Managing one local SEO campaign is challenging enough. Now multiply that by 120+ locations spread across the United States, each with its own address, phone number, staff, hours, and review history. That was the situation when a national hair restoration franchise came to us with declining local visibility and inconsistent Google Business Profile data across their entire network. Within 12 months, we grew their local SEO traffic by 110%. Here is how we did it.
Why Does Google Business Profile Management Matter for Multi-Location Franchises?
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is no longer just a listing. For franchise businesses with dozens or hundreds of locations, it acts as the digital front door for every single storefront. When potential customers search for “hair restoration near me” or “hair loss clinic in [city],” Google pulls directly from GBP data to populate the Local Pack, Google Maps, and even AI Overviews.
The numbers tell a clear story. Customers are 2.7 times more likely to view a business as reputable when they come across a complete Google Business Profile. Businesses that appear in the Local Pack’s top three spots receive 126% more traffic and 93% more calls, website clicks, and direction requests compared to businesses ranked in positions four through ten. For a franchise with 120+ locations, that gap between the top three and everyone else can mean millions of dollars in lost revenue each year.
Key Google Business Profile Performance Benchmarks
| Metric |
Benchmark |
Source |
| Customers who trust a complete GBP |
2.7x more likely |
Google |
| Local Pack top 3 traffic increase vs. spots 4-10 |
126% more traffic |
SOCi |
| Local searches resulting in a visit within 24 hours |
76% |
Google |
| GBP actions that result in website visits |
56% |
BrightLocal |
| Businesses getting 100+ monthly calls from GBP |
16% |
BrightLocal |
| Local searches with local intent (all Google searches) |
46% |
Forbes |
The franchise we worked with was losing ground because their profiles were incomplete, inconsistent, and poorly maintained. Many locations had incorrect hours, outdated phone numbers, and zero photos. That gave local competitors a clear advantage in search results.
“Most franchise brands know their GBP listings exist, but very few treat them as a revenue channel. When you manage 120+ profiles with the same rigor you bring to your paid media campaigns, the local traffic gains are significant and measurable.”
– Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
What Did Our 120+ Location GBP Audit Reveal?
Before changing anything, we ran a thorough audit across all 120+ locations. This step mattered because you cannot fix what you have not measured. Our competitive audit and market research process uncovered problems we expected and several we did not.
Common issues found across the franchise’s GBP profiles:
- Inconsistent NAP Data: Over 40% of locations had mismatches between their Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) on GBP versus their website and third-party directories. Google uses NAP consistency as a trust signal, so these mismatches were dragging down rankings across the board.
- Incomplete Profile Fields: Nearly 60% of locations were missing key profile data like service descriptions, business attributes (wheelchair accessibility, parking, payment methods), and secondary categories. Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete GBP.
- Outdated or Missing Photos: About 35% of locations had zero photos uploaded. Businesses that add photos to their Google Business Profile receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks.
- Unmanaged Reviews: Many locations had dozens of unanswered reviews, both positive and negative. Review signals account for roughly 16% of Google’s local pack ranking factors, and ignoring them sends a negative signal to both Google and prospective patients.
- Duplicate and Conflicting Listings: Several locations had duplicate profiles that competed against the verified listing, diluting their local authority and confusing customers.
We documented every issue by location and created a priority score based on each location’s traffic potential and the severity of the problems found. High-traffic metro locations with critical gaps got addressed first.
How Do You Standardize NAP Data Across 120+ Franchise Locations?
NAP consistency is the foundation of local citation building and local search visibility. If Google finds conflicting business names, addresses, or phone numbers across your GBP, your website, and directories like Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Maps, it reduces confidence in your listing’s accuracy. Reduced confidence means lower rankings.
For a 120+ location franchise, standardizing NAP data requires a disciplined, systematic approach. Here is how we handled it.
Our NAP standardization process:
- Master Data Spreadsheet: We created a central source of truth containing the verified name, address, phone number, website URL, and hours for every location. This spreadsheet became the reference document for all future updates.
- Citation Audit Across Directories: We crawled 50+ local directories and data aggregators to identify where each location’s information was listed. We then flagged every instance where the data did not match our master spreadsheet. The citation cleanup process alone corrected hundreds of inaccurate listings.
- Bulk GBP Updates: Using Google’s bulk management tools, we updated all 120+ profiles simultaneously with verified data. This included standardized formatting for addresses (e.g., “Suite” vs. “Ste.” vs. “#”), consistent phone number formats, and uniform business name formatting across every listing.
- Ongoing Monitoring: NAP data drifts over time because third-party aggregators can overwrite corrections. We set up monthly monitoring to catch and fix discrepancies before they affected rankings.
“Think of NAP consistency the way a franchise owner thinks about brand standards. If every location’s signage looked different, customers would lose trust. The same principle applies to your digital presence. Google rewards businesses that present clean, consistent information everywhere they appear online.”
– Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
NAP Consistency Impact on Local Rankings
| Factor |
Weight in Local Pack Rankings |
Source |
| Google Business Profile signals (including NAP) |
32% |
Whitespark / BrightLocal |
| On-page SEO signals |
19% |
Whitespark |
| Review signals |
16% |
BrightLocal |
| Link signals |
11% |
Whitespark |
| Citation signals (NAP consistency across directories) |
7% |
Whitespark |
| Behavioral signals (clicks, calls, check-ins) |
8% |
Whitespark |
| Personalization signals |
7% |
Whitespark |
What GBP Fields Should Every Franchise Location Complete?
A half-completed GBP profile is a missed opportunity. Google’s own data shows that profile completeness directly affects both visibility and customer trust. After fixing NAP issues, we turned our attention to filling in every available field across all 120+ locations. This is where many small business marketing teams stop, but franchise brands need to push much further.
The GBP fields we completed and why they matter:
- Primary and Secondary Categories: Each location’s primary category was set to the most relevant service term (e.g., “Hair Replacement Service”), and we added secondary categories like “Hair Salon” and “Wig Shop” to capture related searches. Google uses these categories heavily when deciding which profiles to show in the Local Pack.
- Service Descriptions: We wrote unique, keyword-informed service descriptions for each location rather than copying the same paragraph 120 times. Google penalizes duplicate content patterns, even within GBP profiles.
- Business Attributes: We added all relevant attributes (parking availability, accessibility features, appointment required, etc.) since these directly influence search filters customers apply.
- Photos and Visual Content: We uploaded 15-20 high-quality photos per location, including interior shots, exterior shots, staff photos, and before-and-after images. Brand photography played a significant role here. Geotagged images helped reinforce each location’s physical presence to Google.
- Google Posts: We created a regular posting schedule for each location, sharing promotions, educational content about hair restoration, and community involvement updates. Regular posts signal to Google that a listing is active and current.
- Q&A Section: We pre-populated the Q&A section with commonly asked questions and thorough answers. This not only helped prospective patients get answers faster but also allowed us to place relevant keywords in a natural context.
The result of completing all these fields was immediate. Within 60 days, average profile impressions per location increased by 40%, and direction request volume climbed by 28%.
How Did Regional Landing Pages Accelerate Local Traffic Growth?
Improving GBP profiles is only one piece of the puzzle. We also needed strong, location-specific pages on the franchise’s website that Google could associate with each GBP listing. This is where location-specific content for franchise businesses became a major growth driver.
Too many franchise websites rely on a single generic page for all locations, or they create thin location pages that contain nothing more than an address and a phone number. Google sees through this approach. To rank well in local search, each location needs a dedicated page with genuinely unique, locally relevant content.
What we included on each regional landing page:
- Locally Written Content: Each page featured unique copy about the specific location, its staff, surrounding community, and the hair restoration services offered there. We avoided templated language that simply swapped city names.
- Embedded Google Maps: Every location page had an embedded map that matched the GBP listing, reinforcing the connection between the website and the profile.
- Structured Data Markup: We added LocalBusiness schema to each page, providing Google with machine-readable data about the location’s name, address, phone number, hours, and geo-coordinates.
- Internal Links to Service Pages: Each location page linked to relevant content strategy and service pages, distributing link authority and helping Google understand the relationship between the location and the services offered there.
- Local Reviews and Testimonials: We pulled select Google reviews onto each location page (with proper attribution) to build trust and add locally relevant social proof.
“Regional landing pages give Google two strong signals at once: the GBP listing confirms the physical presence, and the dedicated web page confirms the topical relevance. When those two signals align, local rankings climb faster than either signal produces on its own.”
– Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
What Role Did Review Management Play in the 110% Traffic Increase?
Reviews are one of the most powerful ranking signals for local SEO ranking factors. They also directly influence whether someone clicks on your listing or scrolls past it. For a franchise with 120+ locations, review management becomes a large-scale operation that requires clear processes and consistent execution.
Every 10 new reviews a business earns increases the conversion rate of its Google Business Profile by 2.8%, and improving a rating by one star increases calls, website clicks, and direction requests by 44%. Those numbers add up quickly when multiplied across 120 locations.
Our review management approach:
- Response Protocol: We established a 24-hour response window for all reviews. Positive reviews received personalized thank-you responses, while negative reviews were addressed with empathy and a clear path to resolution. Consistent responses signal to Google that the business is active and engaged.
- Review Generation Campaigns: We helped each location implement a post-appointment review request system. After each consultation or service visit, patients received a simple, direct link to leave a Google review. We used the same principles outlined in our review request template for healthcare practices.
- Monitoring and Flagging: We set up alerts for any review that contained specific negative keywords (e.g., billing issues, staff complaints) so the franchise could address operational problems quickly, not just respond to the review itself.
- Review Velocity Tracking: We tracked how many new reviews each location received per month and compared it against competitors in the same market. Locations falling behind received additional outreach support.
Review Impact on GBP Performance
| Review Metric |
Impact on GBP |
| Every 10 new reviews |
2.8% higher conversion rate |
| One-star rating improvement |
44% more calls, clicks, and direction requests |
| Review signals weight in Local Pack |
16% of ranking factors |
| Consumers who read Google reviews before deciding |
83% |
| Consumers who check 2+ review platforms |
74% |
Over 12 months, the franchise’s average star rating improved from 3.8 to 4.4 across all locations, and total review volume increased by 65%. Those gains translated directly into higher Local Pack placement and more clicks to each location’s profile.
How Do You Measure Local SEO Success Across 120+ Locations?
One of the biggest challenges in multi-location franchise local SEO at scale is tracking performance at both the individual location level and the brand level. You need to identify which locations are thriving, which are underperforming, and what specific factors are driving those differences.
The metrics we tracked monthly for each location:
- GBP Impressions (Search and Maps): How often each location’s profile appeared in search results and on Google Maps. This was our primary visibility metric.
- GBP Actions (Calls, Directions, Website Clicks): These “actions” represent real engagement from potential patients. A spike in impressions without a matching spike in actions indicates a listing that is visible but not compelling enough to generate interest.
- Local Pack Rankings by Target Keyword: We tracked each location’s position for 5-10 target keywords (e.g., “hair restoration [city],” “hair loss treatment near me”) and compared rankings month over month.
- Review Volume and Rating: Monthly new reviews received and average rating per location. We flagged any location where the rating dropped below 4.0 for immediate attention.
- Website Traffic from Regional Landing Pages: Using SEO tracking, we measured organic sessions to each location page and identified which pages were generating calls and form submissions.
We compiled these metrics into a monthly scorecard for the franchise leadership team. The scorecard highlighted top-performing locations (so their strategies could be replicated) and flagged underperforming locations with specific, action-oriented recommendations. This data-based problem-solving approach kept the team focused on what was working and what needed attention.
“Measuring local SEO at scale is not about drowning in data. It is about tracking the five or six metrics that connect directly to patient appointments and then acting on what the numbers tell you every month. That discipline is what separates franchises that grow from those that plateau.”
– Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing
What Were the Overall Results After 12 Months?
After a full year of systematic GBP improvement, Google Business Profile refinement, regional landing page creation, and review management, the results spoke for themselves.
12-Month Results Summary
| Metric |
Before |
After (12 Months) |
Change |
| Total local organic traffic (all locations) |
Baseline |
+110% |
+110% |
| Average GBP impressions per location (monthly) |
~1,200 |
~3,400 |
+183% |
| Average star rating across all locations |
3.8 |
4.4 |
+0.6 stars |
| Total review volume (all locations) |
Baseline |
+65% |
+65% |
| Direction requests per location (monthly) |
Baseline |
+28% |
+28% |
| Locations appearing in Local Pack top 3 |
~30% |
~62% |
+32 percentage points |
The 110% local traffic growth came from a combination of factors working together: cleaner NAP data helped Google trust the listings, complete profiles made them more visible, regional landing pages reinforced local relevance, and a steady stream of positive reviews pushed more locations into the top three Local Pack positions. No single tactic drove the result. It was the coordinated effort across all 120+ locations that produced cumulative, compounding gains over time.
Conclusion
Growing local SEO traffic by 110% across 120+ franchise locations is not about finding one secret trick. It comes down to doing the foundational work that most multi-location brands skip: auditing every profile, fixing NAP inconsistencies, completing every GBP field, creating genuinely unique location pages, and managing reviews with discipline. When you apply that level of attention across a large franchise network, the results multiply.
At Emulent, our team specializes in local SEO strategies built for multi-location and franchise brands. If your business needs help improving its Google Business Profiles, building local visibility, or growing organic traffic across multiple locations, contact the Emulent team to start a conversation about your local SEO goals.
