Franchises and SEO

Brad Miller

Franchises and Search Engine Optimization

A major problem for most franchisees is lack of local and regional discovery via search engines for individual franchises and their websites. This is compounded with financial services franchises typically limited in the kinds of external advertising allowed by the franchiser.

The Catch-22:
The franchiser limits independent marketing initiatives and the franchisee suffers because of their difficulty in drawing localized traffic to their website. Often the financial services franchisee is shackled by legal restrictions, a specific eCommerce marketing strategy or not able to do any common types of SEO on their webpage.

Therefore, while the franchiser promises to send business leads, they commonly do not, leaving the franchisee out on-a-limb to fend for themselves. The conundrum arises since they can’t do what is needed since their hands are tied by the mothership’s red tape.

Non-financial franchisee websites can be very effectively SEO’s for local traffic, as we BAMsites has done many times for other, less restrictive, businesses.

There are other ways to aid franchisees as discussed below. We purposefully omit social networks, since these are not related directly to SEO.

There are three ways to make an impact in your local marketplace relative to search tactics.

  1. Franchisee Webpage SEO Editing – Individual franchise webpage manipulation of internal meta information. This is the most effective provided you have access to specific types of search related code through the administrative aspect of your website. If access is possible, you can hire sites like https://stellarseo.com/local-seo-services to undertake the project professionally, or if you are confident, start by coding five pages for targeted keywords and phrases.
  2. Search Engine Business Profile Development – The three primary search engines (Google, Yahoo and BING) provide the opportunity for descriptive business profiles including photos and other graphics, such as QR codes, etc. BAMsites will register and develop professional profiles for your business.
  3. Independent BLOG – A very effective alternative, if you are allowed to do it, is an independent BLOG or mini-website. The BLOG is really just an website that can be SEO’s for your region to create traffic. BLOG posts can be accomplished periodically specifically geared to keywords and phrases relevant to your target audience. These then become independent search engine “sputniks”, found by the SE’s and often ranked quite high. This in turn will create traffic to the BLOG site and subsequent interaction with the franchisee.

All of these strategies are effective individually and in combination, depending on the adherence to the franchise rules and regulations for marketing.

 The strategy that no franchise can legally dispute is number two. This is also a very important one for regional identity.

I hope this gives you an overview of the possibilities that are available to you as a franchisee. I am aware that every franchise is different.