Franchise Website Development: Building Your Brand

Building a brand may come off as a daunting task, but there are ways to make the process much easier to handle. When you’re going through it for the first time, branding your company is going to seem almost impossible; many different elements need to be considered before you can say that you’re finished with it all. When you’re creating a franchise that has an online presence, you need to ensure that your website is taken care of in the proper sense.

You don’t want customers to think that you’ve only got a low-quality service or product to offer, and most individuals are going to take your website as a direct indication as to whether you’re the right fit (or not). It might seem shallow to some, as there are plenty of businesses that do a great job and have overlooked the development of their franchise website.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at a few of the steps you should take while putting together the franchise website. The development process surrounding any franchise website is often overlooked, as most people believe that it’s something the franchiser will handle for them. It would be wonderful if the franchiser took it upon themselves to handle one of the hardest things to handle as a franchise owner – however, that is not the case at all. Let’s take a look at the tips, shall we?

Optimize Your Website For Localized Traffic

It doesn’t matter where your headquarters happens to be located, as the websites themselves should always be optimized for the local community. The customers that your franchise serves locally are incredibly important, and that’s the point of a franchise in the first place – it’s one large company that is looking to expand their reach all across the globe. Identify the target demographic of your local area and then develop your franchise websites to appeal to them.

Google is always going to give franchise websites that have taken the local demographics into account a boost, which is going to translate into better search rankings as a result. Local SEO cannot be overlooked by any sort of franchisee, as localized searches could lead to a surge in sales; you can never compare local SEO to the traditional counterpart that most of us are used to. You’ll need to claim your business page on Google so that localized searches will point potential customers directly towards your franchised business, as opposed to just the general headquarters (or even the wrong franchise location).

Localized traffic will always take priority over the traditional SEO traffic that you’ll receive, especially since you’re a franchise business – most of the sales that you make are going to be from local customers who keep on coming back.

Portion The Content Accordingly!

When we say “portion the content”, we mean split it up so that the website has a reasonable amount of content within every page. Not only will you see a boost in the local SEO rankings, but you’ll also create a website that offers a stronger presence and a sense of professionalism. A lot of franchise website development jobs will call for the staff to be listed, as it offers up a personal touch to the franchise – those who frequent any given franchise will more than likely recognize some of the team members.

Not only that, but it allows you to set yourself apart from the rest of your franchise partners. You may be operating in the same city as several other franchises, which means that portioning your content (and creating a unique identity online) is going to be a crucial component of the franchise website development process.

You’ll also want to have a page that offers localized deals and promotions, as well as just allow your staff to let everyone know what they’re about with personalized profiles.

Keep Your Identity Consistent

Keeping one consistent message throughout the entirety of your website is important, as it will allow people to get comfortable with your presence (as well as help them understand what you strive to achieve as a franchise). Having a bad experience with another franchise of the same name is always going to keep customers antsy, but that’s why a high-quality franchise website development process will keep you in the green.

When you don’t have a consistent identity within your franchise people are going to take notice, and it’s going to take a toll on the number of customers rolling in as well. Most organizations will have some sort of system in place that allows you to promote the same message over and over without too much hassle, some business owners would go as far as creating a “branding guide” for all of their admins to follow. When we say a consistent identity, that means just about everything in regards to the website; from the color scheme down to the fonts being used.

Choos A Flexible CMS (Content Management System)

There is an abundance of different Content Management System options to choose from, all of which will offer you a different set of pros and cons. When it comes to choosing the most ideal option, you’ll want to focus on a CMS that makes use of an approval chain. You want to be able to give certain users administration privileges to ensure that the website is always good to go, but it also needs to be able to split your content effectively and also provide local SEO optimization opportunities.

Any CMS that allows you to train your managers with ease (preferably on something other than the page that lives for your website) will be ideal as well since most of the localized admins that you choose aren’t going to be well-versed in regards to CMS maintenance.

Running a franchise business of your own is tough work, but to grow you’ve got to effectively apply all of the tips and tricks that we’ve talked about in this article.