1. Build and Optimize a Google My Business Profile
As you might already know, Google is the biggest search engine and the most extensive online business directory. That’s why listing your specific franchise business on Google is foremost to local SEO success. Plus, a Google My Business profile now known as Google Business Profile, is a local search ranking factor. Having an optimized Google Business profile helps your franchise business website rank in local search results on Google. So how do you create a Google Business Profile?
- Start by filling in all your business details like business name, address, phone number, website link, category, list of products/services, etc. The categories you select for your business are essential for ranking high on Google.
- Once you’ve filled in the correct information about your specific franchise business and submit to Google, Google will send you a verification code for that location. Once you add this code to your Google My Business (Google Business Profile) listing, it will be live and visible to online searchers and potential customers. Note that every location needs its own Google Business Profile. Once you have claimed and verified your Google Business Profile, you can start optimizing the profile.
- Don’t forget to add your business photos and opening hours. You need multiple images of your business. A study by BrightLocal shows that businesses with more than 100 images get 713% more discovery searches than the average business. Strategically upload images every month. Avoid uploading 100 images in one month, Google will be suspicious of such sudden activities.
- Utilize the posting section of your Google Business Profile. This allows you provide unique messages to your target audience.
Remember, building, optimizing, and managing a Google My Business profile is the life and soul of a local marketing campaign for your franchise business. This is essential because Google allows you to put location-specific information that will resonate with your target audience. DaDigitalSense Marketing specializes in optimizing Google Business Profile for Franchisees and businesses with multiple locations.
2. List Your Franchise on Prominent Local Directories
The next important local marketing strategy is to list your franchise business on significant local directories like Yelp, Local.com, Yellowpages.com, City-Data, ChamberofCommerce, BingPlaces, Best of the Web Local, FourSquare, etc. Also, look for regional and niche-specific directories where you can add your business details.
- Ensure that your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is correct and consistent in all the directory listings.
- Don’t forget to optimize each of these listings for popular local search terms.
- Update all your listings in case of a change in location or any changes to your business information. The key is to be consistent across all directories.
3. Keyword Optimize Your Franchise Business Website
The first step here is to do keyword research to know which local search terms are relevant to your specific franchise location. Keyword research gives you an idea of what your prospects are searching for online.
- Once you have a list of relevant queries, you must optimize your site for those keywords.
- Try to meet the user’s intent by answering the questions they’re asking and offering them the relevant information.
- Optimize your site’s metadata to make your website searchable in the local search results. This means you need to optimize the headings, titles, and descriptions of each of your website pages with the relevant search queries.
- Make sure your website is connected with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These are free tools from Google.
By optimizing your franchise website for local search queries, you can make it easy for prospective buyers to land on your site and learn more about your products and services.
4. Improve the User-Experience of Your Franchise Website
Here’s the thing. If your website is user-friendly, it will move up higher in the search results. Here’s stuff to accelerate the local marketing and SEO of your franchise website:
- Make sure your site is fully functional and easy to navigate. Are there 404 error pages on your site? Make sure you fix all pages with errors on them.
- Many users open business websites on their mobile devices. That’s why you need to ensure that your franchise website is mobile responsive and offers the optimum experience to mobile users.
- Next, you need to optimize the loading speed of your franchise website. You don’t want to let your website visitors leave because your site took too long to open.
- Lastly, you must use internal linking to help users find the relevant information on your site with ease.
Here’s the bottom line: make your website experience superb, and it’s bound to get you better business outcomes.
DaDigitalSense Marketing provides expert digital marketing for franchisees.