Managing and Optimizing SEO and Content Across Multiple Locations
Multi-Location SEO Case Study with Paul Mitchell Schools
Project Overview
40.73%
Increase in Student Leads
+424
Increase in Keywords in Top 1-3 Positions
34.04%
Increase in Organic Traffic Sessions
| Website | paulmitchell.edu |
| Industry | B2C, education, beauty |
| Value Provided | Increase in organic traffic and leads across 100+ U.S. locations |
Project Overview
Navigating the digital landscape is like moving through a labyrinth of algorithms and ever-evolving strategies. For businesses with multiple locations, this journey takes on an added layer of complexity. Renowned beauty and cosmetology institution Paul Mitchell Schools is a testament to this.
With 100+ campus locations, Paul Mitchell Schools wanted to drive more organic traffic to their corporate website while also leading users to microsites for individual schools to convert as leads/students.
Seeing how we’ve helped Visionworks earn a 5.86 million increase in impressions for 250+ local pages, Paul Mitchell Schools entrusted us to attract the interest of their future cosmetology students.
And this worked out pretty well—with a robust multi-location SEO strategy in place, we helped our client gain a 40.73% increase in student leads.
Our Strategy
Our Strategy
Multi-location SEO and content marketing present challenges to ensure each local branch consistently stands out while still maintaining corporate authority.
To tackle the intricate dance between scaling local relevance and global visibility, we focused on streamlining a campaign across all 100+ school locations.
Streamlining Content Across Locations
Each Paul Mitchell Schools campus is unique—and so are their needs and specifications. These demands merit relevant details of a specific school’s offerings, geographic location, and student experience.
At Big Leap, we drive a custom approach for each location to meet those demands. But as all successful projects go, there was a significant period of feedback and iteration to get a solid process down.
Leaning on Iteration to Build an SOP
We worked with our contact at Paul Mitchell Schools every week. The goal was to build a standardized operating procedure that would efficiently source local information, abide by regulatory requirements, and produce a template.
For example:
- We initiated a form fill where location managers provided specific information for each location. This allowed us to provide localized details for prospective students.
- Our client helped us further streamline the collected information to create a content template. We started with 4 or 5 initial templates that eventually solidified into one.
As we finally got a content format and process down, this led the way to creating top-level state pages and educational blog content.
- Local directory backlinks that pertain to each school (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau)
- Brand mentions
- Broken backlinks
- High-authority educational websites
Local Keywords
Big Leap also incorporated local keywords (e.g., cosmetology school in California, cosmetology schools in New York, esthetician school near me) to help Paul Mitchell Schools elevate their competitive advantage in Google Map Pack rankings. Our local SEO audits dove into key factors such as Google Business Profile (GBP) listings, citation profiles, on-site SEO, and schema.
Outreach & Link Building
To help build the authority of Paulmitchell.edu and its respective school and state pages, Big Leap performed outreach campaigns to build consistent quality backlinks.
We targeted the following resources to build backlinks to individual school locations and state pages. This would enhance our client’s rankings and visibility in search results:
The Big Leap team has played a vital role in growing our national and local organic digital presence, helping us surpass our competition. They’re always looking for areas of improvement, and they are transparent about the results. They have been a great and seamless team to work with and can quickly pivot priorities when needed.
Arron Marshall
Paul Mitchell Schools
They get results, they are ethical, they are transparent. They see what you need to do and partner with you to accomplish your goals. After years of working with them – I trust them completely.
Andy Selcho
Owner of AlphaGraphics, Sandy, UT
Results
The Results
Our SEO and content marketing efforts over the year have truly manifested into bottom-line results. This has helped Paul Mitchell Schools elevate their authority on a local and national level, generating the interest and trust of prospective students.
Here are some YOY data that illustrate the impact we’ve helped our client create:
- 40.73% increase in conversions/student leads
- 34.04% increase in organic traffic sessions (national)
- 40% increase in organic traffic sessions (local)
- 33.7% increase in organic traffic sessions (local and national)
Streamline Your Multi-Location Strategy with Big Leap
Juggling multiple locations on top of your national online strategy can be daunting, especially when you’ve got other priorities on your plate. The good news is that agencies specializing in multi-location digital marketing can become an extension of your team.
If you’d like some marketing assistance with your multi-location business, contact Big Leap. Let’s talk through your goals and see what we can do based on a free site audit.
Here’s the thing about our SEO agency: We prefer long-term partnerships that are deeply rooted in trust. Before we dive right into this, we’d like to get to know you better, get a feel for your current situation, and talk about your marketing goals and expectations.
You can call us now, or we can meet over lunch. Either way, we’re excited to meet you.
