4 Advantages of Having a Separate URL for Franchise Development Websites

While some companies opt to put their franchise development information on the same website as their consumer side, other companies opt for an entirely separate URL that only focuses on franchise sales.

Creating that separate URL is often better for brands looking to build their franchise efforts, according to experts who spoke with 1851 Franchise.

“You’ll hear the pros and cons for both, and I’m not saying one is necessarily a must over the other, but it really comes down to looking at how your organization and your organization’s website is currently structured, and in most cases it usually turns out to be better for a separate URL,” 1851 Brand Strategist Sean Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald notes that the overall argument for not having a separate URL is the high volume of traffic that can be associated with the company’s consumer website. Another argument against a separate URL, he said, is that having the franchise development information as a subsidiary of a bigger website is that it will also result in better SEO.

“But SEO is as much an art as it is a science,” Fitzgerald said, adding that five years ago, one could rely on traffic, but that is not the case anymore.

Ultimately, it comes down to your brand and industry, Fitzgerald said, and every case is different and there are often many variables at play.

“It’s just best to look at it internally and say, ‘What is best for franchise development? Can we objectively hit these goals under our current platform?’ And if not, then that’s when you need to look at separating it in a separate URL altogether,” he said.

Here are four advantages to having a separate URL for franchise development purposes.

It’s more Google-friendly

ClickTecs president and CEO Jamshaid Hashmi noted that Google ranks websites based on themes and looks at the overall mix of content and determines the subject of sites, which is what allows a website to rank for keywords that it may not even have in the metas.

“If a franchise company selling lawn care has descriptions of its services on a bunch of pages and then details of the earning potential or operations of the franchise, those things are not thematically related,” he said. “The franchisor would be better off dedicating a franchise development website for all [franchise development] content and prominently linking it from the consumer-facing website.”

It creates a better user experience and helps with SEO

A separate URL for franchise development creates more flexibility, Fitzgerald said, and allows for better analysis, otherwise, Google analytics codes and marketing codes can get mixed in with the consumer side.

“It just kind of gives it a nice core differentiator,” Fitzgerald said.

A separate URL also leads to an overall better user experience, Hashmi said.

“A separate URL allows for optimizing that entire domain for the thematic keywords related to the sale of the type of franchise the franchisor offers,” Hashmi said in an email. “It doesn’t confuse the user, so you have a great user experience and it gets you some SEO boost with Google which drives franchise candidate leads.”

It leads to a better content strategy

The franchise development side of the business will require different content from the consumer side.

“Although there is some overlap, the franchise side is a completely different mindset requiring different content,” Ignite Franchise Group CEO Mike LaRue said. “For franchise development marketing and PR to be as effective as possible, there needs to be a separate URL.”

Having a separate URL can also make a better impression on prospective franchisees.

“It also shows the brand is committed to allocating dollars specifically for franchise development,” LaRue wrote.

It creates better data opportunities

LaRue believes that one of the biggest advantages to having a separate URL for franchise development is being able to obtain better data in follow up to SEO, press releases or lead generation campaigns.

“In addition, a separate URL would enable a brand to have a more robust site specifically targeting franchisee prospects; you would be able to dive in deeper into franchisee experiences, PR, etc.,” he said.