Top Franchise Development sites

This month, 1851 Franchise’s Franchise Development Website Awards have returned to announce the most effective and engaging development sites in franchising. A panel of eight expert judges evaluated each franchise development site according to three criteria: first impressions, quality of content and ease of use. Sites were scored on a five-point scale in accordance with these three criteria, with the overall website rankings based on a composite average of the judges’ scores.

The first impressions metrics for each franchise development site are determined in consideration of five subfactors: usability, UI/UX design, site performance, SEO and mobile accessibility. The content metrics are determined by the presence and strength of three subfactors: motivating content, calls to action and reasons to buy now. The ease-of-use metrics score was determined in relation to location, depth and ease of application.

This year's judges include Stan Friedman , president of FRM Solutions ; Michelle Rowan, president & COO of Franchise Business Review ; Thomas Scott , CEO of Brand Journalists ; Tom Spadea , co-founder of Spadea Lignana Law Firm ; Brent Dowling , co-founder and CEO of Raintree ; Sean Fitzgerald , president of TruBlue Total House Care ; Liane Caruso , senior vice president of Entrepreneur Media ; and Kay Ainsley , managing director of ? MSA Worldwide .

Here the average scores for the 10 websites that came in between 31 and 40:

• Overall Average Score: 3.9

• Overall Average Score: 4.0

• Overall Average Score: 4.1