Local SEO for franchises

[fivestarfranchising]

I have a client who franchises an ice cream shop.  It started in Utah and there are several stores there.  They are ranking well for local searches based in Utah.  Now they have opened a store in Federal Way, WA.  How can I get the new location to rank for local keywords on the same website?

[SeoWebMechanix]

Ideally, your client should have a page for each location they have.  There could be one "locations" page with a list of stores sorted by state, and then each store is a link to a page with geo-specific keywords.

For example,

Locations

• Utah
  • Store 1
  • Store 2
  • Store 3
• Washington
  • Store 1
  • Store 2
  • Store 3

All six of those stores (or however many actually exist in your scenario) would have their own page with headers, metas, and content specific to that location.

[CraigAddyman]

As SWM says, have location pages and make sure you have full addresses and phone numbers on them and also think about getting some google places pages set up.

[purch]

I agree completely, making the location a category type page and linking to that will show Google the new keywords you are going for and index you for them.

[kchandler]

Also try setting up a local business account with Google, Bing and Yahoo to get relevant local search. It won't increase your domains authority but it will help with traffic and reach.

• http://www.google.com/places
• http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
• http://www.bing.com/businessportal

Edit: create one for each location