Website for franchises: many locations, one system

en 2026-09-25 7 min read

A franchise website with 4-7 brand pages and a page for every location drawn from one template in the CMS is a step 03 business website, EUR 1.500-3.500 over 3-6 weeks. When franchisees sign in to manage their own location, enquiries route into a CRM per branch, or customers book and pay against a specific location, it becomes step 04 at EUR 3.500-7.500 over 6-12 weeks.

Everything that makes a franchise site harder than a single business site comes from one fact: many locations have to look like one brand while each still says something true about itself.

What one system means here

Every location exists once, as a structured entry in the CMS: address, opening hours, phone, services, team, photos and booking or contact route. The location page, the overview and the structured data search engines read are generated from that entry, so a change to opening hours happens in one place.

The alternative, a hand-built page or a separate site per franchisee, is quicker to set up and harder to keep consistent, because every brand correction has to be made in every copy.

What multiple locations add

• The location template and data model. Which fields every location must have, which are optional, and how the page still looks finished when a branch has no team photos yet.
• Who can edit what. If franchisees edit their own location, each must be able to change only their own entry and only the fields you allow. That permission work is step 04.
• Finding the nearest branch. A list with a map is plain build work. Search by postcode or by the visitor's position adds more, so name it at scoping.
• Enquiries reaching the right franchisee. A form on each location page that emails that branch is a contact flow. Routing leads into a CRM, with each franchisee seeing only their own, is step 04.
• Booking per branch. Linking each location page to that branch's own booking page is simple. A booking flow that knows every branch's staff and availability through an API is step 04.
• Payments and ordering. Taking money for a specific location, whether a deposit, an order or a gift card, is always step 04, because each payment has to land with the right franchisee.
• A second audience. The site also recruits new franchise owners, who need their own pages and their own enquiry route.

Which step a franchise site needs

The full ladder is on packages. A fixed quote always follows scoping, because the number of locations and the fields each one carries decide where in a range you land.

Location pages that are not doorway pages

A location page with the brand text and a city name swapped in is what search engines call a doorway page, and they treat it as one. Every location page has to carry something only that branch can say: how to get there and where to park, the people who work there, photos of that room rather than a stock interior, the services that branch offers, and what its own customers say.

The content for each branch has to come from the franchisees, and collecting it is the part that waits on you. Start at scoping, not after design sign-off.

Local search then has two halves. On the site, the SEO foundation at EUR 450-750, a one-off, covers Search Console, analytics, indexation, technical hygiene, titles, internal links and a 3-6 month plan. Off the site, each branch that customers visit can have its own Google Business Profile, and its name, address and phone should match its location page exactly. For ongoing work on location and service pages with reporting, SEO growth runs at EUR 500-800 a month.

Who owns the system when franchisees change

The site belongs to the franchisor. The code, the repository and the database are yours, so when a franchisee leaves, head office removes their access and the location page passes to the new owner.

Decide before launch whether a franchisee may also run their own website or social accounts under the brand, and put that in the arrangement you already have with them. We can host the system, agreed per project. Care at EUR 100-300 a month covers updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes, not new features and not a redesign.

How the project runs

1. Scoping. The list of locations, the fields each needs, what franchisees may change, and where enquiries and bookings go. The fixed quote follows.
2. Design. The brand pages and the location template, designed so a branch with thin content still looks finished. More on design and engineering.
3. Build. The data model, the template, roles and any integrations, on the stack described on our Next.js page.
4. Location content. Each branch's text, photos, hours and team, gathered by head office.
5. Launch and redirects. Old location URLs and any franchisee microsites redirect to the new pages, so the search history they built carries over.

Step 03 takes 3-6 weeks, step 04 takes 6-12 weeks, and step 05 is timed after discovery.

When to spend less

• If you have a small number of branches and head office is happy to edit them, skip franchisee logins. A step 03 site with one location template does the job, and franchisee permissions are what move you into step 04.
• If the concept is still proving itself with its first branches, a step 02 mini-site at EUR 900-1.500, with 2-3 pages, a contact flow and a basic CMS, can carry the brand, the locations and a recruitment enquiry. Then do not hire us for the full system yet. Build it when there are locations to put in it.
• If every franchisee is already tied to a booking or ordering platform, link each location page to it instead of integrating.
• If the location content does not exist yet, do not buy SEO growth. Build the pages and do the SEO foundation first.

Questions before you commit

Should each franchisee have their own domain?

Our advice is one domain with a path per location. Location pages under the brand's domain build on the brand's standing in search, while a separate domain for each franchisee has to earn its visibility from nothing. Separate domains also make it harder to take a location back when a franchisee leaves.

Can franchisees change their pages without breaking the brand?

Yes, if they edit fields rather than layouts. Hours, photos, team and local news change inside the template, and the design stays with head office. An approval step before changes go live is permission work, and belongs in step 04.

Can we add new locations ourselves after launch?

Yes. Adding a branch means creating a new entry in the CMS and filling in its fields, and the page, the overview and the map update from it. You only need us when a new location needs something the template does not have, such as a service type that does not exist yet.

What happens to a location page when a branch closes?

Remove the entry and redirect its address to the nearest open branch or the location overview, so visitors and search engines land somewhere useful. Update or close the matching Google Business Profile at the same time. Leaving a closed branch online sends customers to a locked door.

Send the list of locations and what you want franchisees to be able to change, and we will tell you which step it is. Start here.