Most franchisors will recognise this: you have 35-odd location pages and one template in which the town your franchisees operate in is merely swapped in.
While this was good for online visibility a few years ago (plus it was cheap), it is now a strategy that no longer works. This type of shortcut actually carries risk if it is not approached correctly.
But there is hope and your franchise network still has a scale advantage if you divide the work properly between head office and franchisees.
Why now?: four Google spam updates in seven months
Google confirmed spam updates in March, June, August and September. And the September update took two weeks to roll out, which is much longer than the earlier ones. (The frequency of enforcing existing policies is worth paying attention to.)
The September 2026 spam update “which applies globally and to all languages,” raises the point that the search giant is not naming a specific target.
But Google’s spam policies are explicit about what to avoid.
Its definition of doorway abuse includes having multiple “pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.” For franchisors, there is a risk in this.
Then there is scaled content abuse, which is mass-produced pages that add little value.
What this means for your franchise network is that a network of duplicated pages can lose visibility everywhere at once and not just one branch at a time.
What belongs in the shared template
While a shared template is not necessarily something that will be penalised, similar content can be. That is why to counter this, your franchise needs a template for its locations. It should be the brand’s job, done once and well.
It needs to cover the brand story and values, the core service descriptions, the page structure and design, schema markup and consistent tracking so the head office can compare locations.
The template should give every page its structure, but the local content has to come from the franchisees.
What each location must supply
Each location should focus on real photos, provide information about your local team, share local reviews, and add each franchise’s own business hours to make each page genuinely better.
It needs named staff with short introductions, reviews from local customers and community details and the areas it covers.
It also needs opening hours and contact details, matched exactly to its Google Business Profile.
Here is a quick test to see where you stand: if you could swap two location pages and no customer would notice, both could be at risk.
Overall, paying attention to your local franchise pages and ensuring they are relevant and unique is a good way to attract new customers and it also turns franchisee involvement into a selling point for your franchise recruitment efforts.
How to roll out: pilot, review and scale
My advice is to start with three to five locations that differ. For example, a city-centre branch, a suburban and a rural one and then run them for eight to 12 weeks.
Review your impressions, calls and enquiries against the old pages. Collect info that franchisees found difficult to supply, then turn the lessons into a fixed intake form and checklist before the network-wide launch.
This is worthwhile in protecting your brand’s search reputation and your franchisees’ time.
Your takeaway: before you launch a location page
If there is one thing you should walk away with after reading this, it should be to ask yourself the following questions to ensure your local pages are truly local.
Does the page have original photos? Does it name real people? Does it show local reviews? Does it mention at least one community connection? Do the hours and contact details match the Google Business Profile? Would it still make sense if the town name were removed?
Remember, scale is your franchise network’s advantage, as long as each page is truly local. And if you need a hand with this, the Franchise Fame team is merely a message or call away.
Key takeaways
- Google confirmed spam updates in March, June, August and September 2026, with the September update applying globally and to all languages – a clear signal that duplicated franchise pages are under closer scrutiny than ever.
- Doorway abuse and scaled content abuse are the two Google spam policies most relevant to franchise networks, both targeting pages that exist in volume but add little genuine local value.
- A shared template is not automatically penalised, but similar content across locations can be – head office should own the brand story and core service descriptions, while local content must come from the franchisee.
- Each location page needs named staff with short introductions, reviews from local customers, community details and opening hours and contact details that match exactly to its Google Business Profile.
- Before launching any location page, ask whether it has original photos, names real people and shows local reviews – if two pages could be swapped without a customer noticing, the page needs more local substance.
