Top of the Heap Here's how to be sure your franchise's website pops into the No. 1 spot in an online search.

Gone are the days when people picked up bulky phone books to find the nearest pizza parlor, dry cleaner or electrician. Now a click on a computer, GPS or smartphone does the trick--a great development for small business owners, if they know how to make their listing pop to the top of a search ranking.

But too many franchisees assume that their franchisor has that covered, when in fact, the task of search engine optimization, or SEO, rests largely with the franchisee. 'Even franchisors that do handle SEO often don't do a great job of it," says Erik Whaley of marketing company Location3 Media in Denver. 'So we really encourage franchisees to take the matter into their own hands."