According to Frankart Global, an average of about 300 companies start franchising every year. So it is no surprise in today’s business community, franchisors and franchisees alike are recognizing the paramount importance of establishing a strong online presence. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, stands as a cornerstone in this digital building process, particularly for franchises. “SEO for franchises” is not just a buzzword; it’s a critical strategy that can significantly amplify visibility, drive targeted traffic, and enhance the overall online performance of each franchise location.

Understanding SEO for Franchises

SEO for franchises involves a multi-layered approach that caters to the unique needs of franchisors and franchisees. It’s about optimizing each franchise’s digital footprint across various search engines to ensure they rank highly for relevant searches. This process includes keyword research, on-page optimization, local SEO strategies, and creating high-quality, engaging content that resonates with the target audience.

The Significance of Local SEO

Multilocation local SEO is a game-changer for franchises. With a focus on optimizing for local search queries, franchises can improve their visibility in specific geographic locations. This includes managing Google Business Profile listings, accumulating positive reviews, and ensuring accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information across all online platforms. Local SEO ensures that when potential customers search for products or services in their area, your appropriate franchise locations are prominently displayed.

Local landing pages and Google Business, in my experience those are the two most important ingredients to local SEO success. Local landing pages need to provide value to local users, and be linked to your local citation profile. Ask us what this looks like!

Multi Location Local SEO

Keyword Optimization: Beyond the Basics

Choosing the right keywords is crucial for SEO success. For franchises, this means going beyond basic industry terms to include location-based keywords and service-specific phrases. It’s about understanding the search intent of your audience and tailoring your content to meet those needs. Incorporating the primary keyword, “SEO for franchises,” within your content at a strategic rate of 1-2% ensures relevance without over-optimization.

High-Quality Content: The Heart of SEO

Content is the heart of any SEO strategy. For franchises, this means creating content that is not only informative and engaging but also tailored to the interests and needs of local audiences. Blog posts, articles, and guides that address common questions, provide value, and showcase your expertise can establish your franchises as authoritative sources in your industry.

Implementing Effective SEO Strategies

Implementing an effective SEO strategy for franchises requires a comprehensive approach that includes:

  • Website Optimization: Ensuring that each franchise’s website is optimized for search engines and provides a seamless user experience.
  • Content Marketing: Developing and distributing valuable content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience.
  • Link Building: Acquiring high-quality inbound links from reputable sites to boost domain authority.
  • Social Media Engagement: Leveraging social media platforms to increase brand visibility and direct traffic to your website.

Schedule Your Free Initial Consultation

Embarking on an SEO journey for your franchise can seem daunting, but with the right strategies and guidance, it’s a path laden with growth opportunities. At SEO Succor, we specialize in crafting bespoke SEO solutions that cater specifically to the needs of franchises. Whether you’re looking to generate new leads or online sales, our team is ready to design a custom campaign that meets your goals.

Unlock the full potential of your franchise with elite SEO services tailored to your unique needs.

Schedule a free initial consultation today and take the first step towards transforming your online presence.

When it comes to attracting local traffic, the significance of a well-optimized local landing page, AKA a “geo page” can’t be overstated. An effective local landing page does more than just tell people where you are; it offers a comprehensive overview of your business, products, and services, all while leveraging local SEO techniques to make your page more discoverable in local SERPs.

Our agency works with local business owners and national chains, alike to ensure that this essential component of local SEO is part ot their strategy. Local landing pages are essential to multilocation local SEO, so lets break down each component that is necessary to create a great local landing page thank ranks in SERP.

1. Accurate and Consistent Google Business Profiles

This means optimizing your profile with accurate NAP data.

What is NAP data? NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Ensuring that this basic information is accurate and consistent across all online platforms is a cornerstone of Local SEO. According to Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors, Google Business Profile optimizations are one of the top local pack/finder ranking factors.

Key Takeaway:

  • Consistent NAP information across platforms enhances your credibility and improves local search ranking.

Local SEO Services

2. High-Quality, Geo-Tagged Images

Images can make or break the user’s first impression of your location page. High-quality, geo-tagged images not only enhance user experience but also provide additional location-specific metadata that can help in local search ranking. Google My Business Insights report has shown that listings with photos get 42% more requests for driving directions and 35% more clicks to their websites.

Key Takeaway:

  • Geo-tagged images boost user engagement and help improve local search ranking.

3. Local Keywords

Incorporating local keywords into your content, meta descriptions, and titles can make your page more relevant to local search queries. According to a study by ReviewTrackers, 35% of all search traffic is local, and more than 90% of consumers have used search to find local information.

Key Takeaway:

  • Local keywords are essential for appearing in local search results and driving more organic traffic.

4. Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Having a dedicated section for customer reviews and testimonials provides social proof, which is instrumental in influencing customer decisions. BrightLocal’s 2020 Local Consumer Review Survey states that 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.

Key Takeaway:

  • Customer reviews boost credibility and contribute to local search ranking.

5. Detailed Business Description and Services

Providing a detailed description of your business and the services you offer is crucial for both SEO and user experience. Make sure to use natural language and include local keywords where appropriate.

Key Takeaway:

  • A well-written business description helps in providing a thorough understanding of your local business, thereby improving both SEO and user satisfaction.

6. CTA (Call-to-Action) Buttons

Well-placed CTA buttons like “Call Now,” “Get Directions,” or “Book Now” can guide users in taking the next steps, thereby increasing conversion rates.

Key Takeaway:

  • Effective CTAs guide user action, improving both user experience and conversion rates.

7. Local Schema Markup

Implementing local schema markup can provide search engines with structured information about your business, making it easier for them to understand and present your business in relevant local searches.

Key Takeaway:

  • Local schema markup aids in better search engine understanding, potentially boosting your local SERP ranking.

Keeping This in Perspective

Creating an effective local landing page (geo page) is not just about listing your business details. It involves an intricate blend of SEO techniques, user-focused content, and trust-building elements. By incorporating the components discussed above, you’re setting the stage for better visibility, increased user engagement, and ultimately, more conversions.

With the ever-growing importance of local search, neglecting any of these crucial elements could mean missing out on potential business opportunities. Make sure your geo page is fully optimized to reap the maximum benefits.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Is your business struggling to create local landing pages that rank in search results for your target keywords? We can help! Reach out to our team to schedule a free initial consulation. Our team will be able to provide forcasts for improvement, along with pricing of our services.

With our hands-on experiences at SEO Succor, we have fined tuned SEO for plumbers. Because we are now receiving referrals for plumbing and sewer-related local businesses, we thought we would create this short article describing the best things plumbers can be doing for their local SEO, before they hire us.

1. Investigate Local SEO Best Practices

Before you learn more about local SEO for plumbers, you will want to investigate the basics of local SEO. These principals apply to all local businesses, and can therefor be applied to a plumbing or sewer business. We have written an article covering the basics of local SEO, and encourage reading it before reading the rest of this article.

2. Ensure there Are Webpages to Represent Each Plumbing or Sewer Service Offered

Its difficult capture hits on keywords of interest, if you don’t have the content Google wants to show users. What this means is you will need an individual page for each service you offer. You won’t need to go as granular as creating a Gas Water Heater Installation page, an Electric Water Heater Installation page, and a Tankless Water Heater Installation page, but you also don’t want to go the opposite extreme and combine all of your plumbing and sewer service content on to one page.

You will want to create pages for each type of service you offer, and touch on all of the options for that service within the copy of each page.

If you just have one service page, labeled “Plumbing Services” that lists all of your services, you likely won’t see your business in search results for anything but “plumbing services” and “[your brand name]”. You need individual services pages to capture long-tail queries about your services. Such as a “Water Heater Installation” page to capture relative searches, and a “Sewer Line Camera Inspection” page to do the same.

3. Post Impressive Before/After Photos to Google Business Profile and Social Media

Most of your local visibility in SERP will come from your Google Business Profile. When users are navigating the local 3-pack they will see your business listing and often want to click through to read reviews, browse your website, and view any images that you have uploaded on the job.

This creates an excellent opportunity to showcase your plumbing skills to your target audience. By remembering to take before and after photos on job sites, you can wow your potential customers by uploading them to your Google Business Profile.

4. Stay Responsive on Google Business Profile

If messaging is enable for your Google Business Profile, its important to stay responsive as your receive messages from potential clients. This is because Google is currently measuring messaging responsiveness, and because they are measuring it, we have to presume they may use it as a local ranking signal for your profile.

We recommend responding to all messages, even if the message is clearly spam. This will keep your responsiveness in good shape.

Contact Us for Assistance

SEO Succor has plenty of experience with SEO for plumbers. Once you have the basics down, and you are ready to see what else can be done, reach out to us. Our plumbing clients stay with us long-term because we illustrate a return on their investment.

We can illustrate our success with local SEO for plumbers, simply contact us for a referral from another plumbing business.

1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile(s)

This is a simple exercise, but you need to be thorough. There are several good articles on this subject across the web.

This article outlines the basics of Google Profile optimization for local SEO. Optimizing Google Business Profile is an essential first step to begin local SEO for small business.

2. Embed Your Google Business Profile Map on Your Contact Page

Adding your business listing’s map(s) to your company contact page can help to solidify to search engines the relationship between your company website and the world’s largest business directory, Google Maps. As you can imagine, this is typically a healthy local SEO ranking signal.

This can easily be done by copy/pasting the HTML snippet provided by Google Maps into your website’s code.

How to embed your Google Business Profile map on your website:

a. Find your profile(s) at https://business.google.com/, and click “View on Maps”

Google Business Profile plays a vital role in local SEO for small business.

b. Click “Share”

c. Select the “Embed a map” option and copy the HTML by clicking the “COPY HTML” button.

d. Paste the HTML in the desired location on your company’s contact page. You may want to ask your web developer for assistance.

3. Ensure NAP Consistency with Citations

Your company’s NAP (name, address, phone number) data is monitored by search engines. Having consistent NAP data is always a healthy local SEO ranking signal. This is because search engines are programmed to avoid poor user experiences. And companies with inconsistent or outdated contact information listed online tend to provide poor user experiences to the users trying to contact them. Thus, having a consistent and accurate NAP data listed online is rewarded with more visibility by search engines.

How do I see and repair my NAP profile?

Use a citation listing service to see and repair your NAP profile data across the web. They will typically crawl and let you see your company profile for free. They only want you to pay, if they run their citation sync services. We use SEMrush’s Local service, which is powered by Yext, one of the world’s most popular citation syncing services.

4. Add NAP Data to the Website Footer, Globally

Adding your most important NAP data to your website’s footer is another great idea. Information such as:

  • Business Locations (if applicable)
  • Business Address(es)
  • Primary Business Phone Number(s)
  • Hours of Operation

This offers another fantastic local SEO ranking signal that (in many cases) can easily be implemented without your web developer.

Not only is this a great way to appeal to the search engines, in terms of your relevance locally, but this is also a great addition to the UX (user experience) of your website. Finding NAP data at the bottom of any page is often a great way to improve the user experience for local users.

Users may be convinced they are ready to do business after consuming the content of any given webpage, thus having the phone number or address easily clickable in the footer is a great way to improve UX and thus CVR (conversion rates).

5. Post Weekly Keyword-rich Updates to your Google Business Profile

If you want to optimize your website for Google search results, then it will behoove you to use their products. Google loves when you use their products. Google rewards you for using their products. If you don’t believe me, make weekly posts to your Google Business Profile for a couple of months, then stop. Was your business more visible on Google Maps during that time? The answer is likely, “yes”, if you dig into the analytics.

You don’t need to do much when posting, just post regular weekly updates about your business or your offerings. In my experience, one or two sentences is all each post needs to be to reap the benefits of this local ranking signal. Always include media (picture or video), a call-to-action, and use the keywords most important to your SEO goals.

Don’t “leave local SEO on the table”. Take advantage of this easy local SEO for small business hack. Post weekly to Google Business.

6. Consider Local SEO Services from a Reputable Agency

This article provides some very powerful quick local SEO tips for small businesses. However, always consider the fact that there are organizations that can drastically exceed what articles like this provide.

Great SEO agencies are a must for small businesses in highly competitive local markets. Quick tips and fixes will only get those businesses so far.

SEO is a science, and it has been mastered by experts. If you need assistance with local SEO for small business, reach out to seasoned SEO experts.

map-markerchevron-down linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram