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 to create a custom website that would not only reflect their new branding but also improve user experience with fast page speeds and strategic SEO. One of the main goals was to increase brand awareness at each of their 70+ locations across North America. With this in mind, we developed a franchise SEO strategy to drive organic traffic to each location.

This case study will focus on the franchise SEO strategies we implemented to increase organic traffic and help each location rank for local search queries.

Challenges We Faced

PizzaForno needed a comprehensive website overhaul that went beyond aesthetics, focusing on performance, user engagement, and effective location-based SEO strategies.

This created a few main challenges we would have to overcome.

To begin, we needed to develop a system that was scalable, allowing locations to be easily added or removed from the website as needed. Since PizzaForno is in a growth phase, with new locations opening every month, the system had to be user-friendly enough for their team to manage on their own if necessary.

To help each of these location pages rank, we needed to treat 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.

When developing our SEO strategy, we discovered that only 66% of PizzaForno’s Google Business Profiles were verified, meaning 33% of the locations weren't even visible on Google.

Addressing this issue was essential to ensure all locations could be listed and visible on Google, enhancing our off-page and local SEO efforts.

The Solution: Custom Web Development with Advanced SEO Strategies

To kick off the project, we developed an advanced digital marketing strategy uniquely tailored to PizzaForno's business needs. This approach was designed to enhance their SEO and strengthen their online presence.

Step 1: Develop a Custom Website & Content Strategy

Our plan involved creating a custom website for PizzaForno using modern technologies and creative design to accurately represent their brand while displaying all location pages in a user-friendly format. The website was built following search engine best practices to ensure optimal technical SEO and effective on-page SEO.

Step 2: Integrate Our Custom Dashboard & CMS

Next, we developed a custom dashboard that allowed us to add, edit, or remove dedicated landing pages for each location on the website.

We also integrated our custom-built CMS, "HyperSpeed CMS," allowing both our team and theirs to easily add additional content to the landing pages, enhancing our content strategy and on-page SEO.

Step 3: Optimize Off-Page & Local SEO

Finally, we developed a plan to resolve the Google Business Profile verification issue and optimize the profiles for each location. This allowed us to connect each landing page to its corresponding listing, further improving our off-page and local SEO.

The Product: What We Developed

The project was developed using the latest versions of modern web technologies, including:

Custom Web Development and SEO Optimization with Next.js

We started this project off by building a completely new, custom website for PizzaForno.

We opted to use Next.js, React, 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 plays a very important role, encompassing page load speeds, website architecture, mobile responsiveness, sitemaps, accessibility, and other factors. These elements help search engines find and index your content easier.

Utilizing Next.js for Technical SEO

For starters, Next.js allows for Server-Side Rendering (SSR), which ensures the content is fully rendered before reaching the user. This approach makes it easier for search engine crawlers and bots to scan and index web pages, detect metadata, and understand the type of information a website contains. Additionally, SSR helps boost loading speeds, which optimizes the First Contentful Paint (FCP), along with improving other Core Web Vitals that affect SEO.

By utilizing Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) on the location pages, blogs, and other pages we update often, it allows us to rebuild pages at specific time intervals we set, ensuring the content is always up-to-date across the site. This improves page load performance by serving cached HTML files and reduces the server load by regenerating these HTML files incrementally, which minimizes the need for a full redeployment of the application. Thus, ISR helps search engines crawl and index our site more efficiently, which in turn, boosts our site's SEO.

Additionally, Next.js enhances page load speeds through several advanced features. It incorporates image optimization, which automatically adjusts image sizes and formats based on the user's device and viewport, significantly reducing load times. Next.js also employs automatic code splitting, which improves the Total Blocking Time (TBT) by dividing the application's JavaScript into smaller, more manageable bundles that are only loaded as needed. Together, these features contribute to a faster, more efficient website, optimizing both user experience and SEO performance.

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 and Enhancing User Navigation

One of our primary objectives was to enhance the user experience by simplifying navigation to the location pages, making it easier for users to find the nearest PizzaForno machine.

To achieve this, we designed an intuitive 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, featuring a "view location" button.

Clicking this button directs users to the specific landing page for that location, providing a seamless navigation experience.

When navigating to any of the location pages, we ensured the crawl depth was only two links deep—from the homepage to the locations 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.

Additional Technical SEO Enhancements with Internal Linking

To enhance our technical SEO further, we strategically positioned calls to action (CTAs) across key pages, including the homepage and our custom LinkTree, and incorporated additional links in the navigation menu and footer. These internal links guide users towards the location finder page, streamlining their navigation.

We developed a custom LinkTree featured in the bio of all PizzaForno's social media platforms. This page on our website includes an internal link that directs users to the location finder, making it easy to locate nearby PizzaForno machines.

This targeted internal linking strategy not only distributes link juice effectively to the location pages but also boosts SEO performance by improving the crawlability and indexability of our pages for search engines.

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, which increases the likelihood of them being indexed and ranked.

How Our Location Pages Work

Before we explore how our location pages are populated with data and content, it's important to provide some context. We developed a custom admin dashboard for the PizzaForno team, featuring a system that streamlines the addition and modification of PizzaForno location data.

Location Page Management Tool

This dashboard is used internally to track and manage all data associated with the PizzaForno fleet. Additionally, it helps generate some of the information displayed on the location pages on PizzaForno’s website, ensuring that the content visitors see is up-to-date and accurate.

In the image above, you can see some of the various options available for editing on each location page, including:

• Business Hours

• Address

• Location Name

• Status (Open, Closed, Temporarily Closed)

• Google Business Review Link

• Type of Machine (Indoor, Outdoor, or ATM)

• Plus several other details

Only some of the content displayed on the location pages is sourced from the admin dashboard, but one important element for our SEO campaign is the Google My Business (GMB) review URL.

This pop-up directs users to leave a review on the matching Google Business Profile. For local SEO, acquiring more positive Google reviews can significantly enhance your search ranking, making this feature especially valuable.

As each location page starts ranking for local search queries, the increased visibility drives more traffic. This, in turn, leads to more reviews since visitors are shown the review pop-up on these pages.

API Development

Next, we connected each location page to the PizzaForno database via an API, enabling real-time inventory data for each machine to be displayed on the corresponding location page. We configured the system to check the pizza inventory in each machine every 9 minutes, ensuring that the data is updated promptly if any changes occur, providing users with accurate and up-to-date information.

HyperSpeed CMS Integration

We developed our own content management system (CMS), "HyperSpeed CMS", which we utilize in combination with the custom websites we develop.

For this project, we integrated HyperSpeed CMS to streamline the addition of images, meta tags, and content on each of the location pages. This integration enables our team to dynamically insert additional content into each location page.

By utilizing Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) on the location pages, we can automatically rebuild them at set intervals, ensuring the content is always up-to-date without needing to redeploy the application whenever we add new content or updates.

By having the ability to update and further optimize these pages, we can achieve better rankings in local search queries.

In the image below, you can see the content section we added in the CMS displayed on the corresponding location page.

Now, each active location across North America has its own dedicated landing page on the PizzaForno site. With our custom integrations, we ensure the data is always up-to-date and can easily update, add, or remove pages as the business evolves.

Off-Page SEO: NAP Consistency and Local Citations

To enhance our SEO further, it was time to secure local citations for each of the 70+ location pages on the site. This step is important because high-quality citations can significantly improve your ranking in Google's local search results.

There are companies that support multi-location business listings, but we aimed to avoid costly tools like Yext and citation websites like Yelp, which charge between $15 to $50 per location per month. Given our extensive network, this approach would have amounted to thousands of dollars monthly.

We scheduled calls with all the leading software providers for multi-location listings, but ultimately decided to build our own tool instead.

Before building our tool, we determined which listings would be most beneficial for the PizzaForno fleet. This included:

• Foursquare

• Trip Advisor

• Facebook Store Pages

• Google My Business

With this information in hand, we developed a custom tool to export all active location data via a CSV file. This allowed us to update the local citations on our chosen platforms simultaneously, rather than update each listing manually. This process also ensured that the data was accurate and that the NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) consistently matched the information on the website's location pages.

Inside the admin dashboard we built, we created a tool that generates CSV files tailored for each platform where they would be updated. By simply clicking the "generate" button, the tool aggregates all location data across the PizzaForno fleet and formats it into a CSV file according to the specific requirements of each platform.

Google Business Profile Bulk Verification

When we began working with PizzaForno, their off-page SEO was hindered by incomplete Google Business Profile verifications, with only 66% of their profiles visible on Google.

This impacted their NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency and overall search visibility. Unverified locations couldn’t be properly linked to the relevant location pages on their website, which limited their online presence and hindered their ability to rank effectively in local search results.

Google Business Profile Optimization

To improve their off-page SEO and ensure NAP consistency, we optimized each of the 70+ PizzaForno locations after successfully getting their account bulk verified and 100% listed on Google.

We also updated each profile with detailed information, including menus, relevant pictures, and other enhancements to maximize data completion. This comprehensive approach aligned with Google’s recommendations for improving local SEO and boosted PizzaForno’s visibility in local search results.

This optimization helped enhance local search visibility and ensured uniform information across all listings.

Local SEO Enhancements

We then linked each Google Business Profile to its corresponding location page on the website, further enhancing local SEO.

By adding the relevant website URL to each GMB, we signaled to Google that these pages were connected, improving local citation accuracy. This helped these pages rank higher in local SERPs.

Writing Documentation to Boost SEO

We created a section on our website called "Documentation," which includes a wealth of long-tail keywords that we aim to rank for. This section is designed to help us build topical authority, which in turn supports the ranking of our location pages for related keywords, strengthening our overall SEO strategy.

The content was crafted similarly to a blog but structured more like a guide. We built this section for several reasons, but in relation to this case study, one key objective was to rank for additional keywords.

Specifically, we targeted keywords that would help us build up our topical authority, positioning our site as a trusted source of information in our niche.

If you want to read the documentation, you can see it here.

Publishing SEO-Optimized Blogs

Our strategy emphasized the power of blogging to boost our topical authority and improve the ranking of our location pages.

By employing keyword research, competitor analysis, and content audits, we crafted a targeted list of blog topics scheduled for release over the coming months. Although only a few posts have been published so far, they are already yielding promising results.

The image below showcases one of these featured snippets:

Performance Tracking and Analytics

To effectively monitor the success of this campaign, we implemented the necessary data tracking across the website. This setup includes using tracking tools like Google Tag Manager, which integrates Google Analytics, Search Console, HubSpot, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, and any additional custom tags we require.

Specifically, we will utilize Google Search Console and Google Analytics to analyze our organic search results for this campaign.

Project Summary

As a team, we delivered a visually aesthetic and highly functional website for our client. We leveraged the latest web technologies, including Next.js, to enhance the site’s performance and user experience.

These tools, along with our other strategies, effectively boosted the rankings of the location pages for each machine, generating more high-intent organic search queries. We will discuss the impact of this strategy in the results below.

Client Testimonial

The Results: A Powerful Franchise SEO Strategy with Measurable Success

Our custom web development and SEO strategies for PizzaForno resulted in significant improvements in online engagement and visibility.

By creating SEO-enhanced location pages for each machine across North America, we were able to tap into local search queries and target high-intent users.

In the image below, you can see that for the local query "Pizza Tobermory," we hold the top rank in both Google's map pack and the SERPs.

Thanks to these pages and our other strategic implementations, we now rank for these high-intent local keywords across North America.

This approach led to a notable increase in the client's SEO presence, with a 57.9% increase in search traffic and 87.9% more impressions on location pages within the first 7 months.

The organic search traffic across the location pages has generated over 14,500 clicks and more than 615,000 impressions in just 7 months.

When reviewing the organic traffic metrics on Google Analytics for all the location pages, these pages now account for more than 25% of all the organic search traffic the site receives!

Here are the results from December 1st, 2023, to July 6th, 2024 (approximately 7 months) across the location pages on the PizzaForno website: