Investing in the right franchise opportunity requires the gathering and analyzing of a great deal of information. Choosing a franchise based upon current or short term trends should not be the criteria. The demand for products or services during the next decade is more important. This article provides a look into the future and where the best franchise opportunities will be. Some of these may surprise you.

When looking to purchase a franchise its common practice to follow a simple path:

* Identify the types of franchises that interest you and that you’re qualified to operate.
* Establish the amount of capital available to invest in the new franchise.
* Find the franchise opportunities that meet the above standards.
* Evaluate and validate the franchises you select.

Each of these steps requires gathering and reviewing the right information. A key step in this process is having an understanding of what the future may hold for a particular franchise. There are a number of franchises that are like a shooting star only to be burned out in a few years.

Let’s look into some projections from 2010 to 2015:

Population Projections from U.S. Census Bureau

* The number of people in the U.S. over 65 years of age will grow from 40 million to 47 million an increase of 16.5%.
* The percent of the population of those 65 and older will go from 13% to 14.4%
* By 2015-1 in 7 people in the U.S. will be 65 or older.
* The number of Hispanics in the U.S. will grow from 50 million to 58 million an increase of 16%
* The percent of Hispanics in the population will go from 16% to 17.7%
* By 2015-1 in 5.6 people in the U.S. will be Hispanic.
* By 2015 – 1 in 20 people in the U.S. will be Asian

Based upon this data, the franchise categories that should benefit from population trends and resulting demand for products and services are the following:

* Health and Fitness Franchises that include home healthcare, fitness and recreational sports centers, medical services and other services for the elderly.
* Personal Care Services including beauty products and services, massage therapy and related services.
* Facilities support services such as office administrative services, janitorial services, IT services, temporary employment agencies.
* Home Service Franchises such as lawn care and landscaping, cleaning services, pest control, handyman, home care services focused on the elderly and security services.
* Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services
* Food Franchises such as Mexican and Asian restaurants and healthy cuisine concepts. Food delivery concepts.
* Children’s Services that provide tutorial, supplemental educational services and programs for learning disabled children. Educational and recreational services reduced or eliminated as a result of funding reductions.

As the United States moves beyond 2010, demographic changes will alter the marketplace and impact the demand for particular goods and services. Franchise concepts will react to and reflect these changes. Individuals looking to purchase a franchise should be mindful of the changes taking place in the marketplace and make their choice accordingly. As always there will be some unique franchises that will be introduced, however, it will be important to determine if the unique franchise reflects a fad or has a sustainable market to sell to.Many franchisees erroneously assume that by following the optimization programs that are advertised on the internet, they will have completely finished their site. Be sure you focus on SEO for franchises in order to properly optimize your site.

Many franchisees erroneously assume that by following the optimization programs that are advertised on the internet, they will have completely finished their site. Be sure you focus on SEO for franchises in order to properly optimize your site.

First, determine how your particular franchise handles websites. In some instances, corporate may have a single website to which all franchisees are linked. If this is the case, your optimization job may be more involved in social media, and sites like Yelp and City Search. If your franchise allows you to develop and maintain a separate website, you will need to decide if you want to handle your SEO in house or hire a third party to implement your Search Engine Optimization yourself.

In some cases, the SEO process is actually easier for franchisees. This is especially true of link building. Link building is a major component of SEO, mainly because search engines use the number of inbound links on a website as part of their formula to rank sites. Because franchisees are working, at least in part, as part of a team to grow the brand, link building can be potentially much easier. It is far better to build a link list than to purchase or trade links. Buying links may save you time, but it is likely that many of the links will be irrelevant or just have low value in the eyes of Google.

However, link building beyond the norm is what truly separates the men from the boys and to get to page 1 of Google, you have to accept nothing less. 68% of all searchers don’t go past the first page. So, you need to commit to extensive keyword research, constant (weekly) additions of new articles, daily blogging, press releases, and much more. It is not enough to just create the content. It must be implemented with skill and widely syndicated to generate high quality and high quantities of Backlinks. Backlinks are the key differentiator used by the search engines to actually rank sites for relevance and authority.

Geo SEO is incredibly important for franchise owners. Every franchisee should take the time to register their site with applicable local directories. These directories, like Google Maps, are an excellent source of potential clients for a brick and mortar business. Registering for them only takes a few minutes, but the payback really packs a punch.

Like any solid SEO campaign, a franchisee SEO campaign must be built on a list of unique and relevant keywords. Some keywords will perform better than others and it is up to you to decide which ones to use. It is a great idea to look at fellow franchisee websites as well as the corporate website in order to begin your research. Keep in mind that your fellow franchisees could be part of your competition, so you will want to find words that are similar to theirs, but more unique. For example instead of ‘diner’ consider ‘Tampa diner.’

Social media can also play a large role when optimizing a franchisee website. Utilize social media tools like polling buttons and discussion boards to really get your name out there. Be sure to include relevant links back to your own website in order to cash in on the added inbound link.

Implementing a successful SEO program for your franchise will take a lot of time and work. If you don’t have the time because you are busy running your own business, contact us for a free initial consultation.