Business First Family Business, Accounting, Finance, Investing, Marketing And Management
Digital marketing is just as vital for brick and mortar stores as it is for online businesses. I’ve gathered out top tips to ensure that your franchise flourishes. Through a combination of unpaid and paid PPC management efforts, you can significantly increase your franchise location’s position in search and gain the traffic that can help you gain success.
1. Cultivate Valuable Backlinks
With Google getting stricter about which backlinks are good and which ones are spam, cultivating good ones is more important than ever. The search engine confirmed in 2014 that including quality backlinks in their search criteria produced better results. Take time to get involved in your local community. Sponsor a youth team or a local charity. Offer to host a local MeetUp group’s gatherings. The links to you, their sponsor, on their website not only leads more organic traffic your way. It also shows search engines that these organizations find your franchise worth linking.
2. Use Longtail Keywords In Your PPC Ads.
Often, you will find that shorter keywords in PPC campaigns have a lot of expensive competition from national brands. To focus on the traffic that you really want, hone in on longtail keywords that get closer to the heart of what a searcher is looking for. Instead of “HVAC” or even “HVAC repair,” for instance, work on keywords like “AC troubleshooting” that may have less competition. Google’s Keyword Planner is a great place to start when researching competition and search volume on relevant keywords. By coming up with long ones with lower competition, you can make your PPC dollar go farther.
3. Use A Mix Of Paid And Unpaid Tactics.
Many people head into online promotion asking whether they should focus on organic search or paid search engine placement. The answer is, it takes a combination of the two to find success. Paid advertising allows you quick and easy access to new prospects from the time you start your first campaign. A sustained content marketing strategy allows you to index well for relevant search terms for a long period of time. Together, they allow you the access you need at more affordable prices.
4. Optimize For Local Search.
Ensure that your information is filled out on Google My Business and other locally-oriented directories. Google says that entering complete and accurate data, managing and responding to reviews and adding relevant photos can all help your ranking in local search. This way, when people in your area are looking for businesses like yours, they are more likely to find you.
5. Create Pages For Each Location.
If you own more than one franchise location, create a page on your website dedicated to each one. Make sure that each has unique content so that they will both rank well and not be dismissed as duplicates. This allows you to index well in local search in all of the places where you have a business.
6. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-friendly.
When people are looking for a business, they are often doing so from their mobile phones. Your site is not likely to show up in search if it is not well-optimized for mobile searchers. Small image file sizes, page sizes that adjust to the screen and scripts that run well on mobile are all factors that can affect mobile marketing success. Each time you add a new element to your site, run it through a mobile checker like the one that Google provides to make sure your site looks great on every platform.
Through a careful use of paid and unpaid search marketing strategies, you can significantly increase the visibility of your franchise business. Be consistent and smart and keep up with the latest best practices for PPC campaigns and SEO on your site. Over time, you will find that your site is easier for searchers to find and that you get more access to the local customers who can make your franchise a success.
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