How are customers and clients finding your franchise locations online? Online local search rankings play a crucial part in a franchisee’s success. Offer a local SEO service to your franchisees to help them get found in local searches to increase unit sales. Contact Rachael Wachstein at Fishman PR to learn more 847-945-1300 rwachstein@fishmanpr.com

1. Boost Local SEO for
Franchise Locations
Case Study

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 Restaurant
123 Main Street
Chicago, IL 85031
Restaurant Hours:

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Citation Reporting
Sample citation building report
Each location receives its own citation
report, outlining the site URL, listing URL,
login details and more.

10. Results
Huntington BeachLong Beach
#6
Listing
includes
photo &
reviews
#3
Listing
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.

11. Results
#14
No photo
No 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.

12. Contact Us
Contact Rachael Wachstein,
Vice President of Content Marketing for a free consultation:
(847) 945-1300
rwachstein@fishmanpr.com