Search Engine Optimization For Franchise
Like any other business sector, franchise businesses are full of competition among firms with similar offerings. And for that reason, most of these enterprises fail during the first few months of operation. Fortunately, any franchisor can invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to secure its place online.
This guide introduces you to franchise SEO. You’ll learn what SEO is, its benefits, best practices, and much more. Read on to learn more.
An Overview Of Franchise SEO
SEO is a broader concept involving several strategies used to improve and promote a website’s visibility. Simply put, it refers to optimizing a business site to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), notably Google. And when your website ranks high, more people can see what your business can offer in terms of products or services.
But before you start developing an SEO strategy for your franchise business, you might want to test the visibility of your website first. This test can help you implement SEO strategies suited to your business and manage how your website appears on online searches.
However, managing your company’s SEO might not be as easy as you might lack the proper knowledge to complete the task. For that reason, your business will be in a better position when you work with digital marketing experts such as Digital Shift to help you develop a strategy that fits your business’s needs. These professionals can help you manage your Google Ads, Google My Business profile, and keyword optimization to help your website rank higher on SERPs.
But why should you implement an SEO strategy for your franchise business?
Benefits Of SEO To Franchises
Investing in SEO might seem like an expense to a company. However, if executed correctly, SEO comes with unlimited benefits. Here are some benefits your business can get when you implement your SEO strategy the right way:
- Helps Boost Credibility
You can’t ignore credibility when it comes to growing your business. That’s especially true since you’ll attract more customers and boost your sales if your company is credible.
On one hand, if your company isn’t credible, customers can turn to your competitors instead. For that reason, you must find effective ways to promote your franchise enterprise’s credibility. That’s where the power of SEO comes in.
As explained earlier, SEO involves all the techniques and tactics that help a website rank higher on SERPs. And when your company site ranks high, users will believe your brand is credible and trustworthy, meaning they’ll likely visit your site.
- Enables You To Reach More People
In every business, owners must strive to reach more people to succeed. The more people you reach, the higher the chances of generating more leads and turning these leads into sales. That ensures your company has the resources to provide better products or services to your clients. One of the most effective approaches to reaching more people is by optimizing your websites on SERPs following an effective SEO strategy.
Optimizing your website means your business will be more visible to a wider audience. In effect, more people will know about your firm’s existence. Therefore, if you want to reach more people and generate more leads for your franchise company, invest in SEO.
- Provides 24/7 Promotion
Promoting your franchise enterprise is necessary if you want to find customers. This involves sending and delivering emails or cold-calling your targets. Without any form of promotion, no client will know about your franchise products or services. Moreover, just promoting your firm might not be good enough to help connect with a considerable number of customers. For that reason, business experts recommend you promote your business continuously.
Fortunately, you can invest in SEO to promote your franchise without much hassle. As noted earlier, SEO can help make your company website more visible to more people. And because SEO efforts don’t stop after work hours, you virtually have 24/7 promotion for your firm. For instance, people will continue to engage with your online materials even outside business working hours. That goes a long way in contributing to your marketing efforts.
- Boosts User Experience
One important thing you should do to ensure your company grows is to improve your website’s user experience. With a better user experience, more people will likely remain engaged with your brand. On the other hand, poor user experience turns away customers, which can hurt your sales. Therefore, you must find ways to improve your company’s user experience. You can achieve that by leveraging the power of SEO.
That said, user experience is one major component of SEO. For instance, consider providing a search bar on your company website. If your website uses a lot of images or videos, you can use compression software to minimize the images’ or videos’ file size. That way, you can improve your website’s loading time. These measures can help enhance the user experience, thus boosting your brand’s engagement.
- Enables Your Brand To Gain A Competitive Edge
You know your company can offer quality products or services to your clients. However, that might not go as well if no one can see your products or services.
Today, most people shop for their needs, look for services they need, or find business opportunities online. Therefore, even if you manage a brick-and-mortar store, most customers will first check you online before they physically visit your shop. But that might not be possible if you don’t have an online presence. Fortunately, you can invest in SEO for your franchise firm to gain a competitive edge.
With better SEO strategies, your brand will become more visible online. As such, more people will visit your site and your business. That can go a long way in ensuring you remain on top of the competition.
Tips For Franchise SEO
As you’ve read in the previous section, investing in SEO for your franchise enterprise has numerous benefits. However, you must implement the right SEO techniques. Here are a few tips you can use to implement in your business:
- Consider The Google My Business Strategy
One effective approach to promoting franchise SEO is opting for a Google My Business strategy. This is a free business listing provided by Google and allows you to provide details about your firm. These can be its location, products, or services, among others.
Google My Business provides you with a cost-effective way to promote the visibility of your enterprise. As such, when people search for products or services related to your company, they’ll likely find you. That is especially true since it shows customers where and how to find you. However, you must work with a reliable Google Business Manager or service provider so this strategy works to your advantage.
- Post Content On Social Media
In the past, people used social media platforms for social interactions or engagement purposes. However, that has changed over time, and most customers search for products and services through various social media channels these days. As a result, most franchises have also decided to promote their firms on social media.
Today, various social media channels have millions of active users worldwide. Therefore, taking your franchise form there ensures you connect with a large audience. However, you must utilize the most suitable social media platform for your target audiences. Think Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Invest In Content Marketing
Content is one essential pillar of any digital marketing strategy, and SEO is no exception. Content marketing refers to creating and posting materials like blogs, videos, and photos online. You’d want to leverage the power of content marketing for your franchise firm for various reasons. But the most important one is to promote your brand’s engagement.
That’s especially true since most people visit online business platforms to find more information about the business. Therefore, posting a video, a picture, or any other material will help attract more people. Doing so enhances your franchise company’s visibility, which goes a long way in your digital marketing strategy.
Moreover, you must post authoritative content online. You can achieve that by posting online materials that add value to consumers. Otherwise, no one will visit your company platforms if they can’t find helpful information from your content.
Additionally, optimizing your content for the most targeted keywords will help your content appear on the first pages of SERPs. As a result, more and more people will consume your content. And that increases your possibility of generating more quality leads that you can convert into paying customers in the future.
- Work With Influencers
For the past few years, influencers have become essential components of online marketing as they help to promote businesses. For that reason, you can hire one of them to help grow your franchise company.
Also known as social media personalities, most influencers have thousands of followers, locally and internationally. Therefore, working with them to spread the word about your products or services exposes your brand to a vast audience. That also enhances your franchise SEO.
You must also understand that influencers have already developed great trust with their followers. As such, they can influence how their audiences make decisions or choices. Therefore, hiring one who can encourage their followers to visit your online franchise store can boost your visibility and SEO. However, ensure you find the right influencers in your niche.
- Encourage Clients To Leave Reviews Online
Although most companies are genuine, some aren’t. Some people pretending to offer products or services online are scammers looking for ways to access data and steal money from customers. For that reason, most customers are cautious when engaging with any brand online.
To ensure they don’t lose data and money to hackers, customers always consider reading online reviews of a particular company to determine its genuineness. A firm with many positive reviews is considered genuine and will likely attract a lot of organic traffic. That’s why you must encourage your existing customers to leave positive opinions about your franchise online.
You’ll attract more new clients to your site when you have many positive reviews. These positive reviews also work as your word-of-mouth marketing. The more people say positive things about your company, the more people will trust and work with you.
- Optimize Your Company Website For Mobile Devices
Mobile devices have impacted how consumers do their shopping. This technology is what has led to a drastic increase in online shopping as people prefer to utilize these devices over others because of their portability.
Therefore, a mobile user-friendly website allows more people to connect with your brand. That also promotes your brand’s visibility. It’s also one of the best ways to boost your sales. So, ensure you optimize your company website for smartphones, tablets, etc.
- Increase The Speed Of Your Website
It’s no doubt that customers are always busy and will want to take just a second to find information on your website. Therefore, no one will be willing to visit your company site if it takes forever to load the page.
On the other hand, having a website that loads information fast encourages more people to visit your store and remain engaged with it. That ensures you gain more traffic to promote your franchise enterprise’s visibility and SEO strategy.
You can adopt various techniques to improve your website loading time. These include optimizing or compressing images, reducing redirects, caching web pages, activating browser caching, choosing the best performance-optimized hosting solution, and removing all unnecessary characters from your website’s JavaScript source code.
- Build Backlinks
Another great way to promote your franchise SEO is to build backlinks. This is a practice of developing links from another site to yours but in the same niche. In simple terms, it involves linking your online blogs to others on different sites.
Building backlinks enables you to boost your franchise SEO in various ways. For instance, it helps promote the credibility of your brand. This is especially true since more people will trust your products or services when your brand ranks high online.
Also, establishing backlinks enables you to get more organic traffic from referral websites. All these ensure your franchise ranks high online to be more visible. However, you must create quality backlinks from reputable publishers.
- Ask For Referrals
Lastly, you can consider asking for referrals to promote your franchise SEO. This involves requesting your existing customers to encourage the people they know to your company. As such, more people will learn about your company’s existence and probably visit its online store. That also helps increase the visibility of your firm.
While that’s the case, most customers might not be willing to market your franchise for free. For that reason, consider developing a referral incentive program in your organization. They help encourage more existing customers to bring more business to your company.
Takeaway
Investing in SEO is the way to grow your franchise business. It helps promote the visibility of your company to connect with more customers. As such, you’ll gain more leads and sell more. Follow this guide to help implement the right SEO strategies for your firm.
Mustafa Al Mahmud is the Founder of Gizmo Concept and also a professional Blogger, SEO Professional as well as Entrepreneur. He loves to travel and enjoy his free moment with family members and friends.