In the franchise online visibility workshop, your team learns how Google Maps and AI assistants assess a location, and what you can arrange centrally to make every location easier to find. The examples come from your own franchise brand.
The workshop is designed for marketers who are responsible for dozens of locations but do not have the time to dig into every detail of Google Business Profiles, structured data and AI search engines. In a few hours you get the full picture: what carries the most weight, what you can arrange centrally and what genuinely has to happen per location. You will hear which improvements take effect within a month and which need more patience, so you can make realistic agreements with your board and your franchisees.
Why online visibility per location deserves its own workshop
Customers rarely search for the name of a franchise brand. They search for a hairdresser, a physiotherapist or a pizzeria nearby, in Google Maps or in an AI assistant. At that point it is not the brand that counts, but the location: its Google Business Profile, its reviews, its location page and what AI systems know about that place. In the benchmark of 500 profiles from the 100 largest Dutch franchise chains, the differences between locations of the same brand turned out to be substantial.
The franchise online visibility workshop focuses on exactly that level. No general SEO lecture, but a hands-on session in which your team learns how Google and AI assess a location and what you can arrange centrally to strengthen all locations at once.
How do Google and AI assistants assess a location?
For a local search, Google looks at three things: how well a location matches the query, how close it is and how well known and highly rated it is. That last factor is made up of reviews, mentions on other sites, the quality of the Business Profile and the location page. For a chain, this means that two locations of the same brand in the same city can score very differently.
AI assistants work differently. They compile an answer from sources they trust and often name only two or three providers. If you are not clearly known as an entity, with a consistent name, address and opening hours everywhere, you fall outside that answer. In the workshop we show you how to test and improve this per location, without it becoming a full-time job for your franchisees.
What you learn in the online visibility workshop
We work through seven components. Beforehand we measure three of your locations, so the examples in the room come from your own franchise brand.
Baseline measurement of three locations
How do three locations score in Google Maps, in the local search results and in AI Overviews and ChatGPT? We use the same measurement method as in our free marketing scan.
Google Business Profiles at scale
Account structure, verification, categories, opening hours and photos: the basics that chains often set up differently per location. We show you what profile management for every location looks like in practice.
AI visibility per location
What do AI search engines do with a local query, and how do you make sure your location gets mentioned? We cover the GEO protocol from the handbook and the approach behind AI visibility per location.
Reviews as a visibility factor
Reviews count towards the position in Maps and towards what AI says about a location. We discuss responding at scale without template language and the approach behind online reputation management for chains.
Location pages and schema
A strong location page helps both Google and AI systems. You will see how a dedicated page per location is built and which structured data each location needs.
Measuring what counts
Impressions say little. We set up a KPI tree per location covering direction requests, call clicks, website clicks and mentions in AI answers.
Division of tasks and weekly rhythm
What does head office do, and what does the franchisee do? You get a weekly rhythm per location that is achievable alongside day-to-day work, using the agreements from local SEO for franchise brands as an example.
What you take away from the workshop
Afterwards your team shares an understanding of how visibility per location works and has a list of concrete improvements for the three measured locations. You also receive a checklist for all locations and a proposal for dividing the tasks. If you would rather not carry out the work yourself, you can outsource local SEO for retail chains to our team.
| Component | What you take away |
|---|---|
| Baseline measurement | Report on three locations in Maps and AI |
| Profile basics | Checklist for all Business Profiles |
| AI visibility | GEO protocol per location |
| Reviews | Response process without template language |
| Measurement | KPI tree per location |
| Organisation | Division of tasks and weekly rhythm |
No time or expertise in-house? Leave your franchise marketing to us.
Mistakes we find in almost every franchise chain
In the workshop we discuss the mistakes that come up most often at franchise brands. They are usually easy to fix, but only if someone tackles them centrally.
- Business Profiles are registered in the name of a franchisee or a former employee, so head office has no access.
- Each location has a different primary category, even though they all offer the same thing.
- Special opening hours around public holidays are not updated, which leads to negative reviews.
- Nobody responds to reviews, or every location uses the same standard text.
- The website only has a map with addresses and no dedicated page per location.
- Nobody knows whether the locations are mentioned in AI answers, because it has never been measured.
For each mistake, the workshop gives you the solution and the question of who in your organisation will own it.
| Mistake | Consequence | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Profile in the franchisee's name | No access when they leave | Head office as owner, location as manager |
| Inconsistent primary category | Lower relevance in Maps | Fixed category per location type |
| Holiday hours not updated | Negative reviews | Central annual calendar |
| Reviews left unanswered | Lower rating and fewer AI mentions | Response process with a deadline |
| Only a map of addresses | Too little context for Google and AI | Dedicated page per location |
Preparation and baseline measurement
Once you have signed up, we schedule a short preliminary call. You choose three locations, preferably in different regions. We measure them beforehand in Google Maps, in the local search results and in AI assistants. We do not need access to the Business Profiles for this measurement; we carry it out the way a customer searches. The outcome is the starting point of the workshop and remains yours afterwards.
Tailored to your sector
Visibility works differently in every sector. A restaurant brand relies on photos, menus and reviews about the evening itself. A healthcare brand deals with specialisms, privacy and referrers. Retail focuses on stock, opening hours and the route to the shop. For home services, the service area matters more than the address.
That is why we tailor the examples to your brand's sector. We use the chapters from Part X of the handbook, Application by sector, and the approach we have worked out for each sector in our approach per franchise sector. That way you are not discussing theory, but the search queries your customers actually use.
After the online visibility workshop
Within a week you receive a report with the baseline measurement, the improvements per location and the agreed division of tasks. After three months you can repeat the measurement to see what has changed. This makes the results of the workshop visible to your board and your franchisees, and shows you which locations still need attention.
Taught by the author of the handbook
Gijs Bodenstaff's background: he has specialised in local visibility since 2010 and wrote the Franchise Local SEO & GEO Handboek 2027 (Dutch-language edition) and the local SEO book for franchise chains. At the book launch at De Nationale Franchise Beurs he presented his latest book for franchisors. In the workshop he shares the test protocols and checklists from the book, applied to your franchise brand.
Want to read up beforehand? Our franchise marketing knowledge base has articles on local marketing for chains.
Buy the handbook with the workshop
The handbook is the reference work for this workshop. It contains 69 chapters and 17 appendices, including checklists and schema templates for chains. If you read the book beforehand, you can go straight into more depth on your own locations during the workshop.
Signing up for the franchise online visibility workshop
Choose the format, give us a preferred date and the number of participants, and we will send you a proposal within one working day. You can also book a meeting straight away, send a WhatsApp message or call. If your question goes beyond visibility, take a look at the franchise online marketing workshop.
- Book a 30-minute introductory call
- Send a WhatsApp message
- Call 06 - 38 04 83 47, 7 days a week from 08:00 to 19:00
- Email info@franchiseseo.nl
| Online visibility workshop | Online marketing workshop | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Visibility per location | The full online marketing mix |
| Topics | Business Profiles, Maps, AI, reviews, location pages | Channels, marketing fee, budget, measurement |
| Preparation | Baseline measurement of three locations | Diagnosis of three locations and channels |
| Outcome | Checklist, KPI tree and weekly rhythm | Division of tasks, budget allocation key and 90-day plan |
Questions about the online visibility workshop
What is the difference from the franchise online marketing workshop?
Are our own locations used as examples?
Can the workshop also be followed online?
How soon can the workshop take place?
Where can I order the handbook?
What does our marketing team learn in the online findability workshop for franchises?
What do we take away from the online findability workshop?
Who is the online findability workshop for franchises intended for?
Which location findability mistakes are covered in the workshop?
Who runs the online findability workshop for franchises?
Sources
Gijs Bodenstaff
Franchise marketer, local SEO and GEO specialist, author
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