Franchise Directory Round-up – What to Consider
Factors to Consider in Choosing a Franchise Opportunities Directory
Some of the things you may want to consider when you selecting Franchise Directories in which to list your franchise opportunity are:
- Directory Popularity/number of users
- Cost of getting listed
- Authority of the site
- Ease of use for users searching for franchises
Directory Popularity/Number of Users
If more people go to this site, you get more exposure for your franchise by listing here. Some of the measures that can tell you about the popularity and how many people use the site are:
Page views – how many pages are seen in a month? (this statistic will usually be provided by the directory)
Number of unique monthly visitors – how many different people come to the site in a month? (again, usually provided by the directory if the number is positive)
Google rank – a quick & very broad way to see how popular and authoritative Google considers the site to be – relates strongly to how many content pages there are in the site. Google pageranks range between zero and 10, where 10 is the most popular (and largest) websites on the internet.
Alexa rank – slightly controversial because it only measures people who use the Alexa toolbar, but a low Alexa number does give an indication that large numbers of people are coming to this site.
Cost of Getting Listed
Is the site free? Is a listing paid advertising? If so, what benefits do you get?
If a site is free, you definitely want to be there – there’s no downside. Make sure you have a standard marketing piece that you can add to any directories that offer a free listing, along with a link back to your site.
If the directory is paid advertising, then the other factors (number of users, authority of site and ease of use) become even more important. Depending on your budget, you may want to decide carefully which sites are worth listing on. Even consider whether you are better paying for listings on franchise directories or on sites that are more targetted to the types of people you want to attract (i.e. if you want people who love food, should you advertise on a food site rather than a franchise directory)? This depends on the cost & how you calculate the potential return on investment from the listing.
Authority of the Site
Are users inclined to trust the site? Are there articles there that provide value to people seeking a franchise? Does the site look like it’s been built mainly to sell advertising or does it provide genuine value to users who are seeking a franchise? If the site provides good value, then it is much more likely to build trust and confidence in the potential franchisees, and at least some of this will carry over to you as one of the franchises advertising on the site. If the site looks like it has been built mainly to sell advertising space, then you may want to consider whether being listed here will add to or take away from the potential franchisee’s impression of your brand.
If you are in Canada, then the CFA’s website is an obvious place you likely want to be listed. You probably also want to seriously consider the IFA’s listing of franchise opportunities.
Ease of Use
How easy is it for users to find your franchise?
Go to the site & put yourself mentally in two scenarios:
1) As a franchising prospect who is looking for a franchise in a particular industry with a particular price range
2) As a franchising prospect who has heard of a company that they want to learn more about trying to find that particular company’s listing
Rate the site on a scale of 1 to 10 for each scenario. If a site doesn’t make it easy for prospects to find your franchise, then it’s probably less of a good investment as a place to get a listing. I was surprised while reviewing most of the franchise directories out there to find that most of them work for situation 1, but not for situation 2.
Share