3 Tips for Franchise Systems to Increase SEO

July 19, 2016

A quality organic search engine optimization (SEO) plan is critical to any franchise system’s digital marketing strategy.

By Matthew Job

Want to increase search-engine optimization (SEO) for your brand and local websites? Here are three recommendations on how to set up your franchise’s web presence in a way that maximizes your franchisees’ ability to earn high organic rankings in Google’s search results on lucrative keywords being performed by your target audience.

Subfolders > Subdomains

Each franchise location should have its own web page. Set up each location’s web page as a “subfolder page” of your brand’s website instead of a “subdomain page.”

For example, Pest People (a make-believe franchise with over 100 units) has a website (www.pestpeople.com) and one location in downtown Nashville. The URL of the Nashville location’s page should be www.pestpeople.com/nashville rather than nashville.pestpeople.com.

By doing so, your location pages better harness the SEO power of your homepage; it trickles down to the location pages. Think of it like a pyramid of champagne glasses. The glass at the top (your homepage) receives a stream of “bubbly” in the form of new traffic and backlinks, and that “bubbly” trickles down into the glasses below (your franchisees’ location pages), increasing their level of value to the target audience (search engines and potential customers), which results in higher organic search rankings on lucrative keywords.

Multiple Franchisees In One Market = Market Pages

Let’s say Pest People has 15 locations in the greater Nashville region, and one of those locations is in the Belle Meade neighborhood. Pest People should consider utilizing one market page and 15 location pages where:

• Their market page’s URL is www.pestpeople.com/nashville and contains information about all Nashville locations. The goal is to position this page highly on regional non-branded keywords such as “pest control companies in Nashville” or “exterminators in Nashville, Tenn.”

• Their Belle Meade location page’s URL is www.pestpeople.com/nashville/belle-meade and contains information unique to that local neighborhood. The goal is to position this page highly on hyper-local non-branded keywords such as “pest control Belle Meade neighborhood” or “exterminators near me.”

This two-pronged approach can result in:

1. Increased conversion rates: Users performing regional keyword searches now find a page with ALL the brand’s locations rather than just one or two. They visit this page and quickly find information about the brand and the location(s) that make the most sense for them to visit.

2. Reduced franchisee competition and costs: Franchisees no longer spend money competing against each other for visibility on the same regional keywords. They share equal visibility on the same page and split that monthly SEO cost between each other.

3. Optimized franchisee visibility: Franchisees get quality visibility on a). regional keywords thanks to the market page and b). hyper-local keywords thanks to their location pages. This maximizes their ability to earn customers from Google’s organic search results.

Robust Content at Local Level

Each location’s web page should have two to four additional pages, each containing a minimum of 500 words, that contain information related to such things as:

1. The local area (neighborhoods, zip codes, areas you service, etc.).

2. The brand’s products and services.

3. Local career opportunities (if locations are typically in need of new hires).

• For example: www.pestpeople.com/nashville/belle-meade/termite-control.

This way, the chances of earning high organic rankings on even more targeted keywords increase, and customers have more information about why they should do business with you.

Using these three key points as part of your overall strategy will set your franchise system up for SEO success at the market and local levels.

Matthew Job is chief marketing officer for Local Search Masters. Read more about the 12 most popular pages for franchise recruitment websites in the June 2016 edition of Franchising World.