In such a massive digital world, how can a small local franchise ever get noticed online? After owning my own franchise business and years of consulting hundreds of franchise owners, I’ve learned how to help them overcome this difficult question.
First of all, franchisees need to remember that even though the internet is worldwide, you aren’t targeting everyone around the globe. If you own a small franchise or business, it’s most important that your local audience can find you online. By optimizing your franchise for local searches first, you will be more likely to attract your target audience before your competitors do. Consider these five digital marketing tactics to increase your local SEO for franchises:
Update Details on Local Directories
If your franchise isn’t listed on local directories correctly (or at all), your business is basically nonexistent online!
To verify that a business truly exists, search engines like Google and Bing look for NAP data (Name, Address, and Phone Number) on local directories.
If this information is inconsistent or unavailable, it confuses search engines and hurts your SEO. So make sure your NAP details are available and consistent on various local listing sites to prevent this from happening. But don’t stop there—make it even easier for consumers to find your franchise by adding as much detail as possible to your listings. Include information such as franchise photos, hours of operation, and logos to boost your local SEO and improve your online presence.
Encourage Customer Reviews
If you want locals to find your franchise online, you need to get the locals talking about you. One easy way to start the conversation is by encouraging customer reviews. Any time a customer buys your products or purchases your services, ask them to consider writing a review—especially if they had a positive or unique experience with your franchise. You can even offer incentives like coupons and reward points to encourage reviews. Whether locals end up writing an extensive Yelp review or simply just mention your franchise on social media, this buzz can have a big influence on your local SEO for franchises.
Create More Valuable Content
If your franchise produces and shares fresh content often, keep up the good work! Every time you add new content to your website, search engines are enticed to crawl your site again, index the new content, and boost your SEO authority. Adding new content to your website can be easy, especially if your site has a blog.
Write and share new blog posts often and incorporate relevant and local keywords into each post to optimize these webpages. But don’t limit yourself to just blog posts. Your company can also share eBooks, videos, and webinars on its site to increase its local SEO. Just be sure that you’re sharing new, insightful content that appeals to your target market so that readers are compelled to do business with you!
Leverage the Art of Link Building
Fortunately, creating content also gives you the opportunity to create more links. Links are valuable because when search engines find several trustworthy links (quality over quantity) online that lead to your website, your search engine ranking will improve. You can share links on your social media accounts, online forums, company reviews, etc. Even if you already have tons of links out there leading to your site, there’s always room for improvement and it’s easy to add more. Whether you’re writing guest blog posts, publishing press releases, or creating free-to-use images, share links to this content with the worldwide web!
Invest in Paid Search
If your franchise needs to increase its local SEO for franchises quickly, you should consider investing in paid search. Paid search can be extremely valuable for franchisees because it can help them get noticed before their local competitors do. Most companies using paid search today usually invest in pay per click (PPC) ads, which allow you to bid on certain search terms that you want your franchise to appear for. If you improve your campaign quality and or choose to bid the highest, you can improve your chances that your franchise appears as a top result for certain searches. The best part about these ads is that you can track how your ads are performing, and even adjust them as you go!
Interested in learning more? I invite you to schedule a digital marketing assessment with a member of the StringCan team to review your brand’s online presence, website, search strategy, and more! Message me if you would like to schedule an assessment today.
