USER
I am working in Bb SEO company. I am SEO Specialist. I have done Pre SEO-Audit for a client called HB and then made a report. The report contains the headings SEO Overview, Technical SEO, On page Optimization, Backlink, Keyword Analysis, Competitor Analysis. You can find the report below. Now the client HB is asking me to do a schedule and plan for the upcoming 9 months from April to December 2024. So, I am creating a schedule in Excel with recommendation and tasks. I have created sheets with the name of the month. I have to prioritize the issues that gives results very easily and early. Because I think some of the things like keyword need at least three months to get results. Also, sales of products in HB company varies according to the season. For example, horse show season in spring. So, I have to prioritize the issues according to seasons also. My boss allocated 60 work hours for a month. Help me. Give me an example plan. I want all the SEO steps like Technical SEO, On page Optimization, Backlink, Keyword Analysis, Competitor Analysis in every month. I need tasks under every heading.
SEO Overview:
Current Performance:
1. SEO Performance Analysis:
A. Review organic traffic trends, click-through rates, and Engagement rates
Inference: Our current focus is predominantly on optimizing keywords related to ribbons, neglecting other product categories.
Sales via Channels with Engagement Rates (Last Six Months):
Inference: There is a lack of focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Traffic Based on Device category (Jan 1 2023-Feb 24 2024):
Inference: While 39% of users access our website via mobile devices, the mobile experience does not meet Google's benchmark standards.
B. Assess the effectiveness of existing SEO strategies
1. Title and Meta description
Inference: Notably, high-ranking pages such as "Equestrian Awards" lack relevant keywords, compelling titles, and descriptive meta-information.
2. How is the product segment performing in relation to keywords?
Inference: Keywords associated with ribbons demonstrate effectiveness, while those linked to other products show less traction. Google does not recommend the site due to issues such as mobile responsiveness, insufficient quality content on pages, and a lack of keywords for products beyond ribbons
2. Performance indicators and historical seasonal analysis:
a. Analyze historical sales data to understand past growth patterns
Inference: The conversion rate has shown a significant increase compared to the previous year.
Inference: Examining our strategy for acquiring new customers.
b. Examine the effectiveness of past seasonal promotions
Inference: Identifying the referring channels and customer types responsible for driving top sales.
c. Top Selling Products:
Inference: The Ribbon and Custom Rosette collection stands out as the top-selling collection.
Errors:
1. Technical SEO and performance issues:
a. Technical issues related to JavaScript mentioned by Gary
Inference: Our analysis revealed 6,228 issues related to unminified JavaScript and CSS files, along with 692 issues pertaining to uncached JavaScript and CSS files
b. Evaluate overall site speed, crawlability, and indexing
Sitemap: Number of pages
Products 1305
Collections 630
Pages 161
Blogs 6
Inference: Our investigation revealed a total of 2,102 indexed pages.
c. Meta Descriptions
Inference: A total of 459 pages have been identified
without meta descriptions.
d. duplicate meta descriptions
Inference: As an illustration, two pages have been found to share duplicate meta descriptions.
Source: google
e. Not Optimized Pages related to HTML
Inference: A total of 2,295 pages exhibit an excessively large HTML size.
Source: SEMrush
2. Backlink Audit tool:
Inference: The presence of top toxic links linked to the Hodges Badge Website is negatively impacting its authority. Additionally, evaluating the current status of favorable backlinks and the overall backlink profile in comparison to competitors.
3. UX Assessment:
a. Identify any usability issues affecting user engagement
Complex navigation:
Inference: The "Contact Us" section is not positioned prominently, and it may benefit from increased visibility. Additionally, considering elevating the "Top Selling Products" section higher in the user interface for enhanced accessibility.
Slow loading times:
Inference: The website experiences extended loading times, particularly on mobile devices.
Mobile-unfriendly design:
Inference: Text size is inadequate, buttons pose challenges for tapping, and the overall layout is not optimized for smaller screens.
Visibility of social proof section:
Inference: The social proof section lacks clear visibility on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Rankings:
1. Keyword Prioritization and Competitor Analysis:
a. Current Search engine rankings
Inference: This analysis aims to determine the position of the Hodges Badge Website concerning individual keywords and identify
top-ranking keywords.
Inference: Hodges Badge holds a higher ranking on organic keywords compared to competitors
Inference: A notable 28% of users are in the research phase for ribbons and other products, while an impressive 38% of users are actively prepared to make a purchase.
b. Analyze competitors' strategies to identify strengths and weaknesses
Crown awards:
Strength: Hodges Badge boasts a strong online presence with a significant number of backlinks. The company allocates a substantial budget for advertising, indicating a robust marketing strategy. Moreover, their commitment to a mobile-optimized site enhances user experience across devices.
Weakness: Crown Awards diversifies its focus beyond ribbons, diluting its brand identity. Keywords target various products, and the sales approach prioritizes individual products over a broader market strategy.
c. Evaluate the current rankings of custom rosettes and ribbon pages
Inference: Hodges Badge holds a high ranking on the top 3 keywords compared to its competitors.
Inference: Crown Awards' estimated paid traffic ratio is 8%.
2. Content and Collection pages review:
a. Implement a thorough review of collection pages:
i. Top-selling product pages necessitate additional descriptive text for enhanced product information.
ii. Many keywords lack corresponding content and require attention.
iii. The sales collection page would benefit from the inclusion of description text.
b. Evaluate the relevance and quality of content on custom rosettes and ribbon pages
i. Collection pages lack user reviews with photos, impacting trust and credibility.
ii. Main collection pages such as Dog Show and Equestrian Awards boast well-crafted descriptions and high-quality content.
iii. Certain collection pages, like Equestrian Awards, would benefit from incorporating more relevant keywords.
3. Audit using Gary's Insights
a. Evaluate past SEO efforts targeting custom rosettes and ribbons, analyzing their impact on rankings.
Inference: Data from Universal Analytics and Shopify consistently shows that custom rosettes and ribbons are perennial top-selling products.
Source: Universal Analytics and Shopify
Inference: SEO efforts directed at custom rosettes and ribbons exhibit a predominantly positive impact, with some keywords experiencing negative effects.
b. Assess the effectiveness of the current SEO strategy in expanding beyond top-selling categories.
Traffic for the Keyword Medals:
Inference: The traffic for Hodges Badge is comparatively low when compared to competitors for keywords related to medals.
Keywords related medals and position of Hodges Badge compared to competitors:
Inference: There is a high keyword density related to medals.
4. Paid Search Campaign Analysis
1. Analyze the effectiveness of paid campaigns in complementing organic SEO efforts.
Inference: For Paid Search, the engagement rate stands at 50% for 2021 and 2022, increases to 54% in 2023, and significantly rises to 72% in 2024. Meanwhile, the engagement rate for Organic Search is 60% in 2021, 62% in 2022, peaks at 77% in 2023, and maintains a robust 70% for the current year.
2. Identify opportunities for refining the keyword strategy in paid campaigns to align with organic SEO goals.
Inference: There is no conflict observed between the keywords used in Paid Campaigns and those associated with Organic Search. However, to drive more sales in other product lines, particularly Medal products, it is recommended to intensify the focus on keywords related to medals.
Technical SEO:
1. Crawlability and Indexing Assessment:
a. 4xx and 5xx status codes:
Inference: The presence of 404 errors in 819 pages can hinder search engine crawlability and indexing of the affected pages, potentially impacting the website's visibility in search results and user experience.
b. Duplicate content:
Inference: The presence of 835 pages with duplicate content can cause search engine confusion and hinder indexing efforts. It can also negatively impact SEO performance by contributing to a phenomenon known as "cannibalization," where multiple pages compete for the same ranking, potentially weakening overall visibility.
C. Indexing:
Inference: While Google is aware of these 96 URLs, they haven't been indexed yet. Further investigation is required to determine the cause and prioritize indexability efforts, especially for crucial pages like product listings.
2. Site Structure Analysis:
Inference: The Hodges Badge website's clear and logical structure likely contributes to both improved search ranking and enhanced user experience. Notably, the shallow website depth of three levels allows users to easily reach their desired content.
3. URL Parameter Handling:
Inference: The Hodges Badge website contains 835 pages with highly similar content, primarily differing only in product dimensions and names. While the current approach might be intended to cater to various product variations, it creates significant duplicate content issues, which can negatively impact SEO efforts
4. XML Sitemap Inspection
Inference: The current XML sitemap appears to be functioning effectively, facilitating faster indexing and enhancing website discoverability. While the inclusion of additional top-selling pages could be considered, it is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis before implementing any changes to the sitemap.
5. Image Optimization Review
Inference: Initial analysis suggests well-optimized images on the Hodges Badge website, employing proper filenames and formats. However, incorporating relevant and keyword-rich alt text descriptions could further enhance optimization.
6. Mobile-Friendly Analysis
Inference: Our testing revealed that the website's mobile page load time exceeds optimal standards, potentially causing users to wait longer than average to access desired content. Despite this, the website maintains a stable layout during loading, avoiding potential user frustration caused by sudden layout shifts.
On-Page Optimization:
1. Keyword Mapping and Density Check:
Inference: The current keyword strategy might not fully align with user intent. For instance, the keyword "custom medals" generates 17,320 impressions but only 138 clicks, despite the website lacking any content or targeting for this term. Additionally, keyword usage is inconsistent across pages, with some featuring a high density of specific terms like "custom ribbons" while others lack any relevant keywords. This inconsistency, along with a focus solely on "ribbons"-related keywords, overlooks potential opportunities to target other valuable search terms and attract users searching for "custom medals" and similar terms.
2. Title Tag Optimization
Inference: Several title tags are identical to H1 headers, hindering the inclusion of relevant keywords. Additionally, over 1,000 pages exceed Google's recommended character limit for titles, while approximately 400 pages have titles with insufficient characters. Furthermore, more than 100 products share highly similar titles, potentially impacting their individual visibility.
3. Meta Description Optimization:
Inference: Many collection pages lack high-quality meta descriptions, potentially hindering their SEO performance. Additionally, 220 pages utilize identical meta descriptions, which can negatively impact search engine ranking. Furthermore, 480 pages exceed Google's recommended character limit for meta descriptions.
4. Header Tags Optimization:
Inference: Over 100 pages lack header tags entirely, while over 1,000 pages contain duplicate header tags. This hinders the incorporation of relevant keywords and negatively impacts both search engine understanding of the content and user experience.
5. Content Quality & Gap Assessment:
Inference: Many product descriptions lack detailed information and explanations addressing relevant market needs. This can negatively impact search engine rankings, as search engines prioritize content that comprehensively addresses user search intent.
6. Schema Markup Implementation:
Inference: The majority of pages lack schema markup implementation, hindering search engines' ability to understand the website's content effectively. Additionally, even the pages with existing schema markup seem to lack relevant data, further limiting their potential benefits.
7. Canonical Tags Implementation:
Inference: Several collection pages are currently not being indexed by search engines due to issues with canonical elements. To address this, we need to identify the top-performing collection pages and implement a solution, such as different content or different headings to ensure proper indexing by search engines.
8. Mobile Responsiveness Check:
Inference: Slow loading times and improperly optimized elements are hindering mobile responsiveness, negatively impacting user experience. This can lead to higher bounce rates and potentially affect search engine rankings.
9. Conversion Element Evaluation:
Inference: The location of conversion elements, such as "Add to Cart," is not readily visible in the vicinity of the quantity and price sections. This necessitates user scrolling to access the description, deviating from the user-friendly approach observed on the Crown Awards website. This discrepancy creates confusion and potentially hinders conversion rates due to poorly designed user experience.
10. User Engagement Metrics Analysis:
Inference: Collection pages attract greater traffic compared to product pages, highlighting their potential as traffic drivers. However, user engagement time on mobile devices remains low across both page types.
Backlink Report:
1. Identify the total number of backlinks pointing to Hodges Badge website:
Inference: Hodges Badge has 5,077 links and 697 connected domains. However, 109 of those domains are broken and 318 page links are also broken. This could potentially impact the website's authority and search engine rankings, either positively or negatively.
2. Analyze the referring domains:
Inference: 19% of the links are categorized under 'Business and Industrial,' which could potentially generate organic traffic. However, the majority of backlinks possess a lower authority score, potentially affecting trustworthiness in Google's eyes. Notably, a significant portion of anchor texts in these backlinks includes 'Hodges Badge,' suggesting strong brand awareness and recognition. Additionally, over 400 pages are associated with horse shows.
3. Analyze the anchor text of backlinks:
Inference: A notable number of backlinks utilize the keyword-rich anchor text 'Rosettes.' This suggests that users may be actively searching for these specific keywords, indicating the relevance of your website to their queries. The quality of backlinks is commendable, featuring a mix of branded, keyword-rich, and descriptive anchor text. Importantly, generic anchor text such as 'click here' is absent, as these generic terms have the potential to diminish the SEO value of the associated backlinks.
4. Analyze the quality of backlinks:
Inference: Over 650 domains exhibit a domain authority below 40%, potentially exerting a negative influence on SEO. Additionally, 500 links originate from school-related websites, suggesting a positive impact on brand reach and trustworthiness.
5. Identify broken backlinks:
Inference: Our analysis identified 318 broken pages within the backlink profile. These pages contain a mix of valuable and detrimental backlinks. Of these 318 pages, 262 are broken due to unavailable images. This means that users clicking on these backlinks might encounter broken image links.
6. Compare Hodges Badge backlink profile with competitors:
Inference: Crown Awards boasts 1.1 million backlinks, Jones Award has 18,000, and Hodges Badge has 11,100. This indicates that Hodges Badge may need to prioritize acquiring additional high-quality backlinks to remain competitive. The Hodges Badge website exhibits lower authority backlink domains compared to its competitors. However, Hodges Badge possesses superior anchor text when compared to Jones Awards, potentially resulting in increased traffic relevant to the business.
Keyword Analysis Report
1. Current Keyword Analysis:
Inference: The current traffic primarily originates from existing customers who search for the Hodges name on Google. The Hodges Badge website maintains a high ranking for keywords related to horse shows, while custom ribbons prominently rank within the product category.
2. Analyze Keyword Performance and top-performing keywords related to ribbons, rosettes, medals:
Inference: Hodges Badge holds the top position for 'horse show ribbons,' and the landing page prominently features Equestrian Awards. This indicates that users searching for horse show ribbons can easily find what they are looking for.
However, Hodges Badge is positioned at #4 for 'custom ribbons' but lacks long-tail variations such as 'custom printed ribbons for graduation.' The absence of these variations in top rankings suggests potential long-tail opportunities.
HB Company faces challenges in breaking into the top 10 for 'custom medals,' despite receiving a significant number of impressions. This suggests a potential lack of content related to the keywords on HB Company's website, which may be hindering their ranking for this keyword.
3. Analyze Keyword Competitiveness:
Inference:
Branded terms such as "Hodges Badge," "Hodges Badge Company," and "Hodges Badges" consistently demonstrate a high Click-Through Rate (CTR), indicating robust brand recognition and loyalty among users. Keywords like "horse show ribbons" and "custom award ribbons" maintain a competitive position with a high CTR, suggesting effective optimization. Although "horse show ribbons" exhibits a high CTR, there is potential for further growth, indicating broader competition and potentially more users in the research phase considering multiple companies.
Long-tail keywords like "dog show prizes" and "horse show back numbers" exhibit a decent CTR, indicating potential opportunities for capturing niche audiences. However, keywords such as "custom medals" and "medals" show lower CTR, suggesting intense competition in these broader categories.
Anchor text variations like "Hodges Badge discount code" and "HodgesBadge" demonstrate a good CTR, indicating user interest in specific offerings.
4. Keyword Trends and Gaps:
Inference: Lower CTR for generic terms like "custom award ribbons" and "custom ribbons" suggests a keyword gap that we can exploit to reach a wider audience searching for these products.
While there is interest in fair-related terms like "fair ribbons" and "fair awards," the CTR is moderate, suggesting a potential gap or room for improvement in capturing user attention.
Keywords related to trophies, plaques, acrylic awards need more optimization
5. SERP Analysis:
Inference: While the website's meta titles and descriptions for "Hodges Badge" are compelling, many Hodges Badge pages currently lack the domain authority necessary to appear in featured snippets.
6. Analyze Search Intent:
Inference: Understanding search intent enables the creation of content that satisfies user needs, improving the chances of ranking higher and delivering a positive user experience.
1. Hodges Badge" exhibits a high click-through rate (CTR) and a dominant position, suggesting strong transactional intent and likely intend to visit the official site for purchases.
2. Long-tail keywords with higher CTR "custom horse show ribbons" often indicate higher purchase intent and potentially less competition compared to broader terms like "horse ribbons".
3. “Custom horse show ribbons" (CTR: 9.36%) suggests users are actively looking to buy. "Horse ribbons" (CTR: 4.05%) might be a broader search, so optimize content to target users at different stages of the buying journey.
7. Long-Tail Keywords Investigation:
Inference: The page titled "Perpetual Trophy Base" received 10 clicks and 1697 impressions. Despite having a high impression share, the low click-through rate is attributed to the absence of proper long-tail keywords.
The search query "Year-End Awards for Horse Shows" garnered 12 clicks and 371 impressions.
Some identified long-tail keywords with potential include "custom ribbon with logo," "Hodges Badge Company coupon code," "custom printed award ribbons," "back numbers for horse shows," "dog show ribbons and rosettes," “horse show champion ribbon” and "custom horse show awards.
Competitor Analysis report
1. Competitor Info:
Scope: Identify Hodges Badge's top competitors and collect info using a combination of keyword research, industry reports, social listening tools, and customer review analysis.
Inference:
1. Market Positioning:
Crown Awards: Crown Awards positions itself as the industry leader in awards for youth sports and corporate events. They boast a wide range of products, from trophies to crystals, and prioritize both high quality and convenient purchasing options through catalogs, websites, and retail stores.
Personalized ribbons position itself as the customization king in the ribbon world. They offer a wide variety of ribbons (badge, rosette, full color, etc.) and extensive personalization options to cater to both personal events (weddings, birthdays) and business needs (branding, advertising). Their focus on exceptional customer service ensures customer satisfaction and strengthens long-term relationships.
McLaughlin Ribbon Awards positions itself as a niche player in the awards industry. They focus on quality, personalized service, and unique, creative award ribbons, especially for those in the horse industry. This caters to customers who value handcrafted products, family-run businesses, and a focus on equestrian events, rather than mass-produced generic options.
Jones School Supply Co. positions itself as the go-to partner for schools recognizing student achievement. They leverage their vast product selection (medals, trophies, certificates, etc.) to cater to diverse academic and sports awards. They prioritize offering competitive prices and excellent customer service, making them a reliable choice for budget-conscious educators.
2. Target Audience:
Crown Awards:
Youth Sports Organizers, Corporate Event Planners, Businesses seeking awards for branding/promotion, Customers who value brand recognition, convenience, and diverse award options.
Hodges Badge:
Horse Show and Equestrian Event Organizers, Schools and Educational Institutions, Sports and Recreation Leagues (broad and potentially niche), Fairs & 4-H Organizations
Jones Awards:
Schools and Educational Institutions (primary target), Budget-conscious educators and administrators, Customers who prioritize value, a wide range of academic and sports awards
Hasty Awards:
Sports related events like diving, football, gymnastics, etc…
Key takeaways:
Crown Awards focuses on convenience and brand recognition, while Hodges Badge emphasizes customization and potentially caters to niche markets like Horse show events.
Jones Awards specializes in the education sector with a focus on value and academic awards, while Hodges Badge offers a wider range of awards and potentially caters to a broader audience beyond schools.
While there's some overlap for business customers, Personalized Ribbons caters more to personal events and a wider range of event types.
Hasty Awards targeting sports events more than other events and getting traffic in ribbons and medals.
2. Competitor Website Analysis:
Inference: This analysis uncovers both the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in technical SEO and on-page optimization. It allows for the identification of areas where Hodges Badge can excel and areas where improvement is needed.
1. Identifying Technical SEO Issues:
Hodges Badge has several broken links compared to competitor websites like Crown awards, Hasty awards, ribbons galore.
Compared to Crown awards Hodges Badge has H1 missing in many pages.
“Crown Awards” mobile page loads significantly faster compared to others. Additionally, Hodges Badge boasts a commendable SEO score in comparison to its competitors.
2. Uncovering Mobile Responsiveness Flaws:
We utilized page speed insights and manual review to compare Hodges Badge mobile experience with competitors. While Crown Awards offers a mobile-friendly website, competitor hasty awards have some navigation difficulties on their mobile product pages, making it harder for users to find specific awards. Hodges Badge has better mobile-friendly website than Hasty awards. This highlights Hodges Badge's advantage in mobile responsiveness over hasty awards and jones awards, ensuring a seamless user experience for customers browsing on smartphones or tablets.
3. Analyzing On-Page Optimization Practices:
We analyzed competitor product pages and blog content. Mclaughlin ribbon awards excels in on-page optimization, using relevant keywords throughout their content and crafting compelling meta descriptions. However, Hasty awards seems to be neglecting meta descriptions on product pages, potentially missing out on valuable keyword optimization opportunities. By incorporating these learnings, Hodges Badge can refine its on-page optimization strategy for product content and pages to improve organic search ranking.
4. Assessing Competitor Backlink Profile:
While Crown Awards appears to have a strong backlink profile with links from reputable industry publications, Hasty awards and others seems to have a weaker backlink profile. This presents an opportunity for Hodges Badge to develop a targeted link-building strategy to acquire high-quality backlinks and improve its overall SEO authority.
3. Product Offering Comparison:
Inference: Identifying differences and similarities in product offerings helps the Hodges Badge refine its positioning, pricing strategy, and highlight unique selling propositions. This comparison helps identify product gaps Hodges Badge can fill, unique selling points they can leverage, and potential areas for improvement in product presentation or pricing strategy.
1. Addressing Competitor Advantages in Product Selection:
We analyzed competitor product lines. While Hodges Badge offers a strong selection of custom ribbons and medals, Crown Awards seems to have a wider variety of pre-designed trophies available for purchase. Hodges Badge offers more ribbons and rosette compared to competitors like Mclaughlin ribbon awards, hasty awards, Personalized ribbons.
2. Identifying Gaps in Competitor Product Information:
We conducted an analysis of competitor product descriptions and found that Ribbons Galore and McLaughlin Ribbon Awards offer comprehensive descriptions for their ribbon products. However, Hodges Badge could benefit from additional descriptive content beyond mere specifications. Unfortunately, Hasty Awards lacks sufficient product descriptions altogether.
3. Assessing Competitor Visual Content:
We conducted an analysis of the quality and quantity of product images across competitor websites. Hodges Badge stands out with high-quality photos featured on both its product pages and collections page. Similarly, Crown Awards and Ribbons Galore also employ high-quality product photos. However, Hasty Awards and McLaughlin Ribbon Awards fall short in this aspect, as they showcase low-quality images.
4. Exploring Competitor Customer Reviews:
We conducted an analysis of customer reviews for Hodges Badge and its competitors across Google My Business and product pages. While Hodges Badge and McLaughlin ribbon awards has garnered customer reviews, Crown Awards lacks such feedback. On the other hand, Ribbons Galore's product pages feature individual product reviews.
4. Content Evaluation:
Inference: Evaluating competitor content helps identify potential content gaps Hodges Badge can address, understand what resonates with the target audience, and inspire new content ideas for Hodges Badge's website.
We have reviewed the blog content of competitors and found that Crown Awards, Hasty Awards, and Ribbons Galore lack a dedicated blog section. This reveals a gap in content targeting the specific needs of award buyers, such as "choosing the right custom medal" or "creative award presentation ideas." By creating informative blog posts addressing these topics and more, Hodges Badge can attract organic traffic from potential customers actively searching for award solutions.
5. SEO Strategy Overview:
Inference: Understanding competitor SEO strategies reveals their approach to link building, keyword targeting, and paid advertising. It allows Hodges Badge to refine its own strategy, identify keyword opportunities, and improve search engine visibility.
1. Keyword Targeting Strategies:
We analyzed the keywords competitors seem to be targeting on their websites and in content. While both Crown Awards and Trophy Depot target broad keywords like "awards" or "trophies," they might be neglecting long-tail keywords related to specific award types or customization options. By incorporating these long-tail keywords into Hodges Badge SEO strategy, it can target a wider range of search queries with potentially lower competition and attract more qualified organic traffic.
2. On-Page Optimization Practices:
We analyzed competitor product pages and collection pages for optimization practices. While Hodges Badge seems to be effectively using relevant keywords throughout their content, ribbons galore might be neglecting to optimize product keywords for some of their product pages. Crown awards are using generic keywords like awards or custom ribbons in their product pages. By ensuring Hodges Badge website has well-optimized product pages and blog content with relevant keywords and compelling meta descriptions, it can improve organic search ranking and visibility for valuable search terms.
3. Internal Linking Structure:
We analyzed how competitors internally link their web pages. Almost all competitors, including Hodges Badge, maintain a depth of three, which aids Google in crawling and indexing more efficiently. However, none of the competitors have a dedicated blog or article section, and they do not strategically link content and product pages together. This presents an opportunity for Hodges Badge to create or repurpose content and strategically link it to relevant product pages, enhancing the overall user experience and potentially improving search engine visibility.
4. Mobile Optimization Strategies:
We reviewed competitor websites and compared them to Hodges Badge to assess the user experience for customers. While both Crown Awards and Trophy Depot offer mobile-friendly websites, Hasty Awards' mobile product pages present usability issues, hindering user navigation and completion of actions. In contrast to Jones Awards' website, Hodges Badge is performing well in terms of user engagement. By ensuring that Hodges Badge's website provides a seamless user experience on mobile devices, it can effectively cater to the expanding mobile browsing audience and potentially enhance conversion rates.
6. Social Media Presence:
Inference: Crown Awards has garnered a significant number of views on Pinterest, leveraging product links attached to pins to drive traffic to their website. This presents a valuable growth opportunity for Hodges Badge.
Furthermore, Crownawards.com extensively utilizes YouTube, boasting a library of 183 videos, a feature notably absent among competitors. Recognizing YouTube as the second-largest search engine, Hodges Badge can capitalize on this platform to generate content, mirroring the success seen by Crown Awards.
Additionally, many competitors have not actively utilized LinkedIn for content creation. Hodges Badge can leverage this platform to engage with B2B customers and establish meaningful connections
7. Traffic Sources Analysis:
Inference: Understanding competitor traffic sources reveals which channels they rely on most to attract visitors. This helps Hodges Badge identify potential areas to focus their own traffic acquisition efforts for a well-rounded strategy.
1. Organic Search Traffic Potential:
We utilized SEMrush and similar tools to estimate organic traffic for competitors. While Crown Awards seems to be receiving a healthy amount of organic traffic, Trophy Depot might have lower organic search visibility. This highlights the importance of a strong SEO strategy for Hodges Badge to improve organic ranking and attract potential customers searching for awards online.
2. Analyzing Paid Advertising Strategies:
We analyzed Hodges Badge's competitors to determine whether they are utilizing paid advertising. The absence of paid advertising on Hasty Awards' end could present an opportunity for Hodges Badge to leverage targeted ads. This strategy would enable Hodges Badge to reach potential customers who are actively searching for award solutions related to sports-related activities. It appears that none of the competitors are utilizing social media advertising.
3. Identifying Referral Traffic Sources:
We analyzed competitor websites for backlinks from relevant industry publications or award association websites. Strong referral traffic from these sources for Crown Awards suggests they might have established partnerships within the awards industry. While Hodges Badge might not have the same level of established partnerships yet, focusing on link-building efforts and industry outreach can potentially increase referral traffic in the long run.
4. Direct Traffic Analysis:
We analyzed the percentage of direct traffic for competitor websites. A high percentage of direct traffic for Hodges Badge suggests that they have a loyal customer base returning directly to their website. Despite Hodges Badge not yet having the same level of brand recognition as Crown Awards, their high percentage of direct traffic indicates the presence of very loyal customers.
8. Customer Reviews and Feedback:
Inference: Analyzing customer feedback helps identify common pain points, strengths, and weaknesses, guiding improvements to the client's product or service.
1. Google My Business Analysis:
We reviewed positive reviews on Google My Business for Hodges Badge, Mclaughlin ribbon awards, Crown Awards, hasty awards, ribbons galore. Trophy Depot has many negative reviews citing Poor Customer Service, Order Fulfillment Issues, Order Cancellations. This highlights the importance of maintaining excellent product quality and customer service for Hodges Badge to ensure customer satisfaction.
2. Amazon Store Analysis:
Hodges Badge is competing with Crown awards, Ribbons now and other third-party companies in Amazon. Mclaughlin ribbon awards and Trophy depot is not Amazon. This highlights an opportunity for Hodges Badge to emphasize diverse way of strategizing according to the platform.
3. Identifying Missed Opportunities for Customer Engagement:
Almost all of the companies failed to respond to both positive and negative reviews on Google My Business. This underscores the significance of implementing a dedicated customer service strategy for Hodges Badge. It's essential to ensure prompt and professional responses to all customer reviews, irrespective of their tone.
4. Other Platform reviews:
We conducted a review of competitor websites to assess the presence of customer testimonials. Hodges Badge is notably absent from platforms such as Yelp, BBB, Sitejabber, and Worthepenny, unlike Crown Awards. Having a substantial number of reviews on review websites can significantly enhance trustworthiness from an SEO perspective.
Crown Awards effectively showcases customer testimonials on their product pages, which has the potential to foster trust with prospective buyers. Conversely, Hodges Badge appears to lack customer testimonials on their product pages. This situation presents an opportunity for Hodges Badge to capitalize on positive customer experiences and testimonials to cultivate trust and credibility within their target audience.
9. Promotional Strategies:
Inference: Understanding competitors' promotional strategies helps the client stay competitive and develop effective promotions that resonate with their target audience.
1. Analyzing Discount Codes and Coupons:
We reviewed competitor websites for promotions. Crown Awards and Trophy Depot frequently offers discount codes advertised on their homepage. While Hodges Badge might not have the same level of brand awareness as crown awards, strategically offering targeted discounts or coupons during specific periods is incentivizing purchases and attracting new customers. For example, winter sales.
2. Identifying Free Shipping Thresholds:
We analyzed competitor shipping policies. Trophy Depot appears to offer free shipping on orders above $95, while Crown Awards provides free shipping for "Trophy and Plaque" orders over $100 within the Continental USA. In contrast, Hodges Badge does not offer free shipping, which may impact potential new customers. This underscores an opportunity for Hodges Badge to potentially implement a lower free shipping threshold or introduce free shipping promotions to incentivize purchases, particularly for first-time customers.