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Yeps, you might also want to checkout this Google post: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

If you have unique content on the actual franchise page (location etc.), the underlying pages could be duplicate content but use canonicals to point to the original content.

So you need at least one page per franchise to be unique (and use the proper markup if applicable).

Good luck

Have you checked Google Webmaster Console?

Thanks for all responses.

Here is an official Google reply on negative keyword types:

Negative exact would only not show when the exact term is the entire query. Negative phrase would not show anytime the term showed anywhere in the query in that order. Negative would not show anytime the entire term showed anywhere in the search query in any order.

Say you had the keyword "blue mercedes car" on broad match. Here's how the different versions of the negative keyword "fast blue" would affect this ad.

1. -fast blue (Negative)
   POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
   blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
   blue fast mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW
   mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
   car blue mercedes fast - WOULD NOT SHOW
   fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
   blue fast - WOULD NOT SHOW
   fast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

2. -"fast blue" (Negative Phrase)
   POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
   blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
   blue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
   mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
   car blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOW
   fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
   blue fast - WOULD SHOW
   fast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

3. -[fast blue] (Negative Exact)
   POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
   blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
   blue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOW
   mercedes fast car - WOULD SHOW
   car blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOW
   fast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW
   blue fast - WOULD SHOW
   fast blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOW

Note that we do not expand to synonyms, singular or plural, and other variations as in the case of expanded broad match. So, the negative keyword "Air" wouldn't block the term "Airbnb" since it is one word, but would block the phrase "Air Mattress" because it contains the word "Air".

I hope this helps

Rich snippets and the markup really help to stand out in some cases (reviews (stars), local signals and events), this in some cases is really nice for CTR.

And I second @peter for the use of JSON-LD....that's pretty awesome.

In general schema.org markup helps search engines understand the content within the context better. So when you makup data it helps SE's understand you pages better. I would go for the schema.org markup in json-ld to be flexible in how the you show the marked-up data in your content. So to answer your question I would go ahead and mark-it-up (but make sure you do it the right way). Good luck.

I agree, but wouldn't it make sense if you have a broad match negative keyword on a campaign level and the same on a shared list bus as a negative phrase match. The broad match would have covered the phrase match...

What are the thoughts on that?

2. we still have some annoying .php3 file extensions in many of our highest traffic pages and I would like to drop the file-extension (no further URL change). It was generally recommended to minimize other changes at the same time of domain migration, but on the other hand implementing later another 301 again may also not be optimum and it would save time to do it all at the same time. Shall I do the removal of the file extension at the same time of the domain migration or rather schedule it for 3 months later?

I would do it all in once.

3. On the same topic, would the domain migration be a good occasion to move to https instead of http at the same time, or also should we rather do this at a different time?

I would do it at the same time but make sure you have all variations of the URL http and https and www and non-www verified in GWT so you can point GWT the best one.

You should be ok doing it this way. Make sure you set all the correct 301's. I've done it this way multiple times, sometimes if I had a ranking it would fall but be back a bit stronger over time (depending on the authority of the domain).

Good luck.