Joel Libava
If you’re on the hunt for the perfect franchise to buy, you’re most likely going to start your search by browsing through the best franchise portals and franchise websites (hopefully). But let’s be real; not all of these franchise websites and portals are created equal.
As a matter of fact, some franchise sites are downright dull, while others are a serious cut above the rest. So what makes the difference?
For one, web design. After all, a website that’s visually appealing is more likely to catch your eye and hold your attention than one that’s outdated and drab. But as you’ll see, that’s not the only factor.
For example, some franchise portals are designed more like advertising* sites than they are for a place to start putting together a list of (what you think) are the top franchises for you to start investigating.
*Speaking of advertising, franchise lead generation is a big thing. It’s so big, franchisors often refer to these franchise websites as “franchise lead portals.” That’s because franchisors get the majority of their “leads” from the best franchise websites…like the ones listed below. In other words, it’s where franchisors advertise.
That said, if you think you’re at the “I want to buy a franchise” stage, the best franchising websites and franchise portals listed below are where you need to look. And they’re great places to put together your franchise list. Now here comes the good part.
My talented team of franchise opportunity website-franchise opportunity portal expert researchers, (who all hail from The Franchise Kingdom) have come up with specific criteria in which to judge the top websites for franchises. They are:
- Approximate website traffic (using my secret web traffic resource)
- Franchise website design/ease of use
- Content quality
- General opinion (mine)
- Website speed (just added)
Franchise Web Design And The Importance Of A Fast Franchise Website
Site speed is important for two reasons.
The first reason has to do with you, the website visitor.
That’s because when you’re on a website that lists franchises for sale, you’re going to be clicking the images and links a lot. And you want it to happen quickly, so you can choose the top franchise opportunities for your franchise list. If it doesn’t, you may think about clicking away…and visiting another website. That’s bad for the owner of the website.
The second reason why the website you visit needs to be fast?
Revenue.
Franchise Portals: It’s About The Money
Websites for franchises are not non-profits.
The site owners and operators want to make as much advertising money as possible. Larger franchising lists mean more revenue. Nothing wrong with that.
But for that to happen, franchise website owners need you to stay on their portals as long as possible.
The way website owners and operators do that is by making sure your experience on the site is seamless, and that you can quickly and easily find the information you’re looking for. If that happens, the advertisers-in this case franchisors, are happy, because they’re getting leads.*
*”Leads” being people like you who are looking for franchises to buy, are filling out “Request More Information” forms on the site so they can get contacted by franchisors (advertisers).
Note: The Franchise King® website is a fast website. Here’s why
One More Reason Why Site Speed Is Important For Franchise Portals
There’s actually a third reason why franchising websites need to load fast and continue to be fast the entire time a visitor is using the site. The search engines. They require today’s websites to be fast.
As a matter of fact, the speed of a website can and does affect rankings.
According to Shopify, “Ranking higher on search engines like Google helps your business get discovered by more potential customers. Google—the most popular search engine, owning 92.47% of the world’s market share, as of January 2021—uses site speed as a ranking factor for search results. Starting in May 2021, faster sites will rank even higher on Google, meaning they’ll be easier for new customers to discover.”
That’s why I’m now including site speed as part of the criteria to rank “The Top 10 Franchise Opportunity Websites” below.
With that in mind, here’s what we’ve come up with…..(Ranked in order, from 1-10.)
The 10 Best Franchise Websites And Portals: Where To Find Franchise Opportunities
Coming in at a solid #1, this website for franchises-from the folks at Entrepreneur® Magazine, has lots of traffic. As a matter of fact, my bean counters lost count of this website’s visitors. And considering the fact that there are years and years of pertinent data/business information loaded onto this website, it’s still pretty easy to navigate through. The content* on this opportunity website is top-notch.
*Update: The content explosion of the past couple of years has changed the Entrepreneur website a lot.
Specifically, it’s turned into a content farm. What do I mean by “content farm?”
Articles are being published in such a large quantity, it’s practically impossible to find an article you read on the site today, tomorrow!
With that being said, Entrepreneur is not the only website doing this. The Forbes business website is another one. In addition, some of the other franchise websites and blogs* in the space are publishing new franchise articles at a frantic pace? Why? To get more web traffic.
Nevertheless, I’m keeping Entrepreneur.com in the #1 position for now, as it’s an important franchise site in the eyes of today’s franchise buyers. Plus, the design of this website is pretty darn good. And a lot of people use it to create a franchise list.
Opinion: It’s a powerful, easy to use franchising website. If you’re looking for franchises to start investigating, jump to the Franchise #500. I don’t always agree with the rankings, but if you want to start comparing franchises, the way the information is laid out, rocks.
*If I wanted to, I could hire a couple of writers and publish 4-5 articles a week…just like some of the other franchise websites and/or blogs are doing. And I’m sure The Franchise King.com would get more web traffic. That would be great. But my “voice,” the unique, straightforward, informative, and sometimes humorous writing would be diluted. I don’t want that-and neither should you.
The design of the Franchise Direct franchise portal has an “international” flavor. It’s corporate office is based in Ireland (Atlanta in the U.S), and they own several country-specific websites for franchises. And this one just keeps getting better. (*Disclosure; I’ve been helping Franchise Direct portal in a marketing capacity for years. I write articles for their blog and help them get the word out.) Better yet, this franchise site’s web traffic continues to grow-a lot, and they also do several best of the best franchise industry-sector reports a year. (They’re free.) Finally, this well-designed franchise website has expert navigation that makes it easy to find franchising opportunities, and there’s plenty of fresh, helpful content.
Opinion: If you’re exploring franchises to buy, this top franchise portal has many ways to learn about them, and the industry reports are a nice bonus if you want to to a deep dive into the world of franchising.
Recommended reading: All About The Franchise Fee
The International Franchise Association’s franchise portal lists 1300 or so different franchises for sale. Since it’s the IFA’s own site, it only lists IFA members. (Who pay to advertise.) There are almost 3,000 different franchise concepts registered in the US, so this portal is showing about a 1/3 of them. That’s a lot of franchises! The website gets a decent amount of traffic, and it’s really easy to navigate. It’s a well-designed franchise website. Plus, the content is top-notch, and there’s plenty of great information for prospective new franchisees available.
Opinion: Franchise.org is a good franchise site, for sure. It’s not flashy, and it gets the job done.
Don’t Forget To Bookmark This List Of The Best Franchising Websites!
If you’re searching for a franchise to own, and you’re creating your list of franchises to learn more about, you’re going to want to refer back to this post a lot. Just bookmark it for fast, easy access!
This franchise site is a good one. Traffic is pretty consistent, and it carries with it one of the best domain names in the franchise business. In addition, it’s an easy website to navigate through, and it’s especially easy on the eyes. It actually has the feel and the look of a blog. There is one thing that is a little bothersome, though…
On the bottom of the page is a link titled, “privacy policy and website usage policy.” The privacy stuff is fine, but here’s where it gets a little cold; “by submitting your information you expressly confirm that you have a genuine interest in each of the concepts for which you have requested information; that you wish for a representative from each of the concepts to contact you; and that the information that you have submitted is true and correct.” Intense. (If you violate this, they claim that they’ll go after you and force you to pay them $50.)
Opinion: to me, that part of the website is a bit of a turn-off. It comes across kind of big-brotherish. Otherwise, FranchiseOpportunities.com is an above average franchise portal, for sure.
The Franchise Mall is one of those franchise websites that have been around for several years. It’s a good place to create a list of franchises to investigate.
And while it may not be a recognizable name in franchising circles, it does a solid job of showcasing franchise opportunities that every franchise buyer needs to know about.
Design-wise, the homepage has a professional-look. And it’s not too cluttered.
“Featured” franchises are front and center, and my eyes were quickly drawn to their “top 10 low-cost franchises.”
In addition, one of the things I noticed was that their “Franchise News” section has not been updated. The reason for that may be technical in nature, but it should be looked into, as franchise portals need to display current news events.
Opinion: All in all, The Franchise Mall website gets the job done.
Tip: Use The Top 10 Franchise Opportunity Websites To Make Your List Of Franchises To Explore
The only reason that it’s below Franchise Opportunities.com is because of the domain name. When it comes to domain names, America’s Best Franchises.com is just not as powerful.
That said, this website makes up for a little less branding power with it’s really slick design. And I do mean slick in a good way. This colors displayed on this portal are unlike anything else out there in franchise directories. And the franchise site’s navigation is fantastic.
Opinion: This top franchising website is competitive and worth a look.
Tip: Once you make your franchise list, you need to make sure you know how to research franchise opportunities.
Franchise Portals That Also List Existing Franchises For Sale
This is mostly a business for sale website, but their site traffic is really good. If this was just a website for folks wanting to look into the different existing franchises for sale, it would be a lot higher up on the list. The design is really average. The font is really small, (but clear) and it’s really a vanilla website. It’s easy to use and navigate around, because it just doesn’t look like there’s a lot there. (But there is.)
Opinion: This franchise for sale portal is a great example of simple design getting the job done. BizBuySell.com does get er done. The website has enough serious traffic to prove it.
This good-looking franchising opportunity website is owned by Franchise Update, who’s also in the magazine and conference business. This website stands out from all the others because of it’s look. It looks like an authoritative website. It feels newsy, and it provides a significant number of franchise press releases. There are franchise advertisements on the site, but in a laid-back way. In addition, this website is easy to navigate.
Opinion: This is a high-quality website that deserves more credit and more traffic.
Two More Good Franchise Sites To Add To Your Franchising List
With a goal of listing all of the 3,000+ franchise systems in the United States, this young franchise opportunity website is getting better all the time.
Featuring a red, white, and blue design, All USA Franchises is organized pretty well.
The usual categories are included, plus there’s a search box you can use to put in specific franchise concepts. And they have a “Franchise Events” page for readers to keep up with the latest franchise show information.
Opinion: The red, white, and blue color scheme works. The site is easy on the eyes, and traffic to the portal continues to grow.
This is mainly a business for salewebsite, but their franchise directory is well populated, too. They get a pretty good amount of traffic. The web pages are really wiiiide. If it wasn’t for the two pop-up type squares that greet you when you enter the site, it would be a pretty easy website to navigate around. The content is of the cut and paste variety, and there are some old articles in the line-up. Real old. (An article linked to on the website is all about a really important franchise document. The problem is that the documents not called a UFOC, anymore. It’s been called the FDD-with significant changes, for several years.)
Opinion: This franchise website has good potential. Buy they need new franchising content from different sources. In addition, they need to lose at least one of the pop-ups.* They’re a little bothersome.
*Note, the number of popups has gone down a lot since this was written.
So there you have it: The 10 Best Franchise Opportunity Websites.
Are you going to look for a franchise to own now?
If so, I hope you find a franchise that helps you get where you want to go.
Need help with your franchise search and research?
If so, go here now to find out how The Franchise King® can help you become your own boss with the best franchise opportunity for you!
1. Entrepreneur.com
2. Franchise Direct.com
3. Franchise.org
4. Franchise Opportunities.com
5. The Franchise Mall.com
6. America’s Best Franchises.com
7. Biz Buy Sell.com
8. Franchising.com
9. All USA Franchises.com
10. Global BX.com
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