Franchise Local SEO & GEO Handboek 2027

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What is in Franchise Local SEO & GEO Handboek 2027?

The full table of contents: 69 chapters. You can read the opening and the first 5 chapters of Franchise Local SEO & GEO Handboek 2027 here for free (in Dutch), each on its own page.

Front matter

1. Start here: the ten questions for your agency (in Dutch) Free to read

PART I: THE PLAYING FIELD

1. 1What has changed since the first edition (in Dutch) Free to read

2. 2The franchise paradox in 2027 (in Dutch) Free to read

3. 3The Netherlands is not America (in Dutch) Free to read

4. 4The European results page (in Dutch) Free to read

5. 5How Google assesses a location in 2027 (in Dutch) Free to read

PART II: THE FOUNDATION AT SCALE

1. 6Account architecture for chains In the book

   The most underestimated part of local SEO for a franchise brand is not a ranking factor. It is the question of who has access to what.

2. 7Verification and suspension In the book

   A suspended profile is to a location what a locked door is to a shop. For a chain it is worse, because a suspension that stems from a pattern can hit several locations at once.

3. 8Categories and the category test protocol In the book

   With 227 points, the primary category is the heaviest ranking factor in Whitespark's research, and at the same time the factor that chains manage worst.

4. 9Name, opening hours and the factors that carry the most weight In the book

   Chapter 5 gave the research: with 223 points, keywords in the business name are the third heaviest factor, and Whitespark's analysis of 1.4 million listings shows differences of five to six times in the chance of a top 3 position.

5. 10Photos, video and visual proof In the book

   The average verified Business Profile in Birdeye's 2026 measurement had fewer than one photo.

6. 11Services, products and review requests In the book

   In the latest edition of the ranking research, the predefined services in the Business Profile jumped to place twenty-two out of 187 factors. That sounds modest until you consider that most profiles have not filled them in at all.

PART III: ENTITIES AND THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

1. 12From string to thing In the book

   Search systems have increasingly stopped storing information as loose character strings that resemble each other, and increasingly store it as things with properties and relationships. Google once summed up that shift as "things, not strings".

2. 13Dutch entity infrastructure In the book

   This chapter does not exist in any international book on the subject, because the infrastructure differs per country and the authors are American.

3. 14Schema.org for chains In the book

   Google's documentation on LocalBusiness structured data, updated on 8 September 2026, is short and sobering on one point.

4. 15Citations are back: but for something else In the book

   This is the most important substantive chapter of this book, because it reverses advice that was standard in this field for five years.

5. 16NAP consistency as a data discipline In the book

   NAP stands for name, address, phone number. Keeping it consistent is the oldest advice in local SEO, and chains carry it out worst.

PART IV: AI VISIBILITY PER LOCATION

1. 17What AI search engines do with a local query In the book

   Before you can optimise for a system, you need to know what it does. Here is the honest state of affairs, stating explicitly what is NOT known about it.

2. 18The Dutch AI reality In the book

   This chapter is short, and it is the most practical one in this part.

3. 19The GEO protocol per location In the book

   This is my own method. It grew out of training sessions I gave to colleagues and was sharpened by what I measured through LocalSEOLab.nl on my own sites and test locations. It is not a Google method and not a quote from a study.

4. 20Measuring whether a location gets mentioned In the book

   Chapter 19 gave the protocol. This chapter is about the measurement problems you run into when you want to apply it to two hundred locations.

5. 21AI Overviews, AI Mode and the local pack In the book

   The best available research on this is from Whitespark, published on 12 May 2025 and based on 540 searches in three American cities and six sectors.

6. 22Hallucinations and damage control In the book

   An AI system that makes something up about your location is not a theoretical risk. It is a reputation problem for which no report button exists.

PART V: REVIEWS UNDER NEW LAW

1. 23The review provisions that became visible in April 2026 In the book

   If you read one chapter of this book before doing anything else, make it this one.

2. 24Review management: process beats intention In the book

   This chapter relies on the best Dutch research available on this subject, and the outcome is good news for a franchise brand.

3. 25Responding at scale without template language In the book

   There is a real tension here, and most franchise brands have resolved it the wrong way.

4. 26Dutch law and European rules In the book

   This chapter is not legal advice. It is an overview of the rules that apply to your review programme in 2027, so you know when you need a legal professional.

5. 27Review extortion and the crisis protocol In the book

   A business receives a series of one and two star reviews in a short time, followed by a message demanding payment to have them removed. Google acknowledges the phenomenon and has set up a reporting route.

PART VI: WEBSITE, LOCATION PAGES AND INTENT PAGES

1. 28Site structure for chains In the book

   In 2027 the website of a franchise brand has a different function than in 2020. Back then it was the destination. Now it is mainly a data source.

2. 29The location page in 2027 In the book

   The location page is the most important tool you fully own yourself. It is the source that was cited in fifty-six per cent of the AI answers measured, and it is the landing page for the organic local result.

3. 30Intent pages per location In the book

   According to Steve Wiideman, this is the highest impact tool for multi-location businesses, and it is hardly used in the Netherlands.

4. 31Speed, Core Web Vitals and mobile In the book

   This chapter is shorter than it was in the first edition, for a good reason: the technology has largely become a solved problem, except at the point where chains structurally come unstuck.

5. 32Accessibility as a visibility factor In the book

   Accessibility belongs in this book for two reasons that have nothing to do with each other and both apply.

PART VII: GOVERNANCE: WHO DECIDES, WHO PAYS

1. 33The Dutch Franchise Act (Wet franchise) and local SEO In the book

   This part does not exist in any other book on local SEO, in any language. It is also the part where most franchise brands get stuck, not because they do not understand the technology, but because they do not know who gets to decide.

2. 34Case law you need to know In the book

   Three Dutch court rulings determine where this discussion stands legally. They do not all point the same way, and that is exactly what makes them useful.

3. 35The governance model In the book

   There are three ways to organise local SEO within a franchise brand. All three work, and all three fail if you choose the wrong one.

4. 36The franchisee as a partner In the book

   Everything in this book stands or falls on whether the location takes part. A central programme that is ignored at location level is an expensive report.

PART VIII: MEASURING AND PROVING

1. 37Why impressions are no longer a KPI In the book

   This is the most concrete change in a chain's reporting between 2026 and 2027, and it is a change you can make immediately.

2. 38The KPI tree per location In the book

   This chapter builds the measurement model that, according to my market research, does not exist in any book on this subject. It is my own model.

3. 39Dashboards: what is and is not possible In the book

   Source 1: the Business Profile Performance API. The only source of reliable data per location. Last updated in October 2024, no AI metrics.

4. 40Reporting to the board and the franchise council In the book

   These are two different conversations with two different goals, and they are almost always held with the same presentation.

PART IX: GOING DEEPER

1. 41How generative systems retrieve and choose In the book

   This chapter explains what happens between a user's question and the answer in which your location does or does not appear. It is the basis for part IV and for everything that follows.

2. 42What the GEO books say, and where they stop for a chain In the book

   More was published on visibility in AI answers in 2026 than in the five years before it combined. This chapter sets out what those books say, what is good about them, and exactly where they stop for someone who manages two hundred locations.

3. 43Local keyword research for chains In the book

   Keyword research for one location is an afternoon's work. For two hundred locations it is a system, and most chains do not have that system.

4. 44Video and visual proof at scale In the book

   Near Media's panel of 14 August 2026 named YouTube the second most cited source in local AI answers.

5. 45Links and local authority for chains In the book

   Chapter 15 covered citations: mentions, with or without a link. This chapter is about the links themselves, and about where they should point for a chain.

6. 46Engagement on the Business Profile In the book

   A profile is not a form you fill in. It is a channel you maintain. In a chain, that distinction shows in the difference between the locations that do something and the locations that merely exist.

7. 47Protecting your entity In the book

   This chapter describes two experiments I carried out myself in 2026 through LocalSEOLab.nl. They are not sample-based studies, and they are not measurements that anyone else has replicated.

8. 48Behavioural signals and manipulation in Google Maps In the book

   Local search results are competitive, and where there is competition, there are parties that push the limits. For a chain this is not a side issue: you are large, visible and therefore an attractive target.

9. 49The weekly rhythm per location In the book

   Everything in this book stands or falls on keeping it up. The most common mistake in local SEO is not a wrong technique. It is three months of hard work followed by nine months of nothing.

PART X: APPLICATION BY SECTOR

1. 50Hospitality and restaurant franchise brands In the book

   Hospitality is the sector in which Google has gone furthest with its own features, and in which the least depends on your own site. Menus, reservations, delivery, takeaway, busy times and guest photos are all in the profile.

2. 51Retail franchise brands In the book

   Retail is the sector in which the distance between online and the shop is shortest and worst measured. Someone searches for a product, checks whether it is in stock nearby, and drops by. That entire chain of events bypasses your web shop statistics.

3. 52Automotive and mobility In the book

   Automotive is the only Dutch multi-location sector for which a large-scale, public review study exists. In July 2026 Repmanager analysed 204,976 public Google reviews of 853 locations of the thirty largest dealer groups.

4. 53Healthcare and practice franchise brands In the book

   Healthcare franchise brands (dental chains, physiotherapy groups, GP organisations, psychology practices, opticians, hearing care providers) deal with three things the rest of this book does not cover.

5. 54Fitness, beauty and leisure In the book

   This is the sector with the shortest decision time and the highest sensitivity to reviews and imagery. People choose a gym, hairdresser or beauty salon within minutes, largely based on photos, stars and distance.

6. 55Installation, technical and home services In the book

   Plumbers, installers, cleaning, glaziers, gardeners, home care, pest control. Here the customer does not come to you; you go to the customer. That changes almost everything about the profile structure.

7. 56A chain from start to finish In the book

   This chapter is one worked example. The chain is fictional, the figures are illustrative and deliberately rounded, and the course of events is based on what I have seen in comparable projects. It is a worked calculation, not a case study.

8. 57The twenty mistakes chains make most often In the book

   A list, with a reference to the chapter where the solution can be found. I come across almost all of them in every franchise brand.

PART XI: IMPLEMENTATION

1. 58Paid local visibility in the Netherlands In the book

   This chapter is short because the Dutch reality is leaner than the American literature suggests, and that in itself is the key message.

2. 59The 90-day plan In the book

   This plan assumes you have a chain of fifty to five hundred locations and that there is currently no structured programme. If you already have parts of it, skip them.

3. 60The 12-month plan In the book

   Roll out the category change if the test was positive. If the test showed nothing, that is valuable knowledge and a reason to spend the time elsewhere.

4. 61Why most agencies cannot help you In the book

   This chapter is not meant to tear agencies down. I have worked at them myself, I have set up and trained local SEO teams there, and I still work with them. It is about a structural problem that most clients do not see.

5. 62The life cycle of a location In the book

   Everything in this book assumes that a location exists and continues to exist. In practice a franchise brand opens locations, moves them, takes them over and closes them.

6. 63Multiple countries In the book

   More and more Dutch franchise brands operate in Belgium, Germany or further afield. This chapter is about what changes then, and it is shorter than you might expect: most things stay the same, and what changes, changes thoroughly.

7. 64The business case In the book

   This chapter is about money: what it costs, what it delivers, and how you defend that to a board and a franchise council that each want to hear something different.

PART XII: WHAT IS COMING

1. 65What is happening in the United States In the book

   This part looks ahead, and that is the part of a professional book that contains the most errors. So first, the rules I impose on myself here.

2. 66What Europe achieves, and what the DMA holds back In the book

   This chapter exists because every English-language book on this subject describes a results page that a Dutch reader does not have.

3. 67Google Labs and Search Labs In the book

   This chapter is about Google's test lab, and it has a practical aim: to stop you mistaking an experiment for policy, and to stop you ignoring an experiment that does mean something.

4. 682027 and beyond In the book

   This chapter is explicitly my own analysis.

5. 69Conclusion In the book

   If I had to reduce this book to five sentences, these would be the ones.

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Besides this site, Franchise Local SEO & GEO Handboek 2027 is also listed on these book platforms:

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• Goodreads: paperback
• Goodreads: e-book

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