A new franchise location website starts with the brand's name and nothing else. No reviews, no photos of the real shop, no history in the town. The first thing a neighbour finds when they search is often a thin page that head office set up, with your address and a form.
The weeks before opening are the cheapest time to fix that. Most of what a location page needs is not clever. It is facts only you have, collected early. We have written before about what the brand owns and what the owner controls, so this post is the owner's side of it, in the order we would do it.
What should a new franchise location page include?
The facts a local customer needs to decide to visit or call, written for this one location. The brand's general description is not enough on its own.
- Exact address, parking and the nearest cross street. People search for a place by where it is.
- Opening date and real hours. If you open in three weeks, say so plainly.
- The towns and neighbourhoods you serve. Only the owner knows where the territory ends.
- A direct phone number that rings at this location, not a national line.
- Who you are. A photo of you and your team, and two sentences about why you opened here.
- A way to be told when you open. A simple sign-up for opening day news works well.
Every item is a fact about one town. That is exactly what a copied template cannot supply, and it is what makes the page worth reading.
When should the location page go live?
As soon as you have a signed lease and an address, not on opening day. A "coming soon" page that gives the address and an opening month gives search engines time to find it, and gives neighbours something to bookmark.
Ask head office whether you can publish early. Some brands keep new pages hidden until launch. If yours does, ask why, and ask whether an early version can go up on the same address so nothing has to move later. Changing a page address after it has been found is the one thing here that is hard to undo.
Why does the Google Business Profile come first?
Because it is the part that can take the longest and cannot be rushed. Google checks that a business really operates at the address it gives, and that check can take days or longer, depending on the type of business and how it is verified.
Find out early who creates the profile for your location. In many franchises head office does it, and a mistake there, such as the wrong category or a shared phone number, is slow to fix. Agree who owns the login. The page on your website should then match the profile letter for letter: same name, same address, same phone number. That is the heart of local SEO, and our franchise local SEO page covers how it works across many locations.
Want more inquiries from your website?
We'll look at your website and rankings and tell you plainly what we would fix first. No charge and no sales pitch.
What can you show before there is anything to show?
More than you think. A new location has no customers, but it does have a build-out, a team and a neighbourhood.
- Photos of the space going up. They show the place is real and coming.
- Your team at the start. A hiring announcement or a first team photo works.
- Local touches. The school team you will sponsor, the street fair you will join.
- The brand's own proof, clearly labelled as the brand's. Never borrow another location's reviews and present them as yours.
Keep it honest. A page that says "opening in March, here is who we are" does better with a cautious reader than one pretending to be established.
How do the website, search and the follow-up fit together?
The website comes first because it is where every other effort lands. Franchise website design decides whether the location page carries local facts at all. SEO and local SEO then help the right people find it, and conversion work makes sure the form or phone number gets used once they arrive. A care plan keeps the hours, photos and details current after launch, which is where many location pages quietly go stale.
We cannot promise where any page will rank. What we can say is that a page with real local facts has something worth ranking, and a copied one does not.
What should you ask head office?
Four questions save most of the pain later.
- Can I edit my location page myself, and which parts are locked?
- Who creates and owns the Google Business Profile for my location?
- Can the page go live before opening, and will its address stay the same?
- Where do inquiries from my page go, and can I see them directly?
The last one matters more than it sounds. If inquiries are routed through a central inbox, you may hear about a customer days late.
Where to start
Write down your address, hours, territory and a photo of yourself this week. Send those to head office with the four questions above. If you run a brand and want its location pages built properly, run a free audit of your site or message us on WhatsApp.
Want more inquiries from your website?
We'll look at your website and rankings and tell you plainly what we would fix first. No charge and no sales pitch.
