Case Study - 87,500+ Page Views in 7 Months: Franchise SEO Strategy Boosts Local Search Traffic by 57.9%

Overview: Building a Franchise SEO Strategy to Drive Organic Traffic and Boost Brand Awareness

PizzaForno approached us seeking a custom website that would not only showcase their new branding but also enhance the online visibility of their locations across North America. So, we did what we do best, developed a high-performance website using Next.js and implemented a franchise SEO strategy to drive organic traffic to each location.

Understanding the Problem

PizzaForno required a complete website overhaul that prioritized performance, user engagement, and strong location-based SEO strategies. They needed a custom, easy-to-manage website that could showcase all their locations through a modern interface, allowing customers to easily find the information they were looking for. Since PizzaForno is opening new locations every month, the solution had to be flexible enough to handle this growth.

Additionally, we needed to develop an SEO strategy to increase awareness for each location across North America, which required treating each one as its own local business (which, technically, it is). However, since we were managing over 70 local "businesses" at once, our strategy had to account for this complexity.

The Solution: Custom Web Development with Advanced SEO Strategies

Our approach involved creating a digital marketing strategy specifically tailored to meet PizzaForno's needs. This plan consisted of four key components designed to boost their SEO and strengthen their online presence:

• Part 1: Website Development & Content Strategy

• Part 2: Custom Dashboard & CMS Integration

• Part 3: Off-Page, Local SEO, and NAP Optimization

• Part 4: Building Topical Authority with Keyword-Rich Content

Custom Web Development and SEO Optimization with Next.js

We began this project by building a completely new, custom website for PizzaForno. We opted to use Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS for a fast, responsive, and visually appealing site.

When it comes to SEO, there’s more to consider than just content and backlinks. Technical SEO was an essential component to our strategy. It includes factors like page load speeds, website structure, mobile responsiveness, sitemaps, and accessibility. These elements help search engines find and index your content more easily.

Utilizing Next.js for Technical SEO

Next.js enables Server-Side Rendering (SSR), ensuring content is fully rendered before reaching the user. This makes it easier for search engine crawlers to scan and index web pages, detect metadata, and understand the site's content. Additionally, SSR improves loading speeds, optimizing the First Contentful Paint (FCP) and enhancing other Core Web Vitals that impact SEO.

By using Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) for PizzaForno's location pages, blogs, and frequently updated content, we can rebuild pages at set time intervals. Thus, the information is always up-to-date across the site. This also improves page load performance by serving cached HTML files and reduces server load by regenerating HTML incrementally, minimizing the need for a full application redeployment. As a result, ISR helps search engines crawl and index PizzaForno's site more efficiently, boosting their SEO.

According to Google, the likelihood of a user bouncing, leaving before the webpage fully loads, increases by 32% as page load times increase from 1 second to 3 seconds.

Optimizing Site Structure for an Enhanced User Experience

One of our primary objectives was to optimize the site structure by streamlining navigation to the location pages. This makes it easier for users to find the nearest PizzaForno machine. To achieve this, we designed a location finder with an Airbnb-style interface, displaying all active locations on an interactive map.

This setup allows users to quickly find their nearest location with just a click of a button, or they can explore the map to choose a location they prefer. Upon choosing a location, a pop-up appears guiding users to that locations dedicated landing page.

When navigating to any of the location pages, we ensured the crawl depth was only two links deep, from the homepage to the location finder page, and then to the specific location landing page. This approach was designed to ensure each page received some "link juice", helping to boost their SEO. By optimizing the site structure this way, we improve search engines' ability to access and index these pages. This, in turn, increases their potential to rank higher in search results.

Improving Technical SEO with Strategic Internal Linking

To further improve PizzaForno's technical SEO, we added internal links to the location finder on key pages. This included the homepage, our custom Linktree, and throughout the navigation menu and footer.

This internal linking strategy not only distributes link juice effectively to the location pages but also boosts SEO performance by improving their crawlability and indexability. By linking to key pages within the site (in this case, our location finder page), we're signaling to search engines that these pages are important. As a result, it increases the likelihood of them being indexed and ranked.

Custom Dashboard and Location Management System

To help us manage these location pages, we developed a custom admin dashboard for the PizzaForno team. This dashboard is used internally to monitor and manage all data related to the PizzaForno fleet. It also assists in generating some of the information displayed on the location pages, ensuring that the content visitors see is up-to-date and accurate.

In the image below, you can see options for editing each location page. This includes business hours, address, status (open, closed, or temporarily closed), the Google review link, and other features.

The Google review URL is an important part of our local SEO strategy. Once added to a location in the dashboard, it triggers a pop-up on the respective website page. This pop-up encourages users to leave a review on the associated Google Business Profile. By acquiring more positive Google reviews, it can improve PizzaForno's local search ranking, making this feature particularly valuable for this campaign.

HyperSpeed CMS: Dynamic Content to Enhance On-Page SEO

We developed our own content management system, called "HyperSpeed CMS", which we integrate with the custom websites we build. To enhance PizzaForno's on-page SEO strategy, we integrated HyperSpeed CMS, which streamlines the addition of images, meta tags, and content on each location page. This integration provides both our team and PizzaForno's team the ability to dynamically insert additional content when needed.

By implementing Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) on the location pages, we can automatically refresh them at set intervals. This keeps the pages up-to-date without needing to redeploy the application each time we make changes or add new information. By being able to easily add keyword-rich content to these pages, it helps us optimize them for the search queries we are targeting.

Thanks to our strategy, every active PizzaForno location across North America has its own dedicated landing page on the website. Our custom integrations provide a scalable solution that allows for easy updates, additions, or removals of pages and content as the business evolves.

Off-Page SEO: NAP Consistency and Local Citations

To improve PizzaForno's SEO, we secured local citations for each of the 70+ location pages. When choosing platforms for these citations, we opted for those that are both free and support bulk CSV imports to help us maintain accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information.

There are services that simplify multi-location business listings for companies like PizzaForno. However, we chose to bypass expensive options like Yext, which can cost up to $50 per location each month. Considering PizzaForno's vast network, using these services would have resulted in thousands of dollars in monthly expenses. Instead, we opted to create our own tool to manage citations more affordably.

Our custom tool exports active location data into a platform-specific CSV file, giving us the ability to update all citations simultaneously, rather than update each listing manually. This method ensures accuracy and uniformity of NAP data, which is essential for local SEO as Google values consistency across listings.

Google Business Profile Bulk Verification

When we began working with PizzaForno, only 66% of their Google Business Profiles were verified, which negatively affected the brand's overall search visibility. To address this issue, we secured "bulk verification" for all locations. This action immediately enhanced their local search presence, with 33% more profiles now visible online.

Google Business Profile Optimization

Now that all GMBs were verified, we could enhance PizzaForno's off-page SEO and ensure NAP consistency. We optimized all 70+ listings by integrating SEO-optimized local keywords into their descriptions. Each profile was enhanced with detailed information, such as menus and relevant photos, following Google's recommendations for local SEO.

We also linked each Google Business Profile to its corresponding location page on the website. By adding the matching website URL to each GMB profile, it improves local citation accuracy and prominence, which helps these pages rank higher in local search results.

Boosting SEO with Strategic, Keyword-Rich Documentation

To further our content strategy we added a "documentation" section on the website, filled with targeted keywords. This section helps PizzaForno establish topical authority, which in turn improves the search performance of the location pages by ranking for related keywords. The content is similar to a blog but set up as a guide. You can check out the documentation here.

Building Topical Authority with SEO-Optimized Blogs

Our strategy also included creating blogs to further build PizzaForno's topical authority and improve the rankings of the location pages. By conducting keyword research, analyzing competitors, and performing content audits, we have developed a targeted list of blog topics planned for release in the upcoming months. Although only several posts have been published so far, they are already showing promising results.

Client Testimonial

The Results: A Powerful Franchise SEO Strategy with Measurable Success

The custom web development and SEO strategies we implemented have effectively strengthened PizzaForno's online presence. By creating SEO-optimized location pages for each machine across North America, we effectively targeted local search queries and high-intent users. Now, when people search for terms like "Pizza near me" or "Pizza restaurant," these pages rank in the search results.

Looking at the Google Analytics metrics from December 1st, 2023 to July 6th, 2024, we see that the location pages now make up more than 25% of the site's total organic search traffic!

As a result of our campaign, these pages experienced a 57.9% increase in clicks and 87.9% more impressions within the first seven months. During this period, they generated over 14,500 organic clicks and amassed more than 615,000 organic impressions.