Boost Local SEO for Franchise Locations

Case Study

The Importance of Local SEO

How are customers finding your franchise locations online? Online local search rankings play a crucial part in a franchisee’s success.

70% of mobile searchers will call a business DIRECTLY from a search results page. [Source: Search Engine Watch]

In other words, 70% of searchers will find the information they need WITHOUT even needing to visit a website. 80% of unsuccessful searches are followed up by the searcher adding a location – people naturally look in

their location if they don’t find what they are originally looking for. [Source: Local Vox] 87% of searchers who search for a local business will call or actively go to that business within 24 Hours.

[Source: Young Web Designs] More people carrying out a search online trust local search results than any others. 59% percent of searchers use Google every month to find a local business. [Source: Digital Sherpa] People using an Android Smartphone are automatically logged into their Google account – so will always be

fed local results.

Background

Our franchise client was looking to help its franchisees boost local search engine rankings to increase traffic to their locations and boost customer sales.

The Foundation

Website location pages are the foundation for local SEO success. Our client had a list of locations on their corporate website but lacked individual pages for each franchise location. Our first step was to develop a page for each location with the specific elements and information that must be present for the locations to show up in local search results.

Mexican Restaurant | Chicago, IL |

Any Mexican Restaurant123 Main StreetChicago, IL 85031

Restaurant Hours:

The Idea

By developing high-quality, location-specific business listings on reputable business directories and websites, our client’s franchisee locations would appear higher in search rankings.

Top 20 Local Search Ranking Factors How Does Google Rank Local Searches?

Proper category association Physical address in city of search Consistency of structured citations Quality/authority of structured citations HTML NAP matching place page NAP Quantity of structured citations Domain authority of website Individually owner-verified local plus page City, state in Google Places landing page title Proximity of address to centroid

Proper category association Physical address in city of search Consistency of structured citations Quality/authority of structured citations HTML NAP matching place page NAP Quantity of structured citations Domain authority of website Individually owner-verified local plus page City, state in Google Places landing page title Proximity of address to centroid

Google Places/Google+ Business Listing Optimization:

We started our process by claiming each franchise location’s Google business listings and making sure their Name, Address and Phone Number (NAPs) were correct and verified.

The most important factor in local search rankings is proper category association followed by physical address in city of search and the quality of structured citations. We claimed and cleaned up the listings so that the details matched the location pages exactly.

Citation Building

Consistency and quality of structured citations are critical factors in the ranking of local search results.

A citation is any web-based mention of your company's partial or complete name, address and phone number (NAP). A "structured citation" refers to a listing of your business in an online local business directory such as YP.com

Inconsistent citations might involve:

A difference in the business name (i.e. Smile Dentistry vs. Smile Dental Clinic) A wrong street address, a typo in street address numbers, or a missing suite number A wrong or different phone number, a toll free or call tracking number A different or wrong website URL

Citation Reporting

Sample citation building report

Each location receives its own citation report, outlining the site URL, listing URL, login details and more.

Results

Huntington BeachLong Beach

#6Listing includes photo & reviews

#3Listing includes photo & reviews

Locations that had received citation building jumped to the first page of Google in top ranking positions. Accompanied by customer reviews and pictures of the location and food, these listings help increase customers and sales.

Results

#14No photoNo reviews

When Franchise Locations Are Not Optimized:

The Laguna Niguel location has not been optimized and, as a result, appears on the second page of a Google search result at spot #14.

Less than 1% of potential customers will click on a search result that appears on the second page.

In addition to appearing low in search ranking, the search results appear without reviews or photos – further killing the chance a customer will select to eat at this location.

Contact Us

Contact Rachael Wachstein,

Vice President of Content Marketing for a free consultation:

(847) 945-1300

rwachstein@fishmanpr.com