Stop trying to rank nationally when your customers are literally down the street.
I see this mistake constantly; franchise owners dumping money into broad SEO campaigns targeting massive keywords like “pizza delivery” or “auto repair” when their actual customers are searching for “pizza near me” or “car mechanic in downtown Springfield.” It’s like trying to catch fish in the ocean when there’s a fully stocked pond in your backyard.
Last month, I worked with a franchise owner who was spending $3,000 monthly on SEO for terms like “best burgers” while his three locations weren’t even showing up for “burgers in [his actual city].” We fixed that in six weeks, and his phone started ringing again.
What Makes Franchise SEO Different (And Why Most People Screw It Up)
Running SEO for multiple franchise locations is nothing like optimizing a single business. I learned this the hard way when I took on my first multi-location client back in 2019. Thought I could just duplicate what worked for location #1 across all 8 stores. Google absolutely destroyed their rankings within two months.
See, each location needs to prove it’s a real, unique part of its community. Not just another cookie-cutter storefront with a different address. Google’s gotten really good at spotting lazy franchise SEO where you just swap out city names and call it a day.
The worst part? When one location screws up, it can drag down the others. I watched a franchise lose visibility across all locations because three of them had conflicting business information online. Took six months to fully recover.
The Local Search Reality Check
Almost half of all Google searches are people looking for something nearby. I’m talking searches like “coffee shop open now” or “emergency plumber [neighborhood].” These aren’t researchers or comparison shoppers. They need something, and they need it today.
You know what drives me nuts? When someone searches for a local business on their phone, they’re usually going to visit or call within the next day. Sometimes within the hour. I’ve literally watched customers stand outside a restaurant, search for the menu, and walk away when they couldn’t find it. That’s money walking out the door because of bad local SEO.
Your Google Business Profile: The Make-or-Break Foundation
If you do nothing else after reading this, go check your Google Business Profile for each location. Right now. I’ll wait.
Back? Good. Now let me guess what you found: wrong hours, missing photos, unanswered questions, maybe even a “permanently closed” flag on one location because some random person reported it and nobody noticed.
Your GBP is what shows up when people search for you by name or find you in Maps. It’s free real estate on the search results page. Yet I see franchises treating it like an afterthought.
The NAP Consistency Obsession
NAP. Name, Address, Phone Number. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
I once spent three days cleaning up NAP inconsistencies for a fitness franchise. They had “Jim’s Gym – Downtown” on their website, “Jim’s Gym (Downtown Location)” on Yelp, “Jim’s Downtown Gym” on Facebook, and about 15 other variations scattered across the internet. Each inconsistency was basically telling Google “we’re not sure who we are either.”
Here’s the thing about NAP consistency: it’s not just about being neat and tidy. Google uses these matching signals to understand which listings belong to the same business. When your information doesn’t match, Google loses confidence in your business data. Lost confidence means lost rankings.
Keyword Research That Makes Sense for Local Business
Forget everything you think you know about keyword research. Your franchise doesn’t need to rank for “insurance” or “fitness.” You need to rank for what people in your specific area type into Google.
Real searches I’ve seen convert for my clients:
- “oil change near walmart on memorial drive”
- “24 hour gym with childcare [neighborhood]”
- “pizza delivery to [specific hotel name]”
- “[competitor name] alternative in [town]”
Notice something? They’re specific. They include landmarks, neighborhoods, competitor names, specific services. This is how real people search when they need something local.
The “Near Me” Revolution
Voice search changed everything. Nobody types formal queries anymore. They talk to their phones like they’re asking a friend for recommendations.
I tested this myself last month. Tracked every local search I made for a week. Not one started with “best” or “top rated.” They were all conversational: “where can I get my car inspected today” or “mexican food that delivers after 10pm.”
Your content needs to match how people talk, not how you think they should search.
Building Location Pages That Don’t Suck
Every franchise location needs its own page on your website. Not a template. Not a copy-paste job. A real page.
I just looked at a franchise website yesterday where all 23 location pages had the exact same 150-word description, just with different addresses. That’s not a location page, that’s a phone book listing.
Real location pages need:
- Stories about that specific location (when it opened, renovations, why you chose that neighborhood)
- The actual humans who work there (names, photos, how long they’ve been there)
- Directions using local landmarks (“across from the high school,” “in the strip mall with Target”)
- What makes that location different (specialized services, unique offerings, community connections)
- Reviews and stories from customers at that specific location
One of my clients, a pet grooming franchise, saw a 40% increase in appointment bookings after we rewrote their location pages to include groomer bios and pet photos from each specific salon. People want to know who’s going to be handling their dog, not read corporate marketing copy.
The Content Duplication Trap
Google hates duplicate content. Not “prefers unique content.” Hates duplicates.
I’ve seen entire franchise networks tank because they used the same service descriptions across all locations. One franchise I worked with had identical content on 15 location pages. Only one location ranked for anything. Guess which one? The original location whose content got copied everywhere else.
Writing unique content for each location is a pain in the ass, I know. But it works. Talk about local events you’ve participated in, community organizations you support, local problems you solve. A car repair franchise in a college town has different customer needs than one in a retirement community. Your content should reflect that.
Reviews: Your Secret Weapon (Or Your Worst Enemy)
Reviews aren’t just social proof anymore. They’re ranking factors. They’re content. They’re customer service opportunities.
But here’s what drives me crazy: franchises that only respond to negative reviews. Or worse, they use the same canned response for everything. “Thank you for your feedback. Please contact our manager.” That’s not a response, that’s a brush-off.
I worked with a restaurant franchise that started responding to every single review, good and bad, with personalized responses. Not only did their average rating go up (because people appreciated the interaction), but their local rankings improved too. Google sees engagement as a positive signal.
The Review Generation System
You need a system for getting reviews. Not hopes and wishes. A system.
What works:
- Train staff to ask happy customers for reviews at the point of sale
- Send a follow-up text 2 hours after service (while the experience is fresh)
- Make it stupid easy with direct links to your Google review page
- incentivize staff (carefully, within guidelines) to generate reviews
What doesn’t work:
- Buying reviews (Google will catch you and destroy your rankings)
- Offering discounts for reviews (against most platforms’ terms of service)
- Only asking when you’re desperate
One client increased their review volume by 300% just by adding a QR code to receipts that went straight to their review page. Simple, but nobody was doing it.
Link Building for Local Businesses
Local link building isn’t about guest posting on marketing blogs. It’s about being part of your actual community.
Real links I’ve gotten for franchise clients:
- Local newspaper coverage of their charity fundraiser
- Chamber of Commerce member directory
- High school booster club sponsor page
- Local blogger’s “best of” list
- Neighborhood association resource page
These aren’t high domain authority links. They’re local relevance links. Google knows the difference.
The Competitor Backlink Hack
This is my favorite trick. Use Ahrefs or even free tools to see who links to your competitors. Local newspapers, blogs, directories, they usually cover multiple similar businesses.
Found out a competitor got featured in a “local business spotlight”? Pitch yourself for the next one. They’re listed in a local directory you’ve never heard of? Get yourself in there too.
I helped a franchise owner discover 47 local directories where competitors were listed but they weren’t. Took two days to submit to all of them. Three months later, they’d jumped from page 3 to the top 5 for their main keywords.
Technical SEO: The Boring Stuff That Matters
Your website needs to work on phones. Period. Over half of local searches happen on mobile. If someone has to pinch and zoom to read your menu or find your phone number, they’re going to bounce.
Page speed matters even more for local businesses. Someone searching “coffee near me” is probably walking down the street or sitting in their car. They’re not going to wait 10 seconds for your site to load. They’ll click on the next result.
Basic technical stuff that franchises constantly mess up:
- Location pages that don’t have unique title tags and meta descriptions
- Schema markup that’s wrong or missing
- Mobile sites that hide important information behind tiny hamburger menus
- Contact forms that don’t work on iPhones
- Maps that don’t show your location
Measuring What Matters
Stop checking your rankings every day. I used to do this and it drove me insane. Rankings fluctuate. What matters is the trend over months, not daily movements.
Track stuff that actually impacts your business:
- How many calls you get from Google
- Direction requests in Google Maps
- Form fills from organic traffic
- Actual foot traffic (if you have door counters)
- Revenue from customers who found you online
One franchise client was panicking because their rankings dropped for “insurance agency.” Turns out, that keyword sent maybe 2 visitors a month. Meanwhile, their rankings for “[neighborhood] insurance agent” improved, and they’d gotten 15 new policies that month. Focus on what matters.
The Franchise SEO Reality
Look, franchise SEO isn’t sexy. It’s not about viral content or link building hacks. It’s about consistently doing the basics right across all your locations.
Most of your competitors suck at this. They’ve got outdated hours on Google, no reviews, duplicate content, broken mobile sites. Just by showing up consistently and giving Google accurate information, you’re already ahead of 70% of them.
The franchises I’ve seen succeed treat local SEO like they treat other operational systems. They have checklists, monthly audits, assigned responsibilities. The ones that fail treat it like a one-time project or something to think about “when business is slow.”
Your customers are searching for exactly what you offer, in their neighborhood, right now. The only question is whether they find you or the franchise down the street that bothered to get their SEO right.