# Branches A page for each shop, office or yard customers can visit, with its own address, hours and map. Source: https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/branches/ A branch is a place customers can visit: a shop, an office, a yard. Each branch gets a page of its own, with its address, its phone number, its hours and a map. One entry here is one branch. Go to **Content**, then **Business Info**, then **Branches**. The list starts empty. A business with one address does not need branches at all. Until you publish one, your website looks exactly the same as before. ## Branches or Service Area Pages? The two are easy to mix up, because both are pages about a place. - A **branch** is somewhere customers come to you. It has a front door, an address and opening hours. Branch pages live at `/locations/` and then the branch's slug. - A **Service Area Page** is a town you travel to for work. You have no building there. Those pages live at `/service-areas/` and then the town. See [Service Area Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/service-area-pages/). A plumber with one yard and ten towns has no branches, and ten Service Area Pages. A bakery with three shops has three branches. **Warning** Only add a branch for a real place with your name on the door. A branch tells search engines that customers can visit that address. A made up one can get your business listing pulled. ## What happens once you have a branch The moment you publish a branch with a street address and a city, your website switches over: - Each branch has its own page, listed together at `/locations`. - One branch is your **main branch**. Its address and hours take over from the [Business Profile](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/business-profile/) card. Your footer, the "Open now" note, the **Map** block and the address on your **Contact** page all show the main branch. - With two or more branches, your **Contact** page lists every branch, with its address, phone and hours. - Search engines learn about every branch as a place of your business. The Business Profile card says so at the top. Your business type and price range still come from there, unless a branch sets its own. ## Adding a branch 1. Click **Add New**. 2. Type the **Branch name**, such as `Maple Falls`. It is the only box you have to fill in. 3. Fill in the address: **Street address**, **City**, **State / region**, **ZIP / postal code** and **Country code**, such as `US`. 4. Add the **Phone** and **Email** for this branch. 5. Add the **Opening hours**. See below. 6. Click **Save**. Then click **Publish now**, then **Publish now** again to confirm. The page is live right away. A branch with no street address or no city still gets a page. But it does not switch your website over, and search engines are not told about it, until both are filled in. [Saving and publishing](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/start-here/saving-and-publishing/) covers the buttons. ## The boxes on a branch **Main branch.** Check this on one branch only: the one whose address and hours your footer and your Contact page should show. With none checked, or with several, your website picks the first branch in sort order that has an address. **Business type.** Leave it on None to use the type on your Business Profile card. Pick one if this branch is a different kind of business, such as a shop next to your workshop. **Latitude** and **Longitude.** An exact map pin. Leave them empty and the map works from the street address. [Business Profile](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/business-profile/#your-map-pin) shows how to find them. **Phone** and **Email.** This branch's own. The phone turns into a tap to call link on the page. **Opening hours.** One row per day. Click **Add Item**, pick the **Day**, and type when it opens and closes, such as `9am` and `5pm`. A day you are closed needs no row. **Time zone.** Only for a branch in a different time zone from your website. Type its name the long way, such as `America/Denver` or `America/New_York`. Leave it empty otherwise. The page then says which time zone its hours are in. **Special hours.** Closed days and seasonal hours for this branch. They work the same way as on the [Business Profile](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/business-profile/#special-hours) card. **Price range.** Leave it empty to use the one on your Business Profile card. **Google Business Profile link.** This branch's own Google listing or Google Maps link, starting with `https://`. The link under the map then opens it. **Headline override.** The big heading on the branch's page. Leave it empty and the branch name is used. **Short intro.** A line or two under the heading. It is also the wording Google shows under your link. **Photo.** A picture of the place, shown wide near the top of the page. **Body.** The rest of the page. Type into it like any page, and add blocks the same way. [Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/) covers blocks. **Featured** and **Sort order.** Sort order sets the order branches are listed in, lowest number first. Featured only matters for a Branches block set to featured branches. **Search & social.** How the page looks in Google and when it is shared. [What Google shows](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/#what-google-shows) explains it. **Warning** The **Slug** fills itself in from the branch name. It is the last part of the page's web address. Set it once, while the branch is new. If you change it on a live branch, your website sends the old address to the new one for you. Search results still take a while to catch up. ## What a branch page shows At `/locations/maple-falls`, a visitor sees: - the heading, your intro and an "Open now" or "Closed" note - the photo - the address, the phone and email, and the hours, with any special hours coming up - a map. It waits for the cookie banner, like every Google map on your website. - your body text and blocks A link at the top, **All locations**, goes back to the list. Write a few lines in **Body** that only fit this branch: who works there, what is in stock, where to park. Search engines skip pages that read the same as each other. The [SEO](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/seo/) page warns you when two branch pages are too alike. ## The list of all your branches `/locations` lists every published branch as a card. Each card shows the name, the address, the phone, the hours and whether it is open now. To put your own heading or words above the list, add a page under **Content**, then **Pages**, with the slug `locations`. Its blocks show above the cards. ## Showing branches elsewhere **A Branches block.** Puts the same cards on any page, such as your home page. Type `/branches` on an empty line and click **Branches**. Its form has **Headline**, **Subheadline**, **Show** (**All branches** or **Featured only**) and **Maximum to show**. [Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/) covers blocks. **Your footer.** The [Footer](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/footer/) screen has a **Branches** piece that lists each branch with its town and phone. **Your team.** A team member can be linked to a branch. Their card then names it. See [Team](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/team/). **In-store pickup.** If you sell online, a pickup place can follow a branch's hours. See [Shipping](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/commerce/shipping/#pickup-locations). ## Taking a branch down **Warning** **Unpublish Branch** and **Move to Trash** both take the branch's page off your website the moment you click. Any link to it lands on a "page not found" screen. If it was your main branch, the next branch in sort order takes over. If no branch with an address is left, your website goes back to the Business Profile card. **Unpublish Branch** hides it and keeps it. **Move to Trash** is for a branch you closed for good. [Saving and publishing](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/start-here/saving-and-publishing/) covers both.