Google Business is an essential part of whatever kind of business you use. Google Business allows you to do many things related to your business.
Optimize it for SEO, make it visible to everyone, and put you on Google Maps. Your profile on Google Business integrates with almost all Google products and other search engine results.
The importance of Google Business gets higher for franchises. Because franchises have different locations under the same name, it gets harder to maintain a healthy and successful SEO.
That is why there is a special SEO called franchise SEO. You focus on making your SEO more optimized for franchises and multiple locations with little tweaks.
When you are setting up your Google Business, you also have to do franchise SEO on your profile. This franchise SEO is also different than traditional SEO on Google Business.
You need to be aware of several tips and tricks to do franchise SEO correctly on Google Business.
If you do it wrong, you might miss out on potential customers because you don’t show up on the search results.
Ways To Use Google Business for Franchise SEO
Setting Up Google Business The Right Way
The very first thing to do is set up your Google Business correctly. The step to open up the account is the same for every business but putting in all the information and setting it up is different.
Because you are a franchise, you have multiple locations. That is why you can’t try to optimize for just one location. Each location requires a different effort.
Each location page has to be different and show the customers what they can expect in that specific location.
That is why, while putting in all the information, you need to put different pictures, explanations, bios, and other things.
If all this information is the same in each location, the customers can’t find what they are looking for.
Prepare all of the pictures, and write down different bio and explanations. It takes a lot of effort and possibly time.
However, if you don’t set up your Google Business account the right way from the beginning, the optimization won’t be any good.
You have to show your customers what they can expect. Also, putting different information on each location page makes for a better crawl in Google search.
Managing And Updating Your Information
A business is ever-changing. Anything about a business might change. Following these changes as customers could be hard and also hard for business owners.
You always have to be on top of the information you provide online. Once a piece of information gets outdated, you have to change it as soon as possible. This especially gets more important for franchises that do franchise SEO.
Because franchises operate in multiple locations and have a wider audience, the latest information is more important.
Always update your information and make sure it is recent on your Google Business profile. It will help you to attract more clients and help your franchise’s SEO efforts.
While managing and updating all of your information, you have to be considerate of your SEO efforts.
Especially when you are changing the description or another detail, make sure to always mention your business and location together.
Putting in your website could also help you to get more discovery through franchise SEO for other locations.
Optimizing Your Profile And For Each Location
As a franchise, you might have 2, 20, or maybe even 200 different locations across the United States or the world. If all your location pages are the same, this will hurt your franchise SEO efforts.
When Google crawls your location pages to list on its search and Maps, it looks at how successful it regards SEO.
Because you have to do different SEO for each location, your profiles on each location must have good optimization. There are many ways to optimize your locations differently.
Some details regarding your business might be similar to other locations. Your website or contact information might be centralized, which is okay for Franchise SEO.
However, the description, pictures, reviews, and all other details have to be different. You have to optimize the description of your location according to that location.
These texts must also accommodate franchise SEO efforts. Location-specific keywords and pictures play well here.
Other than that, connecting your social profiles help you to make more effort toward franchise SEO.
Use Geotag Photos To Increase Local Discovery
Photos are everything in any business. This gets more important with franchises since you have several locations. Putting these pictures gives you a handful of benefits for your franchise SEO.
They help you to rank higher on Google searches, people can find you easier, and your customers know what they can expect.
While you are adding pictures, you must also add a geotag. You can geotag pictures, allowing Google to understand where the pictures are from.
This way, it puts you in front of people searching in that area or for that area. This is a big benefit for your franchise SEO efforts because it only focuses on that location.
Adding photos to your Google Business profiles also signals to Google that you are active. When you are active on Google’s platform, Google makes you seen more than those who are not as active as you are.
That is why adding pictures frequently to your Google Business is a great benefit for visibility purposes for franchise SEO.
Your customers can also add their own pictures. Encouraging them to do so might be a good idea.
Be On Top Of Your Reviews
When searching for a business online, you check the reviews instead of checking the website. Most people make their purchases or visits according to the reviews on Google or on other platforms.
There are many benefits to having good reviews on your website, and franchise SEO gets a huge boost from it.
The more review you have, the higher you will be on various searches across Google. Because you are in a certain location, you will come out only in that location which is what franchise SEO is all about.
However, there might be reviews that are not fully accurate. There might be problems with reviews your clients leave. It is up to you to review them frequently.
Look at your reviews frequently on your Google Business page. Read them and see if there is any misinformation or an unpleasant customer.
Always contact those clients to resolve the issue or ask them to change the misinformation. If a customer wasn’t happy with the service they received, offering a free fix might be a good idea.
Getting constant reviews on your Google Business is important. If those reviews are good reviews, it helps your franchise SEO practices everywhere.
Getting reviews frequently also means that you are active and doing business. This helps Google to determine if you are still in business or not.
Use Local SEO In Business Description
When you set up your Google Business in multiple locations, each of those locations will have a place to write a description.
This description might be about anything, your services, location, business, and many more. Doing a mix of these is always a good idea. However, this business description shouldn’t be just plain text.
Implementing Local And Franchise SEO Within This Business description is a must. By implementing these strategies, you can easily list your business and location on the search results.
This is a part of the franchise SEO strategy, and you do something similar on your website. Just like you do it on your website and its content, you should do the same on the business description.
You first need to find keywords that your potential customers use in your area. Once you have a good set of keywords, you need to write a small text that is easy to understand and not very complicated.
While writing the text, you need to put these keywords within the text but not too much. If you stuff the keywords too much within a short description, it will do more damage than help.
Have Consistent Branding
The whole idea of a franchise is to offer the same service and give the same user experience in each location.
Since this is the case with your physical locations, you have to provide the same online. Across your different locations, your profile and website’s layout must be the same.
This is a bit tricky for franchise SEO because if everything is the same, Google might think it is a duplicate.
But because you are doing it on Google Business, you don’t have to worry about it because Google does it for you. The same user experience helps your customers to identify you better.
If your customers know you, they will visit your store more frequently. Because they already know your business. This is an important aspect of franchise SEO that you must also use on your Google Business profile.
Read: 6 Things To Consider While Designing Website For Your Franchise Business
Sources
Location3 Media, Linkedin, Forbes
Amit Gupta is the founder of DrFranchises – a digital marketing agency that helps brands rank better on Google Maps through local SEO strategies. Amit has over 11 years of experience in digital marketing, SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing. He’s also the owner of multiple franchises and has helped countless brands achieve success online. When he’s not working, Amit can be found playing with his dog.