With changes in technology, best practices and industry standards, many franchisors are changing their franchise development websites every other year -- enhancing the content, video, and creative to best position their brands to prospective franchise prospects.

“Given the increasing speed of technology, the recommendation would be to seriously look at your FD site every 18-24 months for larger design/functionality changes. However, companies should be looking at making updates to content (images, videos, text) much more frequently,” said Jamshaid Hashmi, CEO & President of ClickTecs.

This can be costly, warns Hashmi. Thus, expecting and budgeting for the costs of a franchise development budget is essential.

“The average price range for custom design and development for an FD site is in the range of $10,000-$15,000 depending on integrations with your CRM, marketing automation requirement, unique functionality needs and who is writing the content,” he said. “In addition, companies should budget for SEO, PPC or social media marketing of their FD sites to ensure that they get adequate traffic and leads. They won’t come if you just build it!”

Rick Batchelor, CEO of Qiigo, warns that in a world where search engine optimization is so essential to the awareness of your franchise opportunity, that when changing your site, it’s important to have a plan in place to protect the web currency you built up.

“When changing your site, be sure your vendor has a documented plan for 'salvaging your SEO value',” he said.

While changing your development site will require resources and time, you can find other ways to update your story by focusing on your entire virtual development storefront which extends to content on your social media sites. This is a realtime place where you can showcase the liveliness of your brand.

“Buyers are looking for signs of life on your website and social media accounts. Make sure they are updated every week, if not every day,” he said.