SHAHZAD AKRAM · SEO CONSULTANT
SEO for franchise and multi-location businesses
Help more customers find your locations—and more prospective franchisees discover your business.
I’m Shahzad Akram. I bring more than 15 years’ experience in SEO, lead generation and website development, including leading search strategy across World Options, Mail Boxes Etc. UK and PACK & SEND UK.
I help businesses connect national search strategy with local visibility, practical website improvements and measurable enquiries.
Experience across brands, locations and markets
My experience includes responsibility for:
- Six websites across a multi-brand portfolio.
- Approximately 191 physical store pages, alongside 335 virtual service office pages.
- Nine major website launches and migrations across the UK, US and Australia.
That work involves more than optimising pages. It means coordinating head-office priorities, franchisee needs, developers and agencies—and making sure agreed improvements reach the live website.
Search growth across your franchise network
Help customers find their local business
Your national website and local presence should work together. I help improve how customers discover your services, find the right location and make an enquiry.
This includes location pages, Google Business Profiles, service-area content, internal linking and the journey from search to contact.
Help prospective franchisees find your opportunity
Franchise recruitment involves a different audience and a different decision. Prospective owners need to understand the opportunity, investment, support and suitability before they enquire.
I help organise and improve recruitment websites so they answer those questions and support organic discovery.
How I can help
Franchise & Multi-Location SEO
Build a joined-up search strategy across your brand, locations and service areas. Identify gaps in local visibility and prioritise improvements across the network.
Franchise Recruitment SEO
Improve how prospective franchisees find and understand your opportunity, with clearer website structure, useful content and a stronger enquiry journey.
Technical SEO & Website Migrations
Find the technical issues limiting your website, or bring SEO into a rebuild before important decisions are made. Support covers website architecture, migration planning, developer coordination and post-launch checks.
SEO Consultancy & Leadership
Get experienced support with strategy, priorities and delivery. I work with internal teams and external partners to turn recommendations into clear actions and meaningful reporting.
Selected experience and results
World Options: franchise recruitment search growth
Annual organic sessions on the World Options franchise website increased by 115% between 2023 and 2024, from 2,792 to 5,996, during my responsibility for SEO.
My wider role covered search strategy, content, website improvements and performance reporting.
Mail Boxes Etc. UK: organic growth across an established network
After I took responsibility in March 2025, organic sessions increased by 30% year on year across the first four months, from 122,923 to 159,968.
The role brings together national website performance, local visibility and the needs of the franchise network.
Website launches across three markets
I have led nine major website launches and migrations across the UK, US and Australia, covering platform decisions, website structure, analytics, launch planning and coordination with delivery partners.
These examples relate to work undertaken in my employed roles.
Practical experience on both sides of the website
I’ve spent my career working on websites that need to generate business.
Alongside my employed SEO leadership roles, I built and operated my own Shopify business, Shilajit UK. That meant taking responsibility for the website and marketing, as well as products, fulfilment and customer service.
That commercial experience shapes how I approach SEO. Rankings and traffic matter, but so do the quality of enquiries, the customer journey and whether the business can act on the opportunities being created.
How we would work together
1. Understand the business
We start with your objectives, website, locations and current challenges. We establish what you need help with and who will be involved.
2. Identify the priorities
I review the relevant search performance, content, technical setup and enquiry journey, then put the findings into a practical order.
3. Move the work forward
Depending on the scope, I can make improvements directly, prepare clear briefs or coordinate delivery with your team, developers and agency.
4. Measure and refine
We review the measures that matter to the project—from search visibility and engaged visits to tracked enquiries—and use the findings to guide the next steps.
Notes from the work
I write about SEO, website development, analytics and the lessons of running my own businesses.
Expect practical explanations, specific examples and an honest account of what worked, what needed fixing and what I learned.
Let’s discuss your website
Whether you manage a franchise network, need support with a migration or want an experienced second opinion on your SEO, tell me what you’re working on.
Share your website and the main challenge you want to address. I’ll reply personally so we can establish whether I can help.
Or email contact@shahzadakram.com.