Great SEO doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedicated planning and execution across all parts of a franchise’s web presence. However, it can be the most powerful tool in a digital franchise marketing strategy. Hiring SEO services to plan and manage the process can be the best marketing investment your franchise makes.
How Buhv Can Help
A poll by Search Engine Journal found that organic search is the digital marketing channel that brings in the highest ROI for 49% of the respondents. Website search optimization is a great way to capture sales leads with 59% of shoppers researching on Google before they buy. The opportunity is immense for franchisers and franchisees. However, the franchise model presents unique challenges to search engines and search engine marketing.
Because franchises have multiple locations with multiple owners that exist under a single brand, they can confuse search engines. By understanding how search engines work and why, we can devise effective franchise SEO strategies.
Our Approach
Franchise SEO builds on the same principles that help any website in search. It’s important to develop strong fundamentals, which means improving content, adjusting back-end elements of the website, and getting third-party citations. Here’s how we approach it:
Research, Analysis, Audit, and Goals
While we analyze the search landscape, we’re also establishing business goals with you. Do you want higher rankings? More leads? More sales? More engagement? You’ll enter the process with a clearly-defined and personalized plan.
Strategy and Execution
We’ll take a deep dive and build a strategy out of the unique aspects of your brand. From this overall strategy, we’ll build out the tactics that help your site climb search rankings and dominate the competition. Every tactic ladders up to the strategy, and the strategy always serves the established goals. We’ll help you coordinate this strategy amongst all franchise partners and stakeholders.
Analysis and Improvement
The search landscape is always changing, so websites need constant adjusting to keep growing (or stay on top). We’ll perform trend analysis so we can make proactive, continuous updates. Keeping your goals top of mind, we continue developing your site into a robust resource that wins a wide variety of searches.
Companies We’ve Helped
Top tips for boosting your franchise search ranking
Get a comprehensive audit
Most standard free SEO audits don’t take much and don’t tell you much without investing in an SEO expert. A Buhv comprehensive audit gives you a complete picture of your franchise’s search health that considers domain authority, keywords, content, site speed, social channels, and more.
Keep your NAP updated on
Google Maps, Yelp, and other local aggregators have systems that allow you to update business information. As franchisees open or close, keeping this information updated across the internet keeps you winning in local search. Here’s how to optimize your Google listings.
Create pages for each location
When potential customers perform a local search, they have a high intent to buy and want to see content that’s up-to-date and specific to their chosen location. Having branded sites with local information delivers on these searches.
Use location-based language
For example: if you have an SEO business in Denver, Colorado (like we do), mention the location name on your website. It lets search engines and searchers know they have the right location.
Encourage reviews
When people are searching businesses near them, they often also check reviews. 93% of customers read reviews of a local business to determine its quality. Collecting and managing reviews can make all the difference to individual locations and, ultimately, the entire brand.
Make pages secure
Implementing HTTPS helps websites in search. Since 2014, Google has favored sites with HTTPS so it’s an easy win.
Make pages accessible
Search engines also reward the hard work web developers put into making a page accessible, particularly for people with sight and hearing impairment. Not only is this practice required by the ADA, it improves search ranking.
Get rich snippets
Make sure that Google can pull your website’s content into rich snippets by developing a structured data markup. Google has a tool for building this code.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is franchise SEO?
Franchise SEO is a set of strategies and tactics that help franchises succeed in search. Because franchises are multiple locations with multiple owners that exist under a single brand, they can trip up Google and other search engines. By understanding how search engines work and why, we can devise strategies to avoid search engine mistakes and benefit all branches of a franchise.
Should my franchise website use a single domain?
Franchise brands can take advantage of a system search engines use to determine rankings. Domain Authority, a third-party tool metric, is not correlated to Google’s algorithm but does allow users to quickly assess the quantity and quality of links to a website’s domain. If all of a franchise’s websites are collected under a single domain, it can send the brand website’s domain authority skyrocketing. Any links to any location (if they share a domain) will help search ranking overall, including in local searches.
Rather than an individual domain for local results:
Myfranchisedenver.com
Myfranchisecoloradosprings.com
Use a subfolder structure to support localized content:
Myfranchise.com/denver
Myfranchise.com/coloradosprings
How do you track SEO success as a franchise?
There are a few relevant metrics for franchises. The goal of SEO is often to become more visible to potential customers, so a good metric can be the number of digital customers. Or, because franchise SEO focuses on local visibility, a metric can be the number of customers coming in or making purchases. If visibility is the main goal, the number of views on the website or actions taken on the website can be the primary metrics. Learn more about crucial marketing KPIs.
What makes SEO different for franchises from other businesses?
Search engines are on the lookout for content that is too similar across websites and suspicious links. A major way that search engines determine quality content is its uniqueness and its authority amongst other websites in the same subject area. Franchises would be wise to carefully plan and execute a brand-wide strategy that avoids these unique franchise search problems.
Additionally, watch out for rogue franchisees. If franchisee websites engage in unscrupulous SEO practices, it can hurt the entire brand’s search rankings.
Why isn’t my franchise higher in search?
It can be difficult to diagnose SEO issues without a deep understanding of the practice, which is why so many SEO companies offer a free audit to identify the most pressing issues. For franchises, common issues are: each franchise location has its own domain, NAP (Name, address, and phone number) are different on different websites, or location websites don’t look and feel enough like the brand.
How should digital duties be split between brand and franchisees?
Individual franchisees often have responsibilities for their own local marketing, which can leave websites in a grey area. It’s best to determine upfront how localized the strategy should be. A successful franchise strategy will have franchisee websites under a single domain that share a brand look, feel, and structure. However, these websites must avoid sharing too much duplicate content or having excessive internal links, which Google discourages.
How much do SEO services cost?
There’s a wide range of SEO services available that usually need ongoing investment to stay relevant in search. Prices vary depending on which services you need and how long you sustain them. See our complete guide to determine if you’re getting a good deal.
The Best Franchises to Market
There are several types of franchises that respond well to quality marketing initiatives. Some of the top franchise markets we serve are:
Automotive
Education, Training, & Staffing
Fitness
Business Services
Health care
Retail
Could your franchise do better?
Get a proposal from Buhv. We will perform a comprehensive audit and determine exactly how your franchise can rise in search rankings. When your locations are the first places that pop up when a potential customer needs you, the sale is yours. You can trust Denver’s most experienced SEO and web design company to get you to the top