If your customer wants to purchase a product or service you’re selling, they will type the query in Google and hit the search button.
Right?
According to stats, most users don’t click on the second page of Google. As a franchise business, your website’s low ranking can cause you to lose many potential customers.
So is there any solution to this annoying problem?
You need to add franchise SEO to your digital marketing strategy. It helps improve your website’s SERP rankings, which improves brand reputation and attracts more clients.
In this guide, you’ll learn franchise SEO in detail to take your franchise business to the next level. So keep reading.
What Is Franchise SEO?
Franchise SEO refers to the process of optimizing a business with multiple locations for search engines. As a result, businesses can increase leads and foot traffic to their different physical locations.
In franchise SEO, being up-to-date is crucial. Other than that, here are some elements you need to focus on
- Optimize Google business profiles
- Create local landing pages
- Don’t publish duplicate content
- Monitor geographic performance regularly
Let’s understand it with an example.
You must have heard of McDonald’s at least once in your life. Do you notice how they have different locations in almost every corner of the Earth?
Each McDonald’s location has its own GMB profile, which ensures visibility in local searches like McDonald’s Near Me. The website features dedicated pages for each franchise and relevant keyword content.
Franchise SEO vs. Traditional SEO
You might wonder if franchise SEO is the same as traditional SEO. If it’s different, then how?
Knowing the differences is crucial because it will help you clarify SEO for franchises. Here’s a quick overview of key differences between each.
| Aspect | Franchise SEO | Traditional SEO |
| Scope | Multiple locations, each optimized individually | Focuses on a single business or site |
| Keywords | Emphasizes local, location-specific keywords | Uses niche or long-tail keywords |
| Google My Business | Manages multiple GMB profiles for each location | Typically, only one GMB profile is needed |
| Website Structure | Central site with individual location pages | One site with fewer local pages |
| Analytics | Tracks search performance across multiple locations | Tracks the overall performance of one business |
Guide For An Effective Franchise SEO Strategy
Now that you know about franchise SEO, it’s time to create a strategy for your franchise business. A robust search engine optimization strategy can increase your business visibility.
So, let’s dive deeper and generate huge organic traffic for your franchise website.
Follow Your Brand Guidelines
Your website is equivalent to the franchise’s digital store. If you want customers to think your website isn’t a scam, follow the brand guidelines.
But what if you use a different logo or font?
Then, customers will think that they clicked on an unofficial site. This also leads to a high bounce rate, and Google will lower your site search rankings. To avoid this, follow consistent branding guidelines on your website.
Focus On E-E-A-T Of Web Pages
Google wants to provide the best information to the searcher. In franchise SEO, you can display your content across different locations. You have to display your Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). With multiple locations, you should focus on these aspects by matching your content to your location. If you are creating Top of Funnel (TOF) content like blogs and articles, create content that resonates with that location’s audience.
To boost the Trustworthy portion of EEAT, online reviews are important. Ensure you have a reputation management strategy to request reviews and respond to them. Also, consider adding employee information and photos to your website.
But why?
These are trust signals that help boost the Trustworthy requirement of EEAT.
TIP: Create separate social media accounts for each business location.
Check Name, Address & Phone Number (NAP) Of All GMB Profiles
Imagine you’re hungry and want to visit the nearest pizza shop. Instead of the franchise location, Google shows you the address of their corporate office.
That’s not helpful at all. Right?
You need to ensure that NAPs are correct across all websites and profiles. The ideal way to check this is through your Google My Business profile and official website. Make sure that your name, address, and phone number are updated.
Check if review sites or directories are displaying incorrect information about your brand. Ensure that NAPs are accurate and formatted properly to enhance user experience.
TIP: There should be separate GMB profiles for each franchise location.
Win Customer Hearts With Local Keywords
You may want to increase foot traffic if your business has a physical location.
To make that possible, you need a strategic franchise SEO plan, including localized keywords. If you think that one-location keyword is fine, that’s completely false. Due to rapid competition, you have to scale up this process.
Let’s understand with an example.
A hair salon franchise like Great Clips would focus on local keywords for each location. Instead of using broad terms like Best Hair Salon or Haircut Services, they would optimize for specific local keywords. These include local keywords such as Hair Salon Los Angeles or Haircuts In Austin.
It will help you directly connect with customers looking for your services. However, to get maximum benefits, thorough keyword research must be conducted.
Optimize From On Page SEO Perspective
Often, people think that making one or two tweaks to the website or publishing content is enough to get the spotlight on Google. However, the truth is that SEO is a long-term strategy.
You need to optimize your website regularly. Adding schema markup to your website makes it stand out in SERPs. It also improves your brand’s visibility and increases click-through rates.
Source – ahrefs
Additional Tips For Making Franchise SEO Successful
If you follow this guide, you will gradually notice an improvement in your franchise business. But to take things to the next level and give your business an extra push.
Here are some secret franchise SEO tips to maximize results from your SEO efforts.
- Balance your content to provide what the target audience is looking for. If you’re a fried chicken restaurant franchise owner, you might post about cooking methods and business history. But to resonate with the audience, you need to add localized content, like neighborhood events, staff stories, and local suppliers.
- Connect with local businesses and participate in community events to earn backlinks. These are great ways to increase online visibility, reputation, and foot traffic.
- Create a centralized content calendar to create content systematically. It allows you to manage published content and add new topics according to your location.
- Don’t ignore the technical SEO of your website. Audit the speed, mobile friendliness, XML sitemaps, URL structure etc for smooth performance.
Challenges in Franchise SEO
Several challenges may arise in franchise SEO, but knowing how to overcome them can give you a competitive edge. So, let’s examine some common challenges and how you can overcome them.
Publishing Duplicate Content
When Google detects duplicate content, it faces difficulty in indexing the page. This seemingly small mistake impacts SEO performance. But why does that happen?
It mostly happens because identical templates, copy-paste content, and the same meta descriptions are used across different locations.
Here’s how to fix it.
Don’t confuse Google and publish high-quality content.
Focus on creating a unique and fresh content strategy for each location. Include location-specific details and stories to avoid duplication and user engagement.
Be Mindful Of Details
As the franchise grows, SEO becomes the least priority. Other tasks, such as training employees, managing the supply chain, or securing permits, often overshadow it. However, in the long run, it can negatively impact the business.
Here’s how you can fix it.
Optimize every location website with evergreen content. Use location-specific web design and update meta descriptions and title tags for enhanced visibility. You can use keyword research tools to find location-based keywords.
Do internal linking and automate the process to save your time.
Keyword Cannibalization
When different pages of a website start competing for the same keywords, their ranking drops. Do you know why this happens?
It’s when the same content is created for different URLs. It confuses search engine crawlers regarding which page should be prioritized.
But don’t worry, you can fix it.
Conduct a thorough website SEO audit and make a list of keywords used in the content. If you find two pages with the same content, combine them into one comprehensive guide.
How Franchise SEO Can Benefit Business?
As a franchise business owner, you want to increase sales and make maximum profit. But it all starts with getting local visibility, and franchise SEO helps you achieve that.
Each franchise location becomes more prominent in local searches, thus increasing local traffic. Use this SEO strategy if you don’t have a large marketing budget for ranking your franchise site.
To Sum Up
Focusing on franchise SEO is necessary if you’re running a multi-location business. If the SEO of a second-location website is not properly done, all marketing efforts can be wasted.
Don’t use negative tactics such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content, keyword repetitions in content, meta descriptions, or title tags. Implement the strategies mentioned in this guide today to boost local visibility and drive more traffic to your franchise locations.
But doing it alone can be hectic and frustrating.
That’s why Brick & Mortar is here to provide you with expert assistance. Get in touch with us today to skyrocket your business and attract qualified traffic.
