Proper SEO structure for Franchise/ Franchisee websites

[Jeffvertus]

Hi Neighbors,

Franchise website design and development can be difficult, there’s no doubt about it. I had to find the right balance between a unique and unified brand identity, and a localized experience that accurately reflects the individual franchisees and their efforts.

Due to the many benefits, I have structured the to read _domain.com/location _

• domain.com = TLD
• /location = subfolder (location page)

I have also built a customized CMS (e.g. Drupal) and have given each location access to manage their location page (subfolder). To accommodate local SEO optimization, franchisees have complete control in terms of optimizing  their location page (subfolder). Title tags, meta description, Alt tags, etc...

Will any local optimization performed in the subfolder (location page) be stiffened because it was not done in the TLD but in the subfolder ?

[Jeffvertus]

Thank you very much everyone for your answers. They were very insightful. Took away a couple things that I did not implement.

This biggest thing I need to completely understand is:

If there are any SEO practices implemented in the franchisees page

Ex:  website.com/west-palm-beach

any efforts are not stiffened because the SEO was not implemented on  website.com but was instead implemented in /west-palm-beach (subfolder)

[jasongmcmahon]

Hi there,

I recommend that you put together some form of a style guide as to how a franchise should use their spot in the website - a what how & why they need to update their pages.

You could also apply a GMB account to each location, the sum of everyone's efforts will help in local SEO, if everyones doing things right.

[ClaytonJ]

Hi

Am not sure I would grant access to Franchisee's.  It is likely you could get a better outcome by managing yourself.  A lack of uniformity in messaging, uploading images without compressing etc. could lead to issues..  I am a bit of a control freak..

The other element to focus on is google my business.  That should enhance local foot traffic.

Hope that helps.

[Everett]

Hello Jeffvertus,

I think you've chosen a good URL structure.  The only additional advice I would give is to consider putting all of those within another directory called /locations/ so they aren't all off the root. This has many advantages when it comes to traffic analysis, SEO analysis and reporting, as you can easily limit whatever you're looking at into location specific or non-location specific data.

Subdomains would have been much harder to manage, although there isn't a whole lot of difference with regard to SEO, if we're to believe what Google tells us.

Did that answer your question?