Why your brand needs an online presence

Why the founders of the UK’s largest childcare franchise continuously invest in digital infrastructure to support their franchisees

In the modern world, having an online presence isn’t optional, it’s essential. How many times have you Googled where to go for dinner?

While a parent choosing their child’s nursery is arguably more important, Google searches still have a huge impact on this process and, as a result, Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries provides all its franchisees with the digital infrastructure and ongoing services to maximise their presence online via the search function.

Where to start

If you’re setting up a business, on top of everything else you need the ability to promote it, including optimising your web presence, which can be an expensive exercise.

Monkey Puzzle provides each nursery with its own dedicated site full of relevant information for parents and carers, from the latest news to information about the facility, such as nutrition and curriculum.

The company then increases its investment in a franchisee, using the so called ‘dark arts’ of search engine optimisation to maximise the potential of a new nursery. Without SEO, promotion can take months.

SEO communicates with Google, so it knows where to put you in the search rankings - it’s an important tool that mustn’t be overlooked.

It all comes down to key search terms, in the first instance. Monkey Puzzle’s specialist SEO team uses keywords to get a franchisee on page one of a Google search. It also invests in Google Ads to target what people are looking for, which is used for as long as the nursery is open.

Measuring success

A big part of SEO is utilising the analytics and data it provides. When Monkey Puzzle launches an advertising campaign for one of its franchisees, it can track the conversion of users from the advert to the website. Taking this a step further, Google Analytics then provides Monkey Puzzle with a breakdown as to how long each user has viewed the franchisee page for.

The company can also see what search terms people use to find the franchisee site, so that it can fine-tune the advertising campaign, as well as remove the adverts appearing in irrelevant searches.

Monkey Puzzle says it’s particularly important for the company to monitor bounce rates - measuring how many people visit a site then click off and go somewhere else. This helps the company evolve and improve the site going forward, so that people stay for longer.

The same can be done for the level of information on each page of the site. Tracking activity rates helps focus franchisees. For example, if Monkey Puzzle sees that a lot of people are clicking on the nutrition pages, it might want to send an information update to parents.

Analytics also tell the company what devices people use to access the site. Google now has a feature called Mobile First Indexing, which means it prioritises sites that are optimised to be viewed on a mobile device.

Ultimately, all this is to help franchisees ensure their nurseries are getting the right exposure, as Monkey Puzzle continues to provide a safe, caring and inspiring environment for children.

At a glance

Established: 2005
Number of franchised outlets: 60
Location of units: nationwide
Investment range: £250,000-£300,000
Minimum required capital: variable
URL: monkeypuzzledaynurseries.com
Contact: Info@monkeypuzzleday nurseries.com or call 01442 878887