Should Your Channel Partners Take Care of SEO in Their Franchisee Websites?

freeimage 5235493 high 150x150 Should Your Channel Partners Take Care of SEO in Their Franchisee Websites?Unless you’re new to the SEO and online marketing world, I’m sure you’ve heard that content is king. It can make or break a site. Why? Because it’s the fuel that keeps your site running: it’s what “tells” search engines that your site is relevant and authoritative, which increases your chances of reaching the top spots in the search pages. This way, when a potential customer, searches for a term related to your business, s/he’ll find you first!

So, as you can see, it is extremely important to have franchise local SEO to take full advantage of online marketing. But should you ask them to take on such an enormous task?

In this post we’ll go over what it entails and we’ll weigh in the good with the bad.

What’s at Risk

Content is a great way to get your franchisee website noticed. Furthermore, if you have a set of goals, it can help you increase lead generation in your site which can mean a higher conversion rate for your business! Take a look at this statistics and see what SEO and content marketing can do for you!

  • 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. (MarketShareHitsLink)
  • Blogs generate 7 times more traffic than a static page.
  • 78% of consumers feel that organizations behind the content are interested in building good relationships. (TMG Custom Media)
  • Social media and blogs reach 8 out of 10 of all U.S. Internet users. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media. (Content+)
  • B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t blog. (Social Media B2B)
  • Content marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing. (Voltier Digital)

Mind you, for it to get you the best results possible, it needs to be done frequently, with relevant, useful and engaging content that’s unique and aimed at your target audience

Now that you know a bit of why content marketing is so important for an online marketing strategy to be successful, what are the implications of your franchisee website taking this task on?

The Pros

0008732231H 565x849 150x150 Should Your Channel Partners Take Care of SEO in Their Franchisee Websites?

They Know Their Franchise Local SEO Audience

Your channel partners know who they are talking to and have contact with clients so they know what they need and what their problems are. That’s great for topic inspiration and to engage visitors with content that they actually care about. Besides, according to Content+60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site

They Have Experience in the Subject

Who better to write about plumbing than a plumber, right? They are an authority in concepts related to your company! They know your products and the services you provide and are experts at selling them!

The Cons

0008732714H 565x849 150x150 Should Your Channel Partners Take Care of SEO in Their Franchisee Websites?It’s Time and Money Consuming

To do it right, they need to do it frequently. This can take away time from doing other work related tasks which can, in turn, take a toll in their immediate revenue. As stated above, content marketing done right does deliver results but some time may pass before you can collect the fruit, which can frustrate your channel partners.

Writing is Easier Said than Done

Believe it or not, it takes some expertise. People have different strengths and not everybody has the ease to write their thoughts in an organized manner. Furthermore, being able to actually produce the kind of content that a certain audience will like takes practice and know-how. Plus, with time, they may fall off the wagon after a while. Remember that constancy is key!

Ensuring Compliance

This is a big one. How will you overlook that each of the posts in all of your partner sites is in line with your message and won’t present a legal issue? Your company is being represented through their written word so you need to be careful about what they’re talking about and how they’re doing it.

A Solution

Collaborative efforts between you and your channel partners could be a solution to this problem. Depending on how tech savvy they are, you can send out a weekly newsletter to inspire and provide topics for them to write about on their site. Plus, you could hire a writer to take care of content on a smaller scale.

Still, this may be a time consuming solution as well because, again, you run the risk of encountering compliance issues. Meaning that you (or your marketing team) would still need to go through each site to take care of it!

At the same time, if you want to do it right, I would suggest training your channel partners to succeed in content marketing. It’s a really important subject and if you want them to succeed while marketing themselves and your company online, they’ll need some training.

The Alternative

traffic sign 6631 640 150x150 Should Your Channel Partners Take Care of SEO in Their Franchisee Websites?Here at Empowerkit, we can take care of content for you! We can talk to you and your franchisees to create a content strategy that will keep your blog feed busy (from frequency, to topics, etc.) all the while being consistent to your company, product or service! So if your franchisees are too busy or you’re worried that they won’t take the task seriously, give us a call! We have a team of experts eager to make the best of your franchise local SEO. We can help take the burden off your and their back!

Conclusion

You should absolutely do content. Which path you take is up to you! Whether you’d like to get your partners to take on it or not, remember that  it needs to be top notch content for it to be beneficial to their franchisee websites, their SEO and your company! We’re here to help if you need guidance on this respect!

August 15, 2013

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