Franchise Local SEO Best Practices for Growing Businesses

Local Franchise SEO

In addition to listings and reviews, another important contributor to search rankings will be your organic SEO. In fact, local pack algorithm is tied directly to the organic algorithm, so it’s important not to let organic SEO slide.



Organic SEO is derived from relevant content and words on your site that have proven to be of interest to people — or that search engine algorithms deem to be of value, as well as things like engagement or links to your site from other sites, that provide it with increased authority.



On-Page SEO for Franchise Owners:



The terms and language featured on your website are one of the top things that search engines will consider when determining whether or not to show your site in search results.



Your website is often the first thing customers see, and so, it functions as a virtual sales rep for your company, so be sure that when you tune it to rank for search, you are also ensuring a good customer experience when they click through. Websites will better contribute to local SEO results if they include discrete pages for each location in a store locator.

Because the website is generally controlled at the corporate level and because competing local franchisee websites would only confuse the search engines, this is most commonly controlled by the franchisor.

However, some franchises do maintain separate sites, and in those cases, we advise working closely with franchise SEO experts so that they are not cannibalizing one another. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to the quality of your mobile version!



Content/blog for Franchise Owners:



In addition to the website itself, many franchises will find that creating content downloads, dedicated pages aimed at ranking for an important keyword, and lively, frequent blog posts are all ways to ensure your listings appear for the searches that match your business.



Blogs also are typically developed and managed at the franchisor level — though many franchises will work with local franchisees to suggest or contribute content, in order to keep the blog fresh and relevant to what is happening on the local level. Good blogs will include information that is useful to customers — informing, educating and/or entertaining them in each post. If you cannot commit to blogging at least weekly, a blog may not be right for your group. 



Link building for Franchise Owners:



When unstructured citations contain links, they are sometimes called “linktations”. Links to your business from relevant, high quality websites can have a very positive impact on both your organic and local rankings.



Directories, Maps, and Apps



Search and social are not the only categories of listing. Several other options such as maps/GPS, directories and apps are also provided to the franchise marketing agency, therefore making listings and ads major methods of introducing new businesses to yourself.



Though prominent, the possibilities of Maps and GPS boosting your franchise slightly depends on if someone searches in their area for an offering related to yours. A recent survey has proven that among the 70% costumers that show interests in location-based ads and alerts, about 53% will probably be attracted instantly, while the other 47% are likely to be attracted by further promotions.



More reasons why your listings should always be updated is their ability to help draw new custumers by popping up on suggestions especially for Map apps such as Google Maps. Some online apps like Foursquare, and special apps that base on websites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and others do present businesses close by to their costumers by categories.

These types of listings that we mentioned earlier are usually controlled at corporate levels, but in cases where you are operating on a local marketing platform, the responsibility can be divided between the franchisor and the franchisees in a way that they can both work together.



It is good to invest on maps and apps that are mostly obtained at the franchisor level, and patronized by franchisees when it comes to airing ads because larger purchases saves costs.



It is also important to attend to all reviews (both positive and negative), and give respective responses. In the poll conducted about response to review conducted by Uberall above, about 70% responded that their reviews on stores where not replied to and many added that they stopped patronizing those stores. We can now extract that when it comes to reviews, whoever is managing them should communicate clearly and be keen to observe crucial information that can help in better decision making to the ends of costumer satisfactions. 

Building a Local Marketing Strategy for Franchises

As clearly shown in the prior sections, so many channels are available to the franchisors and the franchisees for marketing purposes, with bigger franchisors and large customer firms enacting a franchise marketing strategy that will cover all their activities.

Nevertheless, it is crucial that both the franchisor and the franchisee adopt a good local marketing plan as well. On normal grounds, this should be done together but in the absence of a stable franchisor-franchisee relationship, you have to make sure your end is well sorted.



Unfortunately, local marketing has always been giving the least attention by enterprises that neglect the fact that every customer is basically a local customer. Therefore, operating with a local marketing strategy gives your franchise a boost and increase competitive chances. 



How To Create a Local Marketing Strategy



Finding an audience: The first step to creating any franchise marketing strategy is to understand the audience you intend to indulge. If you already have a franchise, it is made easier as all you need to do is to ask questions and make observations. You can carry out a survey internally within the firm.

Things to work out:



• Demographics: This involves knowing the age range, gender, earnings, as well as other important features of your customers. 
  
  
• Psychographics: This has to do with determining how your customers think, behave and their attitudes as relating to your franchises. You may also decide on how to tweak your franchise to solve the problems of your customers. 
  
  
• Consumption habits: knowing how your customers chose where to buy from? If they are online? If they have internet access? What social events they attend? How often they use social media platforms? This information will help you determine the profile of your customers and how to meet their needs. 
  
  
• Pain points: The problems your customers face that you aim to solve, activities that they want but probably can not access e.t.c.



These steps will help you get a tactical view of your targeted audience, and once you have known who your costumers are, how they think, what they are faced with and how they want to be served, you'll be able to find effective methods to adequately meet their needs with your franchise.



Efficiently Managing Channels and Budgets

After getting authoritative content and a website that is effective, you should then focus on how to manage all the channels that are functional to you. This also has to do with effectively managing your budget.

Very many franchisor budgets focus on the brand, and most franchisees do not have much leftovers for local marketing, but here a few things to consider;

Listings First:

It is not expensive to manage your listings, even though they provide the biggest overall value for your marketing – in many cases leading people to your registers. Creating great listings should surely be one of your top priorities.

Claim Everything:

As a franchisor, you should ensure that you are the person in charge of your directories and social profiles.

Complete Your “My Business Profile” on Google and Register a Presence on Popular Social Media Platforms Like Yelp and Facebook

For Budget:

Strategically work and understand your customers, how they buy, and the best ways to reach them before allocating money for franchisor or franchisee marketing.