3 Enduring SEO Essentials for Franchise Digital Marketing
The pace of change has never been greater than it is in the Information Age, and that’s especially true in franchise digital marketing. Google is always tweaking its algorithm, which often leaves web marketers to play catch-up, but there are some enduring essentials that can’t be overlooked.
Today’s post takes franchise digital marketing back to basic, reviewing 3 of these “enduring SEO essentials” that you can’t afford to get wrong!
Is my website/content “crawlable”?
“Crawlability” refers to how easily search engines can find your content, and should be a focus of your franchise digital marketing plan. While the old adage that “content is king” still holds true, even the best content won’t perform if it’s not “crawl-bot” friendly.
We assess the crawlability of your content based on two main factors:
- Can a search engine access your content?
- Can a crawler read your content?
Determining your site’s compliance with this criteria is primarily a technical task, though it usually boils down to having good website structure. As readers, we know that a good site takes into account graphics, content, functionality, element layout, and effective use of fonts, colors, and heading. But crawlers look for different landmarks: alt tags, effective headings, load times, and other backend details covered in our end-to-end web development service.
Does my website tell crawlers what’s important?
Another enduring SEO essential for franchise digital marketing involves making sure your website prioritizes the right content. Your site structure should help search engines understand which posts are most important so that they get the most attention. While it’s natural to assume that every page should be equally important, this only dilutes the performance power of your “money” pages.
With this in mind, the first thing you’ll need to do is determine which pages are most important for your website. For franchisors, these pages will feature call-to-action copy that directs readers to contact forms requesting calls or additional information. On the other hand, franchisee “money pages” will describe their products or services and direct readers to “Book Now” buttons. In each case, the goal is directing traffic towards pages that convert clients in a way that works intuitively with your business model – franchisors want additional franchisees, and franchisees want people to patronize their business. Obviously, neither business would benefit from having their prospects land on the “About Me” page or some random blog post, but crawlers don’t know this unless you tell them.
When Google crawl-bots visit a site, they land on the homepage, then try every single link, giving prominence to the pages they can see with a single click. In other words, Google bots naturally impose a “ranking hierarchy” based on your site structure, so that any pages in the navigation bar or site footer are given primacy.
Knowing this, you’ll need to reserve these spots in the navigation bar and footer for high-performance pages, while relegating less important content to sub-menu status.
Are my keywords answering the right queries?
Keywords are used to tell the search crawlers what your pages are about. When properly targeted, keywords put your pages in front of searchers whose queries match your services. Ideally, franchisor call-to-actions would pop up when terms like “franchises for sale” or “best franchise to buy” are searched, and a fitness franchisees site would appear for those seeking “best gyms in (city).”
Googlebots look for very specific keyword criteria:
- Does the keyword answer questions that real people have about the subject?
- Does the keyword include real terminology/jargon use to describe the topic?
- Does the keyword use the term in ways that real people search?
We cover this topic in detail in our discussion of search for franchise digital marketing, so visit https://clicktecs.com/services/search/ for a closer look at quality keyword research.
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