---
title: "Team of 12 Franchise Experts Evaluates 200 Websites, Announces 8th Place Rita’s Italian Ice"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/599196dc-c426-4463-80b0-60235e783f27
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/team-of-12-franchise-experts-evaluates-200-websites-announces-8th-place-ritas-italian-ice-2703184
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
published: 2017-07-10T15:10:02.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:35:15.929Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/8ddf07da817f3e8a669bba469e712a924947.jpg
---

# Team of 12 Franchise Experts Evaluates 200 Websites, Announces 8th Place Rita’s Italian Ice

**TL;DR:** A panel of 12 franchise experts evaluated over 200 franchise brand websites and recognized Rita's Italian Ice as one of the best, tied for 8th place with a score of 7.25. The judges praised Rita's Italian Ice's website for its clean design, ease of navigation, and effective use of multimedia tools.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2017-07-10. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/team-of-12-franchise-experts-evaluates-200-websites-announces-8th-place-ritas-italian-ice-2703184).*

## Story

More than 200 franchise brand websites were reviewed by industry judges, and 75 were recognized as best-in-class. Each of these categories were meticulously evaluated by a panel of 12 judges and given a score on a ten-point scale; the website rankings are based on a composite average of these scores. Rita’s Italian Ice was a “best of the best,” tied for 8th overall with a score of 7.25.

The judging panel was comprised of industry experts: Sean Fitzgerald, of 1851 Franchise; Nick Powills, of No Limit Agency*; Batchelor, CEO and Jack Monson, Director of Digital Strategy, of Qiigo; Michelle Rowan, President of Franchise Business Review; Craig Slavin, CEO of Franchise Navigator; Jamshaid Hashmi, CEO of ClickTecs; Kay Ainsley, Managing Director of MSA Worldwide; Keith Gerson, President of FranConnect; Stan Friedman, President of FRM Solutions; Steve Beagelman, CEO of SMB Franchise Advisors; and Todd Bingham, President of Pinnacle. Each judge was tasked with judging hundreds of submissions, from which they awarded 75 standout franchise development websites with a gold, silver or bronze designation. The judges had this to say about Rita’s Italian Ice’s franchise development site:

Rowan: I love the webinar idea - it’s a very low-pressure way to educate candidates. Site is visually fun and conversational, which is consistent with the type of product the brand offers. Webinar invites are a great, non-invasive way to capture candidate info right away without hiding basic franchise info from them. The site overall is very clean and easy to read and navigate.

Ainsley: Straightforward, simple design with good top line information.

Beagelman: I liked the strong brand association, great movement, use of cutting edge and multiple graphical tools, and that it had lots of information.

Friedman: Modern look. I liked the layout of the information. The site incorporated videos nicely with text content.

Slavin: I’m not sure why I ranked this site so high as it is all about the company and not the benefits of owning. However, part of their messages is good.

Hashmi: The site is clean and information is easy to access. I liked the sticky bar at the top because it allows the user to easily ‘inquire'.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- franchise development (topic)
- Sean Fitzgerald (person)
- SMB Franchise Advisors (company)
- FranConnect (company)
- Michelle Rowan (person)
- Keith Gerson (person)
- Jack Monson (person)
- MSA Worldwide (company)
- Kay Ainsley (person)
- Rita's Italian Ice (company)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/team-of-12-franchise-experts-evaluates-200-websites-announces-8th-place-ritas-italian-ice-2703184). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/599196dc-c426-4463-80b0-60235e783f27).