How to Scale Multi-Location Rankings with Franchise SEO

James Dooley Hi. Today I’m joined by Luke Bastin, who is an absolute legend when it comes to franchise SEO and local SEO strategies. So Luke, over the years you’ve done a lot with franchise SEO. Let’s jump straight into it — how can a multi-location business start scaling rankings quickly? Luke Bastin Hi James, great to be here and thanks for having me on. One of the key things about franchise SEO, compared to e-commerce or B2B SaaS, is that SEO is often layered on top of a business. With franchises, it’s much more nuanced and context-specific. The way you grow rankings really depends on how the franchise operates and what freedom you have within its structure. I’ve worked with some franchises that simply said, “Tell us what to do and we’ll do it.” In those cases you can optimize everything — the website and the Google Business Profiles. The most important factors are Google Business Profile performance and branded entity consolidation. In any local market today, most leads come from Google Business Profiles. With franchises, though, there’s an added complication: the corporate brand versus the local location brand. For example, a plumbing franchise might have several branches in one city, each acting as its own local SEO entity. You need to clearly differentiate those entities even though they sit under one corporate brand. That’s a major 80/20 factor in success. Different franchises also have different operational rules. Some locations have their own agencies, others rely on a central marketing function. You need flexibility and sometimes have to build strategies around limitations, even when you can’t implement everything you’d normally want to do. Another big element is knowledge panels and entity recognition. Strengthening the parent-child entity relationship between the corporate brand and local locations is huge. People might search for the main brand but actually mean a specific city location. Proper entity mapping helps Google match the right results to those queries. Then you have standard technical SEO — territory mapping, service area strategies, and deciding where new pages should or shouldn’t exist. James Dooley With franchise SEO strategies, if different SEOs are managing different locations, would you recommend subdomains, subfolders, or do you have a preference? Luke Bastin It’s a great question and comes up a lot. Both can work — it really comes down to risk and accountability. At the national level you can build authority through national content. But locally, the structure depends on how the franchise operates. Some franchises want total control over marketing, while others leave it to local operators. If locals control their marketing and something goes wrong, subdomains can be safer. If one subdomain gets penalised, it may not impact the entire domain. In those cases I also prefer using the www version of a domain to preserve the root if there’s a penalty. If your strategy relies heavily on on-page SEO, subfolders can work well because the whole domain shares authority. Some franchises even run hybrid setups — a main site plus separate domains for locations — which helps ring-fence risk from local SEO agencies. James Dooley If they use an exact-match or partial-match domain for a location, do they link it back to the main site? Luke Bastin: In many cases they treat them as separate entities. The main domain references the location brand, but there aren’t usually direct internal links or schema connections. Instead, they rely on brand association at the keyword and entity level rather than technical linking. James Dooley: What about when everything is on subfolders? How does internal linking work when multiple SEOs are working on one domain? Luke Bastin: It’s tricky, but most internal linking is native. Local pages receive links from the homepage, service pages, and a locations hub page. In some countries you’ll also have regional pages — like state or county pages — linking to the locations. Locally, you can build additional geo-relevant service pages, “areas we serve” pages, and blog content to create your own internal linking network within that subfolder James Dooley: And what about off-page SEO — citations, guest posting, digital PR? Are citations done for every location? Luke Bastin: It depends on the franchise structure. Often each location page functions like a mini homepage. Each location gets its own Google Business Profile linking to that page, and citations also point to it. However, service-area businesses without a physical address complicate things. Some directories require an address, which limits citation opportunities. In general, though, you treat each location like its own standalone website. You can also build web 2.0 profiles, reinforce local brand entities, and use video content to strengthen off-page presence. James Dooley: For anyone watching with a franchise business, how can they contact you? Luke Bastin: The best way is my website, lukebastin.com, where you can email me. I’m also active on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook — any social platform works. James Dooley: Perfect. Anyone watching who runs a franchise and needs a specialist SEO agency — I strongly recommend Luke Bastin. I’ve seen him fix large franchise websites and produce serious growth, especially through technical SEO work. Luke, it’s been a pleasure, and hopefully everyone enjoyed this discussion on franchise SEO strategies.