7 SEO Strategies for 2025 That Franchise and Multi-Location Marketers Can't Ignore

The battle for marketing investment is real. For many multi-location and franchise marketers, investing in a national and local search engine optimization (SEO) program is a no-brainer in terms of payoff, but limited budgets, stakeholder buy-in, and competing priorities often push SEO initiatives to the bottom of the list. 

Yet when key components are done right, organic and SEO-driven growth can become your best (and lowest cost!) form of new customer acquisition. This blog post aims to guide multi-location and franchise marketers through the essential components to consider when launching a national or local SEO program.

And heads up - you won't find any mention of meta titles or alt tags in this post. We're going beyond the obvious and into what can really move the needle for your business and conquering a strong multi-location SEO strategy.

1. High-Level Technical Audit

You don’t know what you don’t know. Starting with a full technical audit of your website is a great way to start gathering data on key areas that are holding visitors back from converting. The goal is to identify key areas for easy optimization, not to solve every error your website is throwing. Marketers can often get blinded by the errors and recommendations made by these types of website audits and reports, so we recommend evaluating it through the lens of ‘if we improved 3 key areas of the website to improve conversion rates, what would they be?’ At Netsertive we simplify this process by looking at key performance metrics such as:

• Page Speed and Load Times: It still holds true that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load (Think with Google). And with the majority of visitors researching and browsing using their phones, ensuring fast load times across devices is an easy way to improve performance bottlenecks.

• Website Issue Details: Use Google Core Web Vitals reports to better understand user experience and site stability, with key metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which are basically website render times, responsiveness and layout shift scores from actual visitors. Common fixes here include reducing your page size (best practice is less than 500KB for a page and all its resources), limiting a page to 50 resources for best performance on mobile, and using an external test to recommend fixes to your page.

• Crawlability and Indexability: Search engines need to effectively crawl and index your site to get shown in search engines results. Examine your site's robots.txt file and XML sitemap to confirm that search engines can effectively crawl and index the site, while checking for potential blockages on important page.

• JavaScript Errors: JavaScript errors usually occur when a plugin or theme executes a script which doesn't follow the proper coding guideline or has errors in the code. While this may not affect the actual user experience, it does tell Google you have an issue on your website, which can impact your SEO. 

2. User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Analysis

Similar to a technical website audit, a UX and CRO analysis will identify additional areas where users get stuck. In an ideal world you have a strong understanding of your customers’ digital journey and the role that your digital presence, digital advertising, website and location pages play in converting that user. The discrepancy between your vision vs reality can be surfaced by understanding your user journey and experience, which provides valuable ideas for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) or how to increase the percentage of visitors who convert. Key areas to look at include:

• UX Heuristic Evaluation: A UX heuristic analysis is a way to check how user-friendly a website or app is by following common usability rules (or heuristics). It's like a checklist that usability experts use to spot problems that might make a site hard to use. The goal is to find and fix these issues so users have a smoother and better experience, and includes assessing consistency, feedback mechanisms, and error prevention strategies.

• User Journey Mapping: Analyze the user journey to identify key touchpoints and friction areas, ensuring that navigation is logical and intuitive. This helps guide users toward desired actions effectively. Check out metrics such as crawl depth and how many clicks the users have to get to to get their right content. Turning yourself into a digital secret shopper can reveal wonders!

• Content Layout and Readability Assessment: 85% of a general audience understand information at an eighth-grade reading level, so evaluate how content is presented, including font sizes, spacing, and visual hierarchy, to ensure information is easily digestible and engaging for users. 

• Content and Design Optimization: Enhance the clarity, relevance, and placement of your content to guide users toward taking action. This includes optimizing visuals, simplifying navigation, and ensuring that your CTAs are prominent and persuasive.

• Form and Funnel Optimization: Assess and optimize your site's conversion funnels, focusing on reducing abandonment rates and simplifying user actions. By refining forms and processes, you make it easier for visitors to convert and get more local leads. 

At Netsertive, other fun data we love to dig into to gauge a user’s website experience includes:

• Rage Clicks: Rage clicks are when users repeatedly click or tap on an element in a website or app, indicating frustration
• Dead Clicks: Dead clicks mean that users are clicking or tapping somewhere where they expect a user action, and they're not getting it.
• Clickbacks: Clickbacks are when a user visits a page and instantly hits the back button, indicating they navigated somewhere they did want to be. 

Ideally, what search engines prioritize as a good user experience maps to what your ideal customer’s digital journey looks like, to ultimately enhance user satisfaction and conversion.

3. Security

Spending the first half hour of your day on two factor authentication probably makes you want to pull your hair out, but I guarantee it's better than dealing with a cyber attack. 92% of IT leaders say cyber attacks are occurring more frequently today (Keeper Security) and it’s the Brand’s job to keep your network and systems secure. The main areas to evaluate and ensure are secure are:

• Ensure Sitewide HTTPS: Verify that the site is secured with HTTPS to protect user data and enhance trustworthiness across your entire site. This means that you have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate that is sitewide and enforced, vs page-to-page where users go back and forth between encrypted and unencrypted connections.

• Internal Security Policy: Regularly inspect who has access to sensitive data and systems, if their passwords are secure, and limit access to essential users to ensure critical information is protected. A single form with sensitive information or password entry on the unencrypted side could compromise the entire site.

• Regular Updates and Patches: Keep your website's software, plugins, and themes up to date. Regular updates often include security patches that fix vulnerabilities, making it harder for hackers to exploit your site.

It’s not sexy, but security matters and continues to grow in importance. Without it, you could be at risk of cybersecurity attacks and data loss.

4. Site Structure

The structure of your website has a large impact on SEO, especially at the local level. The biggest factor (and ongoing debate we’re ready to put to bed) is related to whether your site follows a Subdirectory or Subdomain structure:

• Subdirectory Structure: Contains subfolder within the main website's domain
• Subdomain Structure: Hosts a separate website on a different domain than the main website

At Netsertive we’re a huge fan of the subdirectory structure because of its SEO power. Search engines rely on well-organized content to understand your site’s hierarchy and topical relevance to searchers, and Subdirectories optimize your website’s structure and provide clear signals about the organization and depth of your knowledge and content. In addition, all of your locations can benefit from the domain authority built over the years, working double duty to drive more organic local leads to your site. 

With Subdomains, Google treats them as distinct websites, which means they crawl and index subdomains separately and may not fully benefit from backlink building and other digital PR your main website has built over the years, not to mention that it can be harder to maintain your website overall.

But if we have subdirectories, how do I deal with duplicate content!? Ensure you have localized content on every location so that Google doesn’t flag you for duplicate content. At Netsertive, we use centralized bulk management tools to ensure that location pages follow a similar look and feel yet have localized reviews, testimonials, images, promotions and more so that location pages contribute to your local SEO strategy instead of dinging it. 

5. A/B and Multivariate Testing

While A/B and Multivariate testing is technically a part of a strong Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategy, it’s so important we gave it its own section. A/B testing is where you isolate testing to just one variable (a call to action for example), while multivariate testing means testing a combination of variations at one time. While both provide great ways to continually test, learn, and improve upon conversion rates, we love A/B testing because of it’s simple way to isolate one variable and clearly understand the impact of the change. 

Very small changes can have outsized impacts when done over time. At Netsertive, simple A/B tests we look at related to websites include:

• Call to Action (CTA) Buttons: Testing different colors, text, and placement of CTA buttons to see which combination encourages more clicks.
• Headlines and Subheadlines: Experimenting with various headlines to determine which wording captures the most attention and encourages users to stay on the page.
• Images and Videos: Comparing different visuals to see which ones are more engaging and keep visitors interested.
• Form Layouts: Testing different form designs and fields to find the most user-friendly version that maximizes form completions.
• Content Placement: Rearranging sections of a webpage to find the most logical and effective layout for guiding users through the content.

Even small changes, when tested and optimized over time, can lead to substantial improvements in conversion rates. By continually testing and refining elements on your website, you can make data-driven decisions that enhance user experience and ultimately drive better results.

6. Local SEO

We made it to the hard part! Doing local search engine optimization well across all of your business locations. This is often where multi-location and franchise marketers fall down, because of the multitude and complexity of local SEO tactics. While it can feel overwhelming, here’s the top items we recommend focusing on for the biggest impact:

Localized Content Strategy

• Localized Keyword Research: Conduct thorough keyword research specific to each location to find keywords that resonate with local audiences.
• Relevant Content Development: Create content that is tailored to each location. This includes blog posts about community events, local partnerships, and location-specific promotions. Such content not only engages local readers but also improves your site's authority.

Backlink Building from Local Sources

• Local Relationships: Build relationships with local businesses, organizations, and news outlets to acquire high-quality backlinks. These local backlinks enhance your domain authority and signal relevance to search engines.

Consistent NAP Citations

• Consistency Across Listings: Ensure that your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all online listings, including your website, social media profiles, and directories.
• Impact on Local SEO: Consistency helps prevent confusion among search engines and potential customers, leading to better local search rankings and higher customer trust.

Google Business Profile (GBP) Optimization

• Accurate Business Information: Make sure your business information is accurate and up-to-date. This includes your business name, address, phone number, and website.
• Photos and Reviews: Add high-quality photos and encourage customers to leave reviews. Positive reviews and engaging photos can significantly enhance your business's visibility and credibility.
• Regular Posts: Use GBP posts to share updates, promotions, and events. Regularly posting on your GBP helps keep your audience informed and engaged.

Local Schema Markup

• Structured Data Implementation: Implement local business schema markup on your website. This structured data helps search engines understand the details of your business, such as your name, address, phone number, operating hours, and services offered.
• Enhanced Search Appearance: Properly implemented schema markup can enhance your search results with rich snippets, making your business stand out in search engine results pages (SERPs).

With all of the recent changes in AI and Google’s search algorithm, establishing that core local infrastructure of local information across your website and digital properties is crucial. These are the inputs Platforms are looking at to inform their new algorithms and AI generated search results, which means if you don’t have it well structured and optimized you’re going to miss out. 

“The more you've structured your data, the more search engines can parse it, the higher all of your pages will rank” Aazir Munir, Product Manager at Netsertive

7. Off-Site SEO

Last but certainly not least, let's dive into Off-Site SEO, which involves actions taken outside of your own website that impact your search engine rankings and influence how people discover and engage with your content. This includes backlink building, keyword strategy, content development, and digital PR to increase domain authority and SEO over time.

Key Elements of Off-Site SEO

Unique Differentiator: The key to excelling in Off-Site SEO is to identify your unique differentiator and ensure it is infused into your tactics. In a competitive digital space, understanding who you are and what makes you different is crucial to establishing high domain authority specific to your niche. You can’t be everything to everyone, and building meaningful, specific content and authority in your domain is how you win with SEO.

Specific Tactics

1. Link Building: Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable sources to enhance your site's authority and relevance. Build relationships with industry influencers, local businesses, and authoritative websites to earn these valuable links.

2. Quality Content: Generate high-quality, relevant content that aligns with your site’s goals and keyword targeting. Conduct competitive link gap analyses to identify opportunities for content that will attract backlinks and improve your search visibility.

3. Digital PR: Engage in digital PR to increase your domain authority over time. This involves securing mentions and links from authoritative sites and publications. Digital PR helps improve your brand's visibility and credibility online.

Strategy for Multi-Location Brands

Managing Off-Site SEO for multi-location or franchise brands can be complex due to the scale and diversity of locations. Here’s how to approach it effectively:

1. Cohesive Strategy: Develop a cohesive off-site SEO strategy that aligns with your overall brand identity but also allows for local customization. This ensures consistency while catering to the unique aspects of each location.

2. Local Backlinks: Prioritize building local backlinks for each location. This enhances local SEO and helps each location rank better in local search results. Collaborate with local businesses, organizations, and influencers to acquire these backlinks.

3. Localized Content and PR: Tailor your content and PR efforts to highlight the unique offerings and events of each location. This approach not only improves your local SEO but also engages the local audience more effectively.

Focus on What Matters

With thousands of tactics and tweaks available, it’s essential to focus on what matters most. Identify the key elements that will have the biggest impact on your SEO efforts and measure their effectiveness. Start with the most critical aspects and gradually expand your strategy as you see results.