What Users Expect From Your Franchise Website in 2018

Think your franchise website stacks up to the competition in 2018?

Today’s post challenges that assumption.

We’re spotlighting the top 4 features that users expect in 2018 to help you self-audit your franchise website.

And if you find your franchise website lacking, ClickTecs can help.

Read on to start your franchise website audit.

• ADA Compliance.

  In the same way that brick-and-mortar businesses are obligated to make their product and services accessible to all customers, regardless of any physical limitation or disability, so too must your website be navigable by everyone.

  The stakes are high when it comes to ADA compliance. A number of business and franchise owners have been targeted by what industry experts are referring to as “drive-by lawsuits,” which are filed by lawyers preying on the uninformed. Thus, ADA compliance is essential in 2018, both to protect against any liability, and to avoid alienating any disabled users.

  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that has developed a set of accessibility standards to help guide web content producers’ ADA compliance, but simply studying their criteria isn’t enough. You still need to audit your web assets to spot any shortcomings, then implement the changes via web redesign and development.

  Don’t worry–ClickTecs can help. We are certified Google Partners and ADA compliance specialists who have helped numerous companies spot and solve ADA compliance problems fast. But if you’d rather try your hand at it first, these evaluation tools can help.

• Fast Loading.

  Nobody wants to wait (and wait, and wait) for your website to load in 2018. If you’re not prioritizing prompt loading times, you’re losing leads. Many sites abide by the “15 second rule,” which assumes that users give your site a maximum of 15 seconds to load before bouncing off and looking for answers (or products, or services) elsewhere. But we feel it’s more like 5.

  You can use Pingdom or Pagespeed Insights by Google to check your website speed. To improve your load time, look for ways to compress big files (rich images and video are common culprits), clean up your site structure, and potential hosting problems. And if that all sounds like a foreign language, we can help.

• Mobile Responsiveness.

  In 2017, the users using their mobile devices to get online grew from 57% to 63%, according to research by Stone Temple. That means the overwhelming majority–almost a full two-thirds–of your potential audience is looking at your website on their mobile device. And if your website isn’t mobile responsive, you might lose them all.

  With the variety of devices and screens currently on the market, adaptive web design is more challenging than ever. Building a responsive web design that dynamically changes in orientation to fit all screen sizes is the way of the future. Implementing a mobile design will improve the mobile user experience and decrease higher bounce rates hurting your organic ranking.

• Diverse Content.

  Filling a website with quality written content is good, but it’s not enough to stand out in the Digital Age. Now more than ever, users expect engaging images and videos on-site. Certain people retain information better when they watch a video versus reading a paragraph, so it’s a good idea to offer options that engage all kinds of learners. Even something as simple as our video testimonials can be enough to grow your audience and send Google those favorable ranking signals.

You can find more franchise website tips on our blog at https://clicktecs.com/blog/