Many Business Services franchisee websites are still made of just one web page

Many Business Services franchisee websites are still made of just one web page

One of the most striking findings of SeoSamba's 2019 report is that only 68.5% of Top Business Services Franchises provide an online presence to their franchisees.

Among those, 38.7% supply their franchisees with only a minimal presence on their corporate franchise website.

Of course, existing and potential franchisees receive little to no value in terms of organic lead generation, unless the franchisor is a premium brand - such as UPS - with thousands of locations and a highly visible web presence.

Some franchisors do provide extra value with the help of sizeable online marketing investments which yield measurable results, for instance in terms of local search rankings.

Even so, franchisees rightfully locked in with no way to implement efficient online marketing strategies of their own, leverage top strategies such as email marketing or local SEO, and are only able to provide little, static information about their business on the franchisor's platform.

For those franchisors who for various reasons chose not to provide a full featured website to their franchisees, a popular compromise is "mini site" format, which look like website but are actually embedded in the main corporate site.

These usually provide sufficient freedom of expression (through a blog or news area) to franchisees while ensuring a low-maintenance, centralized architecture.

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Key Take Aways

• Contrary to a full website, a single web page offering to franchisees holds litlle incentive for ambitiious local franchisees.
• Although online presence often plays a significant role in justifying marketing fees required by the franchisor, a low tech, single web page hardly does.
• Single web pages on a large website are usually static, offering little more than a standard directory entry. In many instances, we found the information on these pages inaccurate or outdated, probably due in large part by the lack of interest and involvement from franchisees.
• Single web pages are usually parked under subfolders on the main franchise domain, which may greatly alter local ranking opportunities for franchisees.

More info

• The definitive guide to subdomains vs subfolder/subdirectories and stand-alone domains
• Franchising and e-commerce: which online business model is right for you?

Download your Top Business Services Franchises Digital Marketing Report 2019

In our exclusive Top Business Services Franchises Digital Marketing Report 2019, SeoSamba analyzes the latest trends, strategies, and challenges of digital marketing for franchising leaders of the B2B services market.

You will find data collected from hundreds of global franchise websites as well as thousands of franchisees’ websites and webpages, what features franchisors offer to their franchisees, which range from not much to a full website on a unique domain with all the online marketing amenities one can expect from a top brand.