Setting the Right Franchise SEO Goals for 2018

Setting the Right Franchise SEO Goals for 2018

April 25, 2018 By

Today’s post shares some big-picture guidelines to help you set strong franchise SEO goals for 2018. 

Start by increasing franchise SEO education at the corporate level. 

Before you even think about the micro-adjustments your franchisees will need to make, your corporate clients and partners need a basic understanding of SEO. This needn’t be an exhaustive education – executive-level decision-makers should be doing what they do best, not mastering the art of franchise SEO. But they do need to know what they’re paying for, along with what it will take to bring their constituents up to speed. The best way to do this is through a direct consultation with a franchise SEO team like ours who can sum up what’s needed, how long it will take, and how much money it will make you in return.

Reflect on your performance in 2017. 

Sometimes you need to look back before you can move forward. In this case, it’s essential. While sharing general best-practices for franchise SEO is helpful early on, the only way to sustain your growth is to base decisions off the real-time data your business is giving you.

Take a look back at 2017, starting with the hard metrics. Quantitative analyses of marketing ROI and product life cycles can tell you a lot about upcoming opportunities and potential money-pits. This is a great time to put your integrated franchise SEO software to use. Otherwise, go over the numbers manually and try to identify promising growth spurts or popular products to focus on, along with any instances of diminishing returns.

Look beyond SERP rankings. 

Earning a top-10 search engine results page (SERP) ranking is crucial to your brand’s online success. And the coveted number-1 spot gets almost half of the total search traffic for those keywords. That translates to more eyes on your franchise opportunity, to say nothing of the huge authority boost that spot is associated with.

So yes, climbing up the SERP should be part of the plan. That’s not going to change in 2018.

But topping the SERP isn’t all there is to franchise SEO. If landing the number-one spot on a handful of keywords is where your franchise SEO goals start and end, you’re missing major opportunities for demographic research and, most importantly, sales.

Some franchises had to learn this the hard way. After paying a premium to race to the top spot, they struggle to identify any tangible return on their investment. Sure, their sites were getting more daily traffic, but their conversion rates didn’t budge.

Don’t fall into the SERP tunnel-vision trap.

Instead, your franchise SEO plan should target conversion goals that complement your money-making strategies, whatever they may be. For franchisors hoping to attract quality candidates to grow their brand, that might mean getting people to download the info packet PDF for your franchise opportunity. For franchisees, the conversion goal might be about booking an appointment or ordering a product online.

In either case, these money-making franchise SEO goals go way beyond the #1 SERP spot, shifting the focus to concrete user actions that put you one step closer to closing a sale.

If you’re looking for hands-on assistance with your franchise SEO planning and performance in 2018, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 866-311-7189.

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