1851 Franchise Reveals Evaluation Scores for 200 Franchisor Websites

Conclusions, Data Points on How the Experts Evaluated the Sites

by Nick Powills
1851 Franchise

For 1851’s second Franchise Development Website Awards, 12 franchise industry experts representing the best in technology and consulting evaluated 200 franchisor websites. The full ranking is listed below.

A few interesting themes came out of the scoring:

There were two females, ten males in the group. There was no conclusive difference between how females or males judged the site.
The financial wealth of the judges would qualify them all to own a franchise.
The judges’ ages ranged from early 30s to mid 60s. There was a clear difference in the appeal to the early 30s vs the mid 60s.
While content heavy sites were said to be a great resource for information in the past, third party content driving awareness to a quicker site received higher votes this year.
While not considered a best practice, many franchisors still use their main site URL as the URL for the franchise opportunity.

The judges also shared their 10 biggest surprises of the sites. Here’s what surprised the group the most:

The number of sites that don’t effectively convey the culture and values of the brand, which makes it hard to inspire and emotionally connect with candidates. Also, how similar many of them were. There’s a lot to be said for organizing information and making it accessible, but there seems to be a lot of copying from others and not a lot of real innovation in design.
How many of them, including larger brands, use the word “proven.”
How much they have changed from last year to this year. I noticed that the sites are much better as a whole. They are better looking visually as well as full of content.
How poorly designed and/or thought-out some of them where.
The contact information was far too hard to find on many sites. Many took several clicks to get to a form or to find a phone number.
There are some sites that still are not responsive or mobile friendly. In 2017, when at least half your audience is likely searching via mobile devices, do yourself a favor and get a responsive design that is preferred by mobile users AND Google.
The fact that several used the same “formula” in creating the site – there’s nothing wrong with it, it just surprised me.
The sheer number of franchisors saying in their FAQ’s that they are not legally allowed to answer how much a franchisee can make. That’s not factual – however, assuming you don’t make an Item 19 Financial Performance Representation, at least offer that after pre-qualifying. They will have the opportunity to interview current franchisees, many of whom would be able to share their experiences.
How bad so many were. I expected better.
In franchise development, showing consistent growth creates a supply and demand issue, yet, so many of the franchisors’ sites didn’t include moving content. They were static sites — created and forgotten.

Below are the complete scores of the 200 sites evaluated:

GOLD WINNERS:

SILVER WINNERS:

BRONZE WINNERS:

RUNNERS UP WITH SCORE OVER 5:

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