive on-site within your promised response time.

Step 4: Check competition density in each market

For each target city, search “[your service] in [city]” and evaluate:

1. Count competitors in Map Pack

2. Check their GBP completion level

3. Assess their review count and ratings

4. Evaluate their website quality

When to expand vs when to hold:

Create location pages when:

1. You actually serve that market

2. You have past customers there

3. Competition is manageable

4. Search volume exists for service+city terms

5. You can realistically rank in 3 to 6 months

Don’t create location pages when:

1. You’ve never served customers there

2. Drive time exceeds 60 to 90 minutes

3. Competition is so dense you can’t break through

4. No search volume exists

5. You’re just hoping to get lucky

Service area overlap strategy:

If you have locations in Dallas and Fort Worth (30 miles apart), each location can target nearby suburbs. Overlap in between is fine. Use different location pages for each city. Don’t create duplicate pages for the same city from different locations.

Document your service areas:

Create a spreadsheet with these columns:

1. Location name

2. Address

3. Primary cities served

4. Secondary cities served

5. Service radius (miles or drive time)

6. ZIP codes covered

7. Competition level per city

This becomes your targeting map. It guides which location pages to build and which markets to prioritize.

Without this map, you’ll waste time building pages for cities you can’t serve or markets you can’t win.

Build the map first. Build the pages second.

Prioritize locations by opportunity

Four ranking factors for prioritization:

Existing customer concentration:

Where do you already have customers? Which markets generate the most revenue? Where do referrals come from?

Review your customer data. Markets with existing customers are easier to rank because you already have:

1. Reviews from that area

2. Service history you can reference

3. Backlink opportunities from past work

4. Testimonials with local context

Pull your customer list. Sort by city. The cities with 10+ customers in the past year are your first targets.

Search volume for service+city terms:

Use Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to check:

1. “[your service] in [city]” search volume

2. “[your service] [city]” volume

3. “Best [your service] [city]” volume

4. “[city] [your service] near me” volume

Prioritize cities with 100+ monthly searches for core service terms. Multiple related keyword variations. Growing search trends.

Cities with zero search volume won’t drive traffic even if you rank.

Competitor density and strength:

Assess competition:

1. How many businesses rank in Map Pack?

2. Average review count of top 3 Map Pack results

3. Average rating of top 3

4. Website quality of organic results

5. Domain authority of ranking sites

Competition score:

Low: Under 20 reviews average, weak websites

Medium: 20 to 50 reviews average, decent websites

High: 50+ reviews average, strong domains

Start with low to medium competition markets. Build authority there first, then tackle harder markets.

Revenue potential:

Calculate potential:

1. Average job value in this market

2. Estimated jobs per month available

3. Your capacity to serve this market

4. Lifetime customer value

Prioritize high-value markets where job values are above your average, customer lifetime value is strong, and you have capacity to handle growth.

Create your priority matrix:

Rate each potential location on scale of 1 to 5:

Existing customers: ___ / 5

Search volume: ___ / 5

Competition (inverse, low competition = high score): ___ / 5

Revenue potential: ___ / 5

Total score: ___ / 20

Start with your top 3 to 5 locations:

Sort by total score. Pick your top 3 to 5. These are your first batch.

Perfect the system on these markets:

1. Build location pages

2. Optimize GBPs

3. Generate reviews

4. Track results for 90 days

Once they show traction, move to the next batch.

Scaling too fast dilutes your effort. You end up with 15 mediocre location pages instead of 5 excellent ones.

Win small first. Then scale what works.

Common location targeting mistakes

5 mistakes that waste time and budget:

Targeting too many cities at once:

Building 20 location pages in week 1. No capacity to optimize all of them properly. Results spread too thin across markets.

Fix: Start with 3 to 5 priority locations. Scale after proving the system works.

Creating pages for cities you don’t serve:

Building location pages just to rank. No actual customers in that market. Google flags fake locations and can suspend your GBP.

Fix: Only create pages where you actually provide service.

Ignoring drive time realities:

Targeting cities 2 hours away. Can’t deliver service profitably at that distance. Customers expect faster response.

Fix: Define realistic service radius based on drive time, not map distance.

Not researching competition first:

Building pages in saturated markets. Competitors have 200+ reviews, you have 5. No realistic path to ranking.

Fix: Assess competition before committing. Start with winnable markets.

Treating all locations equally:

Same budget for all markets. Same effort regardless of opportunity. No prioritization strategy.

Fix: Allocate budget and effort based on opportunity score. Double down on high-potential markets.

The biggest mistake is skipping the foundation work and jumping to tactics.

You can’t optimize your way out of bad targeting decisions.

Choose the right markets first. Then execute well.

Next steps: Build your location pages

You now have your foundation:

1. Entity structure mapped

2. Service areas defined

3. Top 3 to 5 priority locations identified

4. Competition assessed

5. Targeting strategy documented

Next: Create location pages for your priority markets.

Location pages are where entity structure becomes visible to Google and users. Each page connects back to your organization entity while establishing its own local presence.

The next guide covers:

1. URL structure for multi-location sites

2. Complete location page content framework

3. Modular content system for scaling unique content

4. Internal linking architecture

5. On-page optimization per location

Don’t skip this foundation work. Entity structure and targeting strategy determine where you focus effort. Location pages execute the strategy.

Most brands fail at multi-location SEO because they build pages without a plan. You now have the plan.

Build your entity structure. Document your service areas. Score your markets. Pick your top 3 to 5.

Then build location pages that rank.

Continue reading:

→ [How to create location pages for multi-location SEO (with content framework)]

Or return to the complete guide:

← How to do Local SEO for multiple locations: Complete guide