Frequently Asked Questions
We've compiled some of the questions that we commonly receive from franchisees - questions you may have as well! If you have a question that's not addressed here, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team by emailing us at AB@scorpion.co. We're ready to help!
General Questions
We would like to talk to Scorpion about all they offer beyond SEO, it would be nice to have one vendor for all things, including media buying. Who can I talk to about pricing and options?
We would love to be your one stop shop for digital marketing! You can reach out to your marketing manager to discuss more. if you are not sure you that is feel free to email AB@scorpion.co and your marketing manager will reach out to you. You can also reach out to David Booth (david.booth@scorpion.co), who is the leader of our franchisee support team. We will also be hosting webinars which will help you become more familiar with our solutions and pricing.
Do I have a contact at Scorpion for technical questions specific to my website transition or that my current vendor might have?
To ensure a fast response, you can direct all questions to AB@scorpion.co. All the Scorpion team members supporting your brand will receive your email allowing you to get a timely response by an expert on our team. This also prevents you from having to remember multiple email addresses.
Will we be using one domain name or will we be able to keep the domain name that we already work under?
Everyone will be using one domain name. However, if you have a current domain (whether it is a domain that is ranking well, that you are using on marketing material, or that is well-known by your customers), you can absolutely keep it, but we would not recommend that you keep it live. In this situation, we would work with you to set up redirects so that your domain points to your new location on Scorpion’s platform. Any time someone visited your domain, they would end up on the corporate domain.
What are budgeted costs of monthly maintenance after build out and “bolting” on other features like chat, reviews, online scheduling, etc?
The monthly maintenance costs will be covered by Authority Brands as described on the homepage of this website. Any additional add-ons, like online chat, would be out of pocket. Contact your Marketing Manager or email us at AB@scorpion.co for more information.
What cost, if any, will the local offices be responsible for?
The only local costs that you would be responsible for are optional and up to your discretion. This will include add-on packages such as advertising or more aggressive SEO efforts. The majority of all core services are covered by Authority Brands.
Are you handling citation management & clean-up?
Yes! Scorpion will review, set up, and manage profiles for you on the most valuable online directories to ensure accuracy and consistency of business information. Some of our listing management vendors include Infogroup, Neustar Localeze, Factual, Acxiom, and Yext.
Will we have access to Google Analytics?
Our Scorpion Marketing System will pull many of the important metrics out of Google Analytics allowing access to your analytics and online campaign data in one platform.
How is Scorpion going to manage my page as they manage several pages from our local competition?
Your team at Scorpion works exclusively with Authority Brands clients. It is comprised of many of our senior team members, so you are backed by the best Scorpion has to offer. While there may be another team that works with a local competitor, you’ll be working with the best we have. Additionally, being a part of the Scorpion Authority Brands team, you will be the first to have access to new technology advancements and upgrades as they are released.
Does each franchise get an individual account manager? How is information communicated both ways?
Everyone will have an individually assigned Marketing Manager to work with. These Marketing Managers will be shared across Authority Brands so if you have have multiple brands, you will have one point of contact for all of them. They can be reached by phone or email.
It doesn’t seem like there is a lot to do other than verify information, correct?
Correct! We want to take as much work off you as possible and are happy to do the heavy lifting of building out your local site and making it technically sound! We will just need you to make sure that your information is verified and that you have access to all of your online profiles such as Google my Business, Facebook, Yelp, etc. We will put a list together of the items that you need to have on hand to share.
If we are interested in a particular launch date, how much lead time do you need?
Your Field Marketing Manager (FMM) will be following up to see which of the dates you’d like to use to transition. If you do not choose a date with your FMM, your site will be transitioned this November or December. Each site is being cataloged and reviewed as we speak (as each third party site varies in number of pages, content, images, etc.), so depending on your transition date we will be ready to go!
Will we retain ownership of our local URLs?
Yes! You can retain ownership of domain and all URLs on it. During the transition to the new website, we will work with you to ensure your local URLs are pointing toward the new site. If the corporate team does not have access to your domain, we can either send you instructions on how to point the domain. However, if you provide the username/password, we can do this on your behalf!
How do we understand the effectiveness of the website and the driven traffic of the Scorpion product before we jump over? Some of us have worked a long time to develop and optimize our websites in our respective markets.
So far, we have seen great success with the brands that have moved over to our platform. If you are curious about the past success, we encourage you to check out The Scorpion Difference webinar. That being said, we understand that some franchisees have already been driving great results and have invested a great deal of time, effort, and energy into their website and online presence. We will be extremely careful to make sure that we do not affect that when transitioning you to the new corporate website. Maintaining current success (and improving it!) is a top priority during launch. Our team will be performing a thorough website audit for each franchisee and providing recommendations about what will happen during the move. If you have questions or concerns, we encourage you to reach out to us directly so that we can help answer them and provide you with a tailored plan. If you can provide us access to an existing Google Analytics account, we can provide an even more detailed plan.
We’re are dual branded. Does that mean I have two websites?
Yes! You will have a unique local website for each of your brands on its corresponding corporate site. We will also include a section on your website that showcases that you are dual branded.
I am in Tampa. I was searching the rankings of the current brands you manage, such as The Cleaning Authority & Mosquito Squad and those companies do not rank on page one for key terms. Why not?
There are a number of reasons why they may not be showing for searches you are performing. Things like where you are searching from, the keywords you are using, the number of reviews, etc. In instances like this, it’s best that we investigate them individually to find answers.
Is this a requirement and can you opt out? What if you are currently under a contract?
We understand that some of you may have concerns about current contracts conflicting with the launch of the new corporate website. While it is a requirement to eventually merge onto the corporate site (which will be a subdirectory structure), we do want to help ease the transition. We have launched our first wave of locations. The second wave will be later in the year 2020. If you are currently under contract and have questions or concerns, please let us know. We are happy to work with you on it to make sure this is as seamless of a move as possible!
Will we be able to use call tracking numbers on these sites?
Yes! We provide call tracking numbers for the new site at no cost to you. We can point these numbers to any number you already have set up (call center, cell phone, existing tracking numbers, etc.)
How will having multiple Google my Business locations work on the dashboard?
If you own multiple locations (i.e. with physical addresses that you have separate GMB listings for), we have multi-location owner views that reports on these metrics separately, but lets you toggle between the locations with ease!
Website Questions
Will we be able to have online booking with Service Titan or Successware 21 with this new site?
We will not be setting up full, unique integrations for individual locations as we are working to integrate the entire brand with Authority Brands' Successware CRM. A new scheduler will be included as a part of this new Successware integration! If you have questions about other CRM systems, please reach out to your Marketing Manager.
My current site requires more information to “book an appointment” than we currently ask for on the corporate site. Can we expand what information we request?
With the new site, we have shared fields across all forms to ensure streamlined integrations with Successware. After reviewing all location’s forms, we’ve compiled a list of commonly asked fields and will be utilizing that to ensure a good user experience and avoiding form fill fatigue.
Link building: Will you guys be handling this or should we still put effort into this even if you are?
This will primarily be done through directory and citation listings management, which is usually more than sufficient for ranking in these markets. That being said, we always recommend partnering with corporate to build natural links over time. If you are interested in this, we recommend looking into opportunities such as local sponsorships and organizations. These localized links can be very powerful for SEO. If you ever need guidance or recommendations on this, we would be happy to research and put together ideas for you.
What platform is website built on? Wordpress/Asp.net etc.?
We have our own proprietary Content Management System (CMS) at Scorpion that was built in-house from the ground up. This allows us the flexibility to build our system as robust as we need it to be to support our franchise customers. It also allows us to close the loop on analytics and our Smart Advertising Machine (SAM) since everything is working cohesively together.
What are the benefits of being on a proprietary CMS system?
Our CMS ties directly into other Scorpion systems such as advertising and dashboards so you can have everything in one place. We are always working toward new development and integrations that will benefit you in many ways. With our own CMS system, we have the flexibility to build upon it continually and make it as robust as we need it to be.
How are you able to track whether or not a lead turns into a customer?
We utilize tracking phone numbers to track phone calls and code to track form submissions to identify leads from the website. When it comes to determining whether or not leads turn into a customer, we will rely on your feedback and integrating Successware data to match back customers with our dashboard.
How often do you blog and how many words are in your blogs for our SEO sites?
Our team will be working closely with each brand’s Corporate Communications Manager for blogs on the corporate level. Although these blogs will not be directly attached to your location, they will have an impact on building authority around each franchisee and even driving local traffic. During this process, we will be helping with keyword research and recommendations on content. In regards to blog length, we favor long-form content, but we do not believe in recommending a specific amount of words (although we would say 300 words is the minimum). Instead, we recommend writing blogs that are long enough to provide value to the reader and answer any questions that they might have. If you would like to have blogs for your specific location, there are multiple options. We can work with you if you are interested in blogging on your own or you can invest in a package for our team to blog on your behalf.
Can you speak to pixels? Are we able to get that data?
For pixels, we will need more specific information in order to give you the best answer. If you would like to add a Facebook pixel, for example, we can absolutely work with you to add that to your local website. We can also pull that information back into our SMS dashboard for reporting purposes!
If the platform is proprietary to Scorpion, what happens if AB discontinues contract with Scorpion?
We would hate to see you go, but we will assist with the transition and provide any website files, content, and images that you need.
Will reviews be localized?
Yes! When a user visits your local website, they will see your location-specific reviews (if available). During the launch of the new website, we will be carrying over any and all valuable reviews that currently exist on your site. Moving forward, as you get new reviews, you can send them over for us to add to your websites. You can also direct customers to your website so that they can leave reviews directly. If you are curious about reviews on popular platforms like Google My Business, Facebook, etc., you will have access to all of that information on the SMS dashboard!
Is there going to be online email customer driven service call request system as well as a chat feature?
The website has contact forms that customers can use for requesting service. We are also talking through the integration of online booking with Corporate. Online Chat is also available as an add on at an additional cost.
In the past our corporate landing pages didn't work well. It was only until we created our own websites that Google started ranking us well. What makes this different?
There are many reasons that a corporate landing page may not have worked in the past. However, at Scorpion, we have worked with thousands of franchisees and seen tremendous success with our approach to franchise SEO. One of the biggest reasons for this success is having your local website live on the corporate domain. By being attached to the domain instead of being detached with an independent website, you can take advantage of the entire brand’s authority and traffic. So, for example, if the corporate website gets a high-quality link, that can indirectly help you, as well. In regards to our approach to franchise SEO, one of the main differences that we have seen is our approach to building out your local website. We are big believers in the importance of content and will be working with you to have a full-fleshed out local home page. By pairing a technically-sound website with unique content and a good deal of work for online listings and citation management, we have seen franchisees continually increase their organic visibility.
Can we request email landing pages?
Yes! You would just need to provide the content you would like on the new page.
We utilize Pulse M for our review gathering. Will this system be able to still be utilized with your system?
Yes! Pulse M can still be utilized the same way you use it now. However, we don’t have any integrations into our system for Pulse M.
Are we able to run local offers?
Yes! There is a coupon system built into the SMS dashboard that will allow you to add coupons, set when they will run, and set when they will expire.
We currently have a gift card portal on our website that allows customers to go to our site, activate their card, and opt in to our email list. Can that be integrated in the new site?
We are happy to take a look at your gift card portal and work to find out if and how we can incorporate that into your new website.
What turnaround can we expect for content updates like page edits or coupon changes?
Same day (if not within minutes) We pride ourself on quick responses and being available to you at all times. You may even see responses at 2am or on the weekends!
What’s the process for submitting content marketing for our website since we can’t upload it ourselves.
You can send it over to the brand distribution email. We will ensure that it is formatted correctly and up to ADA standards. We want to take as much work off of your plate so you only have to focus on running your business
Advertising/Social Media Questions
How will PPC be routed to a landing page? Will Scorpion be able to route my clicks to match page specific searches, i.e. they searched “replacement”, will visitors land on a “replacement” area of the website if I am using an outside vendor?
For anyone taking advantage of Scorpion’s Paid Search, each visitor will be routed to the most specific page they searched for. For example, if someone was to do a search for “Drain Cleaning Near Me”, they would land on a geographically relevant page specific to Drain Cleaning. With the use of our systems and understanding what franchise location drove the traffic, we automatically localize that traffic meaning they will not have to provide a service location to get the most ideal experience possible while also eliminating any added clicks that could harm conversions.
If you are using an outside provider, you are free to map to any organic service or specialty page that we agree to in our overall page structure.
Can I request indexed or unindexed PPC landing pages?
Scorpion sets up PPC landing pages to be more “conversion oriented," meaning we keep the content and layout more focused on making the page easy to load and convert on. Because the intention of these pages differs drastically from the more informational style of SEO-based pages, we mark our PPC landing pages as “noindex” to avoid competing with other pages intended to rank organically. If you have an outside PPC provider who would like to run ads to the new website, you can either run ads to our SEO based pages or to an unindexed page we can create for them (if you provide the content).
When I type in plumbers in North Branch, Minnesota the first thing that shows up is HomeAdvisor - will our new (corporate) web page help boost us higher?
This particular search and the results will depend on where you are searching from, and what time of day as well. Home Advisor tends to rely heavily on PPC advertising, were you seeing an ad for Home Advisor, or are you speaking of organic results? The new corporate structure will absolutely help you rank better organically.
Paid ads tend to show above the organic results, but you can potentially gain a better position by using paid advertising like Pay Per Click (PPC) and/or Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) in conjunction with your SEO strategy.
Is the display advertising and social media advertising included with the program?
Display advertising and social media advertising are considered “local add-ons” and there will be a cost associated with running the advertising. How much budget you need is determined by a number of things, including the size of your territory and how aggressive you would like to be with your branding. We are happy to work with you to determine what works best for you in every case. Corporate is funding the asset creation for your display and social ads so you will not incur any cost for that.
Who is going to determine these budgets for the digital display and social media and who is creating the relevant content for this?
Budgets are determined by market size, competitiveness of the market, and your individual goals. We would love to work with you and tailor a plan that meets your needs and budget.
When will you have the cost for the local add-ons?
As we get closer to the launch, we will be able to work up proposals for you based on the services you would like to add, the population of your territory, the competitiveness in the area, and how aggressive you would like to be. If you would like more information, please email the distro email for your brand.
How will local Facebook pages work to maintain look/feel of authentic local?
We will make sure everyone has a local Facebook page that will be unique to your market. We will also create consistent brand images from cover photos to profile photos, but we also want to welcome you guys to make that localized to you (ex. community events, servicing happy customers, techs working in the field, etc.)
Are we responsible for all Facebook local content?
Yes! However, we are happy to help post the content on your behalf if you provide it to us. Corporate will also be creating social posts and blog posts that will push out to your local pages which will help alleviate some of the legwork.
How will Google Maps listings work for each local office?
We will be working with you to gain access to your Google My Business maps listing to ensure that all information is up-to-date and consistent. By moving your listing into a franchise organization account, you’ll have more protection against widespread suspensions for any reason, better management, and more ease with removing listings to verify when we have to merge duplicates that may exist.
How does using the same images for social media posts and websites not look like duplicate content for Google?
Google does not penalize duplicate content on social media pages. Google understands that images and text will be shared on social media channels and does not see that as a negative quality. Additionally, Google recognizes that your franchisee is part of a larger franchise brand and will be expecting there to be shared images, content, and more. This includes on your local website and the corporate pages on the same domain. While we strongly believe in unique content where appropriate, you don’t need to fear shared content on your Facebook or the same images on the same website.
Why does Scorpion not do email campaigns?
We have begun researching what building out our own email marketing system would look like, so this will definitely be coming in the future! In the meantime, we are happy to suggest 3rd party platforms for you to use.
We use keyword-level tracking that tells me exactly which keywords generate what phone call. This is tracking software that my SEO company built and offers. I do not see that you offer that exact same tracking. Did I miss it on your website or is that not a service you provide ?
From an SEO standpoint, we are not able to track back what keywords generated phone calls. Various privacy laws can prevent us from doing so. For paid advertising on the other hand, we can absolutely track which keywords led to a phone call.
How will this impact my account with Google Local Services?
This will not impact your Google Local Service Ads. However, a benefit of running your Local Service Ads with us is that we can use a tracking number for attribution AND we can incorporate the Local Service Ads reporting into the Scorpion Dashboard.
I was under the impression that Google Local Service Ads were not available in my market. Has that changed?
Earlier this year Google Local Service Ads rolled out nationally for certain categories, including plumbing, house cleaning, and HVAC. This means that they are available in your area. They no longer require there be a minimum of three competitors using Local Services Ads in your area in order for the ad to show. Once they have an advertiser, ads can run. We are happy to help get you set up so as soon as the requirements are met, we can start getting you in front of potential customers.
Have Google LSA campaigns been measured against other services such as Home Advisor?
There are no LSA versus Home Advisor case study, but one of the many benefits of LSAs is that you get ranked in the first position on the search engine results page. Also, the lead is coming directly to you versus Home Advisor distributing the lead to multiple service providers in the area.