As we quickly approach Halloween, it seems only fitting to discuss a fairly terrifying topic: search engine optimization for franchises. Unfortunately, this is a proposition that can stop some digital marketers dead in their tracks. How granular should you get with your keyword research? How should you effectively scale the implementation across all franchises? How much of a factor should location play? Never fear! Below we’ll discuss two strategies for attacking this veritable beast of a project. For the purpose of exemplifying the strategies to follow in this post, let’s assume that the name of the franchise is “Healthy Market.”

Strategy #1: Top-Down
Effectiveness Level: Above-average. Effort Level: Moderate.

Based on the details of an agreed-upon scope, it’s possible that the time and budget for a project simply do not allow you (or your team) to dive as deeply into your research as you probably should. That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to fully concede the quality of the work. At the highest level, there are two items that are critical to multi-location businesses: relevance and geographic specificity. This strategy is referred to as top-down because you’re creating a master keyword list at what most would consider a “corporate” level, which will be fitted with local modifiers and flow into the optimization of each franchise’s content and meta data.
Here’s how to utilize the top-down approach:

1. Complete your master keyword list using simple traffic data (provided by your keyword tool of choice)
2. Brainstorm possible, relevant local modifiers (i.e., city, town, district, neighborhood, street, etc.) for your keywords
3. Identify one keyword – the most highly trafficked relevant keyword – for which to optimize the on- and off-page elements of a given page
4. Attach to your selected keyword what you feel is your most appropriate local modifier, depending on how many franchises are in your area – for example, if you have several Columbus-area franchises, it may make the most sense to optimize by neighborhood (i.e., “healthy market short north,” “healthy market grandview," etc.)
5. Implement your new keyword into the on-page (repeat a number of times within the page content) and off-page (use keyword within title tag and meta description for the page) of your selected page
6. Additionally, be sure to use this keyword as anchor text for your link building efforts

Strategy #2: Bottom-Up
Effectiveness Level: High. Effort Level: Extreme.

Relevance is what digital marketers are continuously aiming to achieve. Depending on the target audience for a given project, the challenge is always how and where to present the most relevant content and messaging. If you’re looking to up the relevancy ante, dig into the regional nuances of search by injecting geo-specific value rankings into your keyword research.
I consider the bottom-up strategy to be a best practice for all franchise-based industries:

1. Complete your master keyword list using simple traffic data, just as with the top-down strategy
2. In batches, input the keywords from your master list into Google Insights for the metro area of a given franchise over a time frame of your choosing
3. Make note of the values each keyword returns, and rank them highest-to-lowest (Insights values reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time)
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for every franchise for which you’re responsible – this is where most of your time and attention will be dedicated
5. Identify one keyword – the most highly valued (see Step 3) relevant keyword – for which to optimize the on- and off-page elements of a given page
6. Attach to your selected keyword what you feel is your most appropriate local modifier
7. Implement your new keyword into the on-page (repeat a number of times within the page content) and off-page (use keyword within title tag and meta description for the page) of your selected page
8. Additionally, be sure to use this keyword as anchor text for your link building efforts

What other strategies have you seen/used with regard to SEO for franchises?