Key takeaways
- Location count, not design, sets most of the scope for a multi-location site.
- Find out what your franchisor's fees already cover before you pay anyone for location pages.
- Budget for a new location page at every opening, not only for the launch.
- Pay for outcomes and dates, and get ownership of the domain, code and content in writing.
How much a website costs for a multi-location franchise depends on three things more than design: how many locations need their own pages, who owns the site, and what the franchisor already provides. Price the location pages, booking and tracking you actually need, then check the ownership terms before you compare quotes on price.
What a website costs a multi-location business
It costs what its scope costs, and for a multi-location brand the scope is set mainly by how many locations and services the site has to carry. The ranges in the FAQs below apply, with location count pushing you up through them.
Here is how scope builds, as a worked example. The brand is hypothetical: eight locations and five core services.
| Part of the site | Pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Home, about, contact | 3 | The brand story, kept short |
| Service pages | 5 | One per core service, listing the locations that offer it |
| Location pages | 8 | Each with its own hours, phone, photos, reviews and booking |
| Locator | 1 | Search by phone location or ZIP code |
| Service-at-location pages | 0 to 40 | Build only where search demand justifies it, never as copies |
A quote for "a website" can mean the first four rows or all five. Ask which.
Franchisees should also check the brand side. Many franchise systems charge a technology or website fee that already covers a location page on the brand site. Before you pay a local vendor, find out what that fee buys and what the agreement lets you build on top of it.
Owned site vs rented site
| Question | Owned site | Rented site |
|---|---|---|
| The domain | In your name | Often in the provider's |
| Content and photos | Yours to move | Can stay with the provider |
| If you leave | The site goes with you | You may start over |
| What you pay for | The build, then hosting and care | A fee for as long as it runs |
What changes the price
The price moves with the work that is hard to template.
- Unique location content. Real photos, staff names, directions and local reviews for every location cost more than one template with the address swapped. They also convert better and avoid thin, duplicated pages (Google's SEO starter guide).
- Integrations. Connecting booking, forms and call tracking to the CRM or franchise platform each location works from, once per location.
- Brand approvals. Every review round with the franchisor adds time. Ask your vendor how many rounds the price includes.
- Migration. Moving old location URLs to new pages with redirects, so the rankings each location earned carry over.
- Speed work. Fast pages on real phones take deliberate effort, especially with maps and booking widgets on the page (Core Web Vitals).
- Who writes it. Copy you supply costs less than copy written and checked per location.
Ongoing costs
The ongoing costs of a multi-location site grow with the number of locations, so plan them per location.
- Hosting, domain, security and updates. Get these in writing before you sign.
- A page for every new location. With a launch template, a new location page is a small, dated job. Without one, it becomes a mini project at each opening.
- Call tracking numbers. One per location page, each usually billed monthly.
- Platform subscriptions. Booking and CRM tools often charge per location.
- Content upkeep. New photos, staff changes, holiday hours and offers, per location.
Put these lines in your annual plan location by location, so a new opening does not arrive with an unbudgeted website bill.
Ownership and contract terms
Ask these questions before you sign anything:
- Who owns the domain? It should be registered to your business. If the brand owns the main domain, ask what you own instead.
- Who owns the code and design? Can you move the site to another host and take the files with you?
- Who owns each location's content and photos? Agree what happens to a location's page if you sell that location or the agreement ends.
- What do the franchisor's fees already cover? Make sure you are not paying twice for the same location page.
- What does the next location cost? A clear price for adding a location page beats a fresh quote every opening.
- Who holds admin access? Analytics, tag manager and call tracking should sit in your name, with the vendor added as a user.
- What do you get when you leave? A full export, working redirects and a notice period measured in weeks, not years.
- What is the outcome and the date? A launch date and a target in calls or bookings per location, not a count of hours.
If you are still deciding what the site has to do, start with website design for multi-location brands or the conversion checklist.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We price websites as fixed-scope projects with a launch date, a page plan per location and an agreed price for each new location after that. You own the domain, code and content we produce, within what your agreement allows, and we report calls, bookings and new customers by location page, so you pay for results you can see. Book a growth consultation for a scoped quote.
Sources
- SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central
- Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results, Google Search Central