Decision tree
Franchise site links: which URL should each placement point to?
Most wasted link money on chains is not a bad donor. It is a good link sent to the wrong page. Walk the tree below before you open a basket.
The rule we use
Send the link to the page that has to win the search
If a person types "plumber in Leeds", the page that should answer is the Leeds page. A backlink placement service can only help if the placement lands there, not on a homepage that merely lists forty towns.
- Root URL: brand mentions and the odd press link.
- City or area page: the usual target for paid placements.
- Store page: only when it has its own staff, photos and text.
The tree, question by question
- 1
Does the branch have its own URL?
No: it cannot earn anything. Build the page first, with a real address or service area, hours and local proof, then come back.
- 2
Is the page more than a swapped city name?
If the other thirty pages differ only by the town, fix that first. See the duplicate pages teardown.
- 3
Is it indexed and returning 200?
Check Search Console. A redirected or noindexed page wastes the link, and nobody tells you.
- 4
Does a rival hold the top spot for it?
Open Ahrefs or Semrush, count the rival's referring domains in the region, and set a number you can reach.
- 5
Is the branch worth the money this quarter?
A branch opening in three weeks beats a branch that is already full. Rank your locations by margin and need.
Where the link goes, by site structure
| Structure | Example URL | Best target | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folders on one domain | /locations/leeds | The folder page of that city | Thin copy across folders |
| Subdomain per branch | leeds.brand.com | Its own subdomain root | Authority may not flow to the main site |
| Separate domain per owner | brandleeds.co.uk | That owner's homepage | Naming and NAP must match your profile |
| Single page, many towns | /areas | Split it first | One page cannot rank for twenty towns |
What we would do with $100 and with $1,000
Take $100 first. Spend it on one branch, one URL, two or three links at the low end of the price range, from sites that mention your region. Then leave it alone for 30 days. No second order, no panic.
Now $1,000. Split it by branch priority, not evenly. Put roughly half behind the two branches with the largest gap to their rival, a quarter behind the newest location, and hold the rest back. Reserves matter. A donor you wanted may only appear next month, and the marketplace has 50,000+ domains to filter.
Prices run from $1 to about $500 per link, set by authority, traffic and niche. Most branch pages need nothing near the top end. Really. Check the glossary if a column in the marketplace uses a term you do not know.
One more point on timing. Order the batch for a branch after its page edits are live, never before, because Google will crawl the page as it stands on the day the links are found.
A placement points to your site. It does not edit your Google Business Profile, fix mixed-up phone numbers, or add reviews. Since the March 2024 update Google also treats mass-produced pages as spam, so links cannot rescue a page set built only to catch searches.
Quick check on the order
- Every row has its own target URL, never the same page twice by accident.
- The keyword matches the page, such as "emergency dentist Leeds" for the Leeds page.
- No row points to a page that redirects.
- You recorded the date and the referring domains before the order.