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Franchise sites on subdomains
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I've been asked by a client to optimise a a webpage for a location i.e. London.
Turns out that the location is actually a franchise of the main company. When the company launch a new franchise, so far they have simply added a new page to the main site, for example:
mysite.co.uk/sub-folder/london
They have so far done this for 10 or so franchises and task someone with optimising that page for their main keyword + location.
I think I know the answer to this, but would like to get a back up / additional info on it in terms of ranking / seo benefits.
I am going to suggest the idea of using a subdomain for each location, example:
Would this be the correct approach. If you think yes, why?
Many thanks,
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I completely agree. I have had very similar projects. Good luck!
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Hi Vizergy,
Great answer.
The root domain is strong, so I’d imagine the sub folders will get some benefit from this.
Yes, it is one page-per franchise deal so I think the approach I’ll be taking is making sure each of these pages has its own unique content (and checking for duplicate site wide), targeted towards the locations target KW/Phrases.
With a few decent links pointing to each location page, and indeed the domain, I think will both benefit.
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Hi Michael,
From my experience a sub-domain isn’t going to benefit much from the main site’s authority therefore needing a major link building campaign of its own. I would say, if this is going to be a one page per franchise project rather than multiple pages of content, you might be better off with the sub-folder. That would allow the page to benefit more from the authority the main site has already gained.
I am not saying you won’t need to build links but I believe the necessary work would be less.
My two cents
Cheers
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