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How the main fashion e-commerce websites behave on search engines
E-shopping and SEO
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Brands & Search Engine Visibility
General Configuration
Architecture
Onpage optimization
Off-site optimization
Conclusions
Attachments
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Introduction
According to the latest estimates, every month approximately 30 million Italians (or 54.2% of the population) connect to the Internet.Mobile traffic is now higher than that of desktop, not only because a greater number of users surf the Web from their cellular devices, but also because they spend more time online.
More than 22 million people in Italy access e-commerce websites every month: in 2016, e-commerce business in Italy represented almost €20 billion, with a variation in 2015 equal to +18%.
Apparel is among the most important global industries, with a turnover of €1.83 billion (+25% compared to 2015): about one-tenth of online purchases are made on clothing products. The most purchased items are clothing (55%), followed by shoes (25%) and finally bags and accessories (20%).
Although there is not always agreement on the exact proportions, all studies measuring the distribution among sources of e-commerce traffic agree on attributing great importance to clicks on organic (non-paid) search engine results. The percentage of organic traffic can vary greatly depending on the
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brand’s reputation (better known brands receive more direct traffic), the budget spent on communication campaigns, the type of products sold and, most of all, how much the website is optimized for search engine rankings.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) activities operate precisely on the basis of this fact, and are able to exponentially increase the chances of running a successful e-commerce, improving its ranking on search engines due to keyword placement, increasing its visibility and, consequentially, increasing its traffic and the amount of business it generates.With this study, Pro Web Consulting seeks to analyze the Italian market of e-commerce clothing websites in terms of SEO.• Which e-commerce websites are ”first in class”?• What are some applicable best practices?• Which sites need to improve and why?
Which e-commerce sites have we analyzed and why?
1. Brands &
Search Engine Visibility
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1.1 The selected brands
For this study we have selected some of the most relevant brands for the online apparel market, excluding brands from the high fashion and luxury sector.
As precise sales data is not always available, we chose to look at the most visible sites on search engines, and on Google in particular.
This is why we turned to the Sistrix index, which measures the visibility of a website by monitoring a panel of more than a million keywords (in Italy alone). In the chart opposite, we report the selected websites alongside the Sistrix visibility index.
Naturally, Amazon is favored by an offering that covers multiple sectors, not just clothing.
In terms of search engine visibility, Zalando is the market leader in the apparel industry, which demonstrates to rank in the first positions concerning to some of the most important keywords in the market.
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1.2 Visibility Index over time: category A
As highlighted with the chart, Amazon’s visibility has increased at a dizzying rate ever since it was launched in Italy in 2010, especially due to its scope of supply (even though, unfortunately, Amazon’s website structure does not make it possi-ble to isolate the apparel channels’ data).
Compared to Amazon, other players such as Zalando, Yook and Asos have an equally sizeable visibility index for what concerns the clothing industry, even though Yoox and Asos’ trends remained negative in 2016.
1.2 Visibility Index over time: category B
This second group of players’ visibility is lower compared to that of Asos.
To go into detail, the growth rate of OVS was particularly significant throughout 2013-2014, even if irregular (which means its optimization was not perfect). From
amazon.it
zalando.it
asos.comyoox.com
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the beginning of 2015 up until the last months of 2016, OVS’s trend was negative, but it has since then managed to make up the deficit and is now on top of this second group of players. Zara’s growth has been more stable, as the company has opted for stronger SEO strategies, catching up with OVS. Spartoo and H&M both show negative trends starting from mid-2015.
1.3 Visibility Index over time: category C
On top of the third group of players is Guess, whose growth has increased over the past four years. Guess’ visibility, however, is lower than H&M’s, which is the second group’s last player.
Pimkie and Desigual bring up the rear in this visibility analysis, as their negative trends started at the beginning of 2015 for the former and in the middle of 2014 for the latter.
desigual.compimkie.it
guess.eu
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1.4 Website positioning according to the main market’s keywords
According to the obtained score means and taking into consideration the keyword ranking positions and search volume, Zalando’s leadership appears to be even more accentuated, as Zalando is systematically on top with regards to the industry’s most relevant keywords.
To better understand the differences within the visibility data between Amazon and Zalando, one must consider the fact that, in this case, the focus is strongly geared toward apparel-related keywords. This specific data is certainly more specific and indicative about the real market situation. Considering both the ranking mean scores and the keywords (with the latter based on 30 keyword taken into account), we deduce that:
• Zalando aside, all brands occupy a mid-position that is higher than the 20th position, and are thus to be found beyond the second page;
• Desigual is an exception, as it is to be found at the 18th position and its number of keywords is positioned lower.
Keyword Monthly researchdemonstrates
Purses 301.000 4 11 74 95 18 27 >100 73 58 8 9Shoes 74.000 1 19 14 3 46 12 40 5 41 14 12Sunglasses 49.500 5 30 60 9 >100 >100 14 >100 >100 >100 27Dress 40.500 1 6 >100 2 59 43 83 22 >100 7 >100Shirt 33.100 1 6 13 12 11 80 >100 52 16 31 53T-shirt 33.100 1 9 11 7 5 >100 72 >100 55 >100 >100Leggings 27.100 5 8 7 75 6 >100 85 >100 33 >100 >100Parka 27.100 2 11 87 8 58 14 10 24 18 >100 >100Shoes online 27.100 1 >100 14 35 88 6 18 5 75 >100 >100Online appareal 18.100 1 92 25 2 6 11 >100 >100 15 >100 >100Jeans 18.100 3 5 6 7 12 54 45 96 34 29 66Women’s shoes 18.100 1 4 14 3 24 13 11 2 40 29 21Men’s shoes 18.100 1 12 17 10 22 6 5 2 >100 >100 22Quilted jacket woman 14.800 1 22 >100 >100 7 5 10 3 64 >100 >100Gown 12.100 20 34 1 >100 9 64 >100 >100 20 >100 3Women’s purses 12.100 1 10 25 26 12 8 2 5 22 14 15Men’s shirt 12.100 1 3 12 9 5 22 15 40 >100 18 42Over-the-knees socks 12.100 12 >100 9 13 39 >100 5 >100 >100 >100 >100Jacket 12.100 2 3 >100 >100 13 27 42 >100 >100 >100 >100Blouse 12.100 4 6 >100 >100 85 >100 58 >100 >100 12 >100Trousers 12.100 1 5 8 17 4 56 >100 98 32 23 27Wrapped 12.100 1 72 32 11 60 6 4 >100 >100 11 >100Sandals 12.100 1 11 31 13 87 7 21 3 >100 >100 23Boots 12.100 1 58 38 10 >100 4 6 2 >100 >100 >100Suit 12.100 5 61 24 64 >100 4 7 >100 >100 >100 >100Tie 9.900 4 16 >100 >100 24 26 34 >100 >100 >100 >100Jacket 8.100 1 7 9 36 11 80 >100 30 14 >100 >100Skirt 8.100 1 4 2 8 9 >100 49 24 6 >100 >100Socks 5.400 4 62 8 71 75 >100 87 >100 95 >100 83Sweatshirts 3.600 2 5 8 3 6 64 72 >100 33 >100 >100Mid-point 3 21 22 22 30 28 33 29 37 18 31Positioned Keywords 30 28 25 25 27 23 24 17 18 11 14
Have the server, the domain and the website been properly set up in order to facilitate their rankings on Google?
2. General
Configuration
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2.1 Websites’ general configuration
The websites are averagely optimized for technical aspects, and also illustrate a substantial balance.
Their main differences are to be found in their respective performances, which are often not righteously taken into account by the various IT and e-commerce departments yet.
Emphasizing the fact that Google regards performance as essential is, in fact, par-ticularly important, especially now that mobile traffic data is more prominent.
Other criteria that may penalize some websites are the domain’s fragmentation, which may reduce the effectiveness of the brand’s online presence, as well as any failure to use the rich snippets that, although they don’t have an effect on the ac-tual rankings, can increase the CTR.
Benchmark
Domain seniority 5 5 4 5 3 4 3 3 5 4 5
Domain duplication and fragmentation 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 3 2 3
Secure pages with https 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 4
Responsive Design 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Analytics 4 4 4 5 3 4 5 4 5 5 5
Upload Speed 4 3 4 4 3 3 5 4 2 5 1
Mobile upload speed 4 4 3 4 3 3 4 4 3 2 1
Rich Snippet 5 5 5 5 5 1 1 5 1 1 1
Bread Crumbs 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 4
Indexing 4 5 5 3 5 5 3 5 4 4 3
Sitemap 5 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 5
Robots.txt 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Redirect at "www" 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Weighted total score 166 166 164 164 158 157 155 147 145 138 131
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2.2 Domain fragmentationGoogle considers third level domains to be stand-alone entities, and therefore spreading out traffic data on multiple domains or even subdomains is, most often, a negative choice for SEO. It also fragments trust and, instead of canalizing the ef-forts on one single domain that could easily obtain the highest-ranking positions, it scatters potential across different domains, reducing the possibilities for the domain itself to reach higher-ranking positions.
The great majority of the websites we focused on, although featuring various sub-domains, manage to concentrate the traffic data on their main domain.
Guess and OVS disperse almost 4% of their traffic because of subdomains such as marciano.guess.eu and negozi.ovs.it accordingly.
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2.3 Mobile optimization and responsive designAs is widely known, mobile traffic data is more and more important in various countries, including Italy. In Italy mobile devices have currently already overtaken desktop traffic.
Consequently, Google adapted its algorithms, rolling out a mobile-first index in autumn 2016.
Responsive websites present their best practice from an SEO perspective, as they use a single URL for each page, regardless of device.
This removes the need to communicate to Google the existence of alternative versions of the different pages, which in turn makes the indexation procedures more efficient and minimizes the risk of mistakes.
All the websites we took into account appear to be well-optimized ac-cording to Google’s mobile-friendly test.
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2.4 Desktop PerformanceThese performances pertain to the pages’ loading time both from desktop and mobile devices.
They affect not only the websites’ positive user experience, but also directly influ-ence two important factors in terms of SEO:
1. How Google perceives the quality of the website and its pages.
2. Indexing capabilities (the faster the website, the more rapidly Google scans it, meaning that more pages are indexed).
Among the websites we took into account, Desigual’s appears to be the most reactive.
According to Google’s tool, Guess stands out negatively with an extremely low score.
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2.5 Mobile PerformanceAccording to mobile performance results, two different scenarios are provided.
All the proposed players achieved consistently low results and require better op-timization.
However, we do have outlying cases as well, with Desigual and Guess standing out positively and negatively accordingly.
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2.6 General PerformanceHere you may find a recap of various performance data as seen on Google Page Speed Insight (one of Google’s tools, available for free).
2.7 Rich Snippet
By including additional data, it is possible to increase Google’s results throughout micro data and micro formats.
Not all of the data is available across all industries, however. Fashion-related e-commerce websites mainly utilize feedback/reviews and prices.
Amazon’s feedback system, for instance, consists of “stars” and reviews, where-as Yoox’s consists of letting the items’ prices be the most immediate data.
Statistically, the latter increases Click Through Rate results.
We also observed two polar opposite circumstances in the proposed websites.
Google page speed insight index Mobile Desktop Totale
74/100 85/100 159
73/100 82/100 155
65/100 81/100 146
60/100 83/100 143
65/100 67/100 132
56/100 76/100 132
53/100 69/100 122
46/100 74/100 120
53/100 66/100 119
55/100 64/100 119
33/100 20/100 53
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While 6 of them implemented (at least partially) their rich snippet adaptations, 5 of them present a lack of thereof.
Reviews
Price
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2.8 Bread Crumbs
Bread crumbs show a user’s location in a website or web app. Besides improving the site’s usability, they strongly affect SEO services and also provide search engines with clues about the structure of the site.
Among the sites taken into consid-eration, the majority of them use bread crumbs correctly.
Those that do not utilize bread crumbs feature, however, a menu structure that makes it possible for Google to properly interpret the site’s structure. In the example, we analyzed Zara’s menu.
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2.9 Robots.txtAs suggested by its name, Robots.txt is a text file used by websites to communi-cate with web crawlers and other web robots.
The file informs the crawler about how to surf the site, specifically focusing on the areas that should not be processed or scanned.
All the sites we examined feature completed Robots.txt files, although they are structurally different.
Sites like Guess, for instance, presented extremely essential robot files, without reference to the sitemap.
Asos, on the other hand, appears to be more scrupulous when putting together its robot files.
Has the e-commerce website been structured according to the features that users mainly seek?
3. Architectures
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3.2 Site structureWhat we can deduce from the graphic, which provides a clear overview of brands’ behaviors, is that:• Among all the brands’ websites, Zara is the one that has so far put less effort
into structuring its homepage in an SEO-approved manner, whereas other players obtained decent to good ratings thanks to their site structures;
• Zara & H&M didn’t include texts in their homepage categories, which is something Zalando excels at;
• Among all brands, OVS is the one that pays the least attention to the optimi-zation of its dedicate pages;
• Amazon does not feature properly optimized URLs according to various key-word categories. It is very likely the only website that works well under similar circumstances.
3.1 Site structures: benchmarks
Home and menu 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 4 5 2 4
Page section 5 5 2 5 1 2 2 2 4 1 2
Pages, keywords and texts 5 5 4 5 3 5 2 3 1 2 2
URL and Keyword 5 5 4 0 5 2 5 3 3 5 2
Weighted total 65 65 51 50 47 47 44 40 37 33 32
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3.3 Home and menuGiven the fact that the homepage is the destination of the majority of blacklinks, it is also the place in which the site’s trust lies.
It is then through its menus that the homepage transfers its authority to the oth-er pages, according to an extremely logical process: the higher the link is in the tree menu, the greater its page’s authority will be within the site.
Inserting the most important pages in the first level of the menu hierarchy, i.e. those that feature industry-related keywords, appears to be fundamental, as these pages will not only generate higher search volumes, but also help con-centrate the site’s authority precisely on those pages, which in turn will increase
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Url e Keyword
Pagine, Keyword e testo
Sezioni, Keyword e testo
Home e Keyword
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Google’s interest in them.
This hierarchy is essential when trying to build a successful e-commerce site. Among the sites we took into consideration, which are overall efficient in this re-gard, Zalando’s is probably the best example, while Zara’s features the most deficient menu.
3.4 Home sections and textsThe presence of a text, or the lack thereof, is a factor that can transversally influ-ence the site’s rakings, either positively or negatively.
Text files become competitive advantages when used in pages that are simulta-neously the most competitive as well as the ones that, most frequently, do not include texts, namely home sections.
In the majority of e-commerce sites, these pages simply feature lists of products. This tricks users, as they are used to looking for products according to the differ-ent respective categories, such as, for instance, “purses”, “jeans” or “shoes”. Here Google needs to choose the results according to the informative content the page provides, which is the text.
In the examples below we reported both Zara and Zalando’s texts in their respective “women’s shoes” home categories. While Zalando’s page fea-
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tures rich and fluid content, and basically follows all best practice guidelines, Zara’s is scarce and unsatisfactory.
Zalando: women’s shoes https:// www.zalando.co.uk/womens-shoes/
Women’s shoes The best wardrobes begin with solid founda-tions, centered on versatile, statement wom-en’s shoes. Get yours this season with pure white low-tops and slip on loafers, taking you from dawn to dusk with a fashion-forward twist.
Make a statement with our selection of women’s shoes
Go classic with a pair of colourful women’s shoes with a slim heel, paired with a floral printed bohemian jersey dress and rolled-up bleached jeans alike. Supple leather ballerina flats bring French flavour to your day, worn with minimalist-inspired chinos and a lightweight striped jumper. The sports luxe trends have exploded this season, drawing us in with ombre running shoes and classic Converse trainers. Wear yours with feminine knee-length skirts and embroidered bomber jackets, playing with a balance of contrasts.
Fashion forward women’s shoes adapt to your look
Bring out your inner British side with brogue-in-spired women’s shoes to wear throughout the week, paired with tailored trousers and a trench coat for a shopping trip to the city. Thigh-high suede boots keep you cosy when the tempera-tures plummet, making them ideal to wear with a slinky jumper dress. We love contemporary slip-on moccasins and loafers this season, with top marks for metallic shades and studded detailing, instantly updating your go-to staple looks.
Zara: women’s shoes http:// www.zara.com/uk/en/woman/shoes/view-all-c719531.html
Find boots, sandals, heels, flats, gladia-tors, sneakers, high heels, dress shoes and wedges from ZARA shoes for women.
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3.5 Dedicated pages for keywordsIt is extremely important for websites to have pages dedicated to the most rele-vant industry keywords, with lots of text in order to achieve a high ranking on Google. Otherwise, although Google may still consider the site due to a certain keyword, it will be hard for the search engine to choose a specific page and, generally speaking, it could even award the homepage or a partially-pertinent page with the highest position, with negative results on the overall site’s ranking position. Zalando and Spartoo feature pages that are specifically dedicated to the most relevant keywords, while Asos and Yoox have similar pages whose descriptions are, however, too limited.
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3.6 URL and KeywordsWhen taking into account how Google works, it is important to consider the fact that URLs should always contain the respective page’s main keyword, making sure it is also as similar as possible to the domain’s name.
Zalando and Spartoo’s URLs are the best ones, as they include both the do-main and the main keyword.
Shorter URLs that also feature a lack of parameters appear to be more effec-tive, as they are more legible for search engines as well as for users, who can copy and paste or remember them more easily.
Amazon’s URL management, likely due to its extremely complex and structured platform, appears to be completely deficient, as it features long URLs which are also full of different parameters. Given the fact that Amazon’s trust and visibility are unparalleled, the effects are minimal.
Valid URLshttps://www.zalando.it/scarpe-donna/http://www.spartoo.it/scarpe-donna.php
Improvable URLshttp://www.ovs.it/donna/collezione/scarpehttp://www.asos.com/it/donna/scarpe/cat/?cid=4172
Wrong URLshttps://www.amazon.it/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_xboxw_1b1?node=700766031&pf_rd_m=A2VX19DFO3KCLO&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=ADFNX941WD3N-2VWMTNGV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=8d4cb3d3-437f-4317-b681-2cbe2317edd7&pf_rd_i=5515768031
Have the e-commerce’s pages, contents and SEO tags been opti-mized in order to improve their positions in search rankings
4. Onpage
optimization
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4.2 Onpage optimisationAsos and Zalando’s onpage optimization appear to be perfect. Specifically in Zalando’s case, this gives us a hint about the reasons behind its high-ranking position for almost all of the most relevant keywords.
4.1 Benchmarks
URL neatness 4 5 5 3 3 3 2 3 5 1 3
URL length 5 5 5 5 5 3 2 2 4 1 4
Page title duplication 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 4 4 4 2
Page title length 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 4 3 3 3
Meta description presence 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 1
Meta description duplication 5 4 4 2 4 5 4 4 5 4 1
Meta description lenght 5 5 3 4 3 4 5 3 3 3 1
H1 presence 5 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 2 5 2
H1 duplication 4 5 4 4 2 5 4 4 3 4 2
H1 multiple 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 5 3
Images missing alt text 5 5 3 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 3
Images over 100 kb 5 4 4 4 4 5 4 5 4 5 5
Weighted total 134 133 127 123 117 116 111 110 106 103 71
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Guess’ defects, on the other hand, accentuate the reasons why its ranking posi-tions are so low compared to those of its competitors.
4.3 Duplicate pagesDuplicate pages can lead to a variety of problems, including trust fragmenta-tion, search engine ranking problems and crawlers’ inability to scan and index the page. Paying attention to these kinds of issues is thus extremely important, especially for the most relevant pages (such as category pages).
Here we can see how the same page acts on Guess’ site according to different addresses, leading to all the negative consequences mentioned before.
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4.4 Main SEO tags: Page Title, Meta Descrip-tion and HeadingPage TitleA page title is one of the most important on-page ranking factors according to search engines, as it interprets the page’s content.When a site is lacking a title, or features duplicate titles, it makes it hard for Google to interpret its content.Tag titles are something all sites take into account, with the sole exception of Guess whose site includes a grand total of 70% duplicate titles.
Meta Description Meta descriptions have no direct effect on rankings but certainly help boost CTR, as Google uses meta descriptions to create the snippet that de-scribes the page in SERP listings.All sites proved to be well optimized. Once again, Guess appears to be the sole exception, with 90% of meta descriptions missing.
Heading / H1Besides helping Google interpret the pages’ contents, H1 are a good opportunity to link keywords to respective content.The sites we examined proved to pay specific attention to this issue, with the exception of:• Guess, with 90% of pages lacking an H1 tag • Spartoo, with 40% of pages lacking an H1 tag • H&M, with 50% of pages lacking an H1 tag
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4.5 ImagesAlthough Google has yet to release accurate data, it is widely known that imag-es have quite an impact online, especially for those industries whose products’ aesthetic is particularly important, such as those related to architecture, fashion, luxury, etc.E-commerce sites thus need to pay closer attention to images, which in turn need to be well optimized in order to boost their visibility.The websites generally feature well-optimized images, with the exception of Zara and Guess. In the example below we can see how only 3 Guess hand-bag images come from the actual official website.
Are the hyperlinks, which according to Google help sites gain authority, SEO-friendly?
5. Off-site
optimization
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5.1 BenchmarksWhen talking about off-site SEO (also known as off-page), we are referring to the all techniques that can be used to improve the position of a website in the search engine results pages.
The best SEO-friendly parameters include the quantitative and qualitative rich-ness of the backlinks, as Google sees relevant inbound links as a sign that the content on a certain page is useful, which helps the site gain authority and trust.
When talking about optimized backlinks, however, we must also consider oth-er things, such as the type of backlink and its source. The kind of correlation between the two domains, namely the referrer and the referent, is equally important, as it lends a better qualitative perspective to the actual kind backlinks. Sites that receive multiple backlinks only from a scarce bunch of sites may in fact face negative consequences in terms of authority and online reputation.
Number of links 4 4 5 3 5 4 2 3 1 5 5
Number of referring domains 3 3 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 3
Domains/Links correlation 5 4 2 5 4 3 3 3 4 2 2
Geographic origins 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 4 5 5 4
Top level domain 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 4 5
Anchor terms profile 5 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 5 4 3
Follow/nofollow correlation 5 5 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 2 2
Type of link 4 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2
Weighted total 107 99 98 96 93 85 83 82 81 74 68
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5.2 Off-site optimizationDesigual and Yoox stand out positively in terms of off-site optimization, as they receive a lot of backlinks and also have a good domain/link correlation.
Here backlinks play an important role in helping the brand gain trust, which translates to more and more backlinks over time. Amazon and Zalando, for in-stance, receive an impressive amount of backlinks, but unfortunately they come from domains that lack authority. Here the correlation between quantity and quality has negative effects.
When evaluating the correlation between backlinks’ quantity and quality, we fo-cused on the latter, although the former often plays an important role in deter-mining the website’s success.
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There is still plenty of opportunity in the market
6. Conclusions
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6.1 Conclusions
As expected, fashion e-commerce web-sites are “armed and ready” to conquer the search engine world.
Exceptions aside, almost all players understand the importance of being ranked well by Google, as they know that the right keywords can lead to more visits on the website and, con-sequently, to greater sales. We also noticed how carefully the industry is opting for more sophisticated and ac-curate SEO-friendly strategies.
Clothing lines such as Zara, H&M, and OVS benefit from their notoriety, which often compensates for their lack of user-friendly websites.
Multi-brand e-commerce websites such as Zalando, Asos, Spartoo and Yoox appear to be the most competi-tive, with a more effective approach to SEO strategies. Zalando still dominates the industry.
Although they function differently, Desigual, Pimkie and Guess’ e-com-merce websites are the most deficient. Overall positive reviews have been no-ticed for the most important SEO-ap-proved aspects such as mobile optimi-zation and title tags.
Here are some of the most common mistakes:1. Inadequate SEO strategies for
the tree menu; 2. Missing text contents within the
more competitive pages;3. Taking care of backlink manage-
ment profiles through trust-build-ing strategies is a must that many sites often neglect;
4. Slow upload speed, especially from mobile devices;
5. Neglecting to implementing rich snippets via structured data;
6. Domain fragmentation and du-plicate pages.
Here is the overall situation site by site.
Amazon: Among all sites, Amazon is the one that can count on visibility the most, as its offering is vast and therefore it is easily the most impor-tant e-commerce website in the world. Although Amazon’s performance and configuration are excellent, its visibility hides some deficiencies in SEO strat-egies. Amazon’s URLs are surprisingly badly structured, and don’t live up to such an important site’s expectations. We could describe it as being inatten-tive.
Asos: SEO-friendly strategies appear to be extremely important for Asos, both
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for structures as well as for off-site op-timization, in which the site excels. It is Zalando’s direct competitor. We could describe it as efficient.
Desigual: Although its technical con-figuration is excellent, its content struc-ture is not SEO-friendly at all (much like Zara’s), and is thus the worst example within this case study. It also lacks a good strategy for keyword ranking po-sitioning, which is strategically impor-tant to say the least. Insufficient.
Pimkie: Pimkie gains the antepenulti-mate position in this case study, with mediocre strategies and results in all fields. Among all sites, it is the one with the lowest number of backlinks, which demostrates how important it is to have a trustworthy and solid online reputation. Misunderstood.
Spartoo’s domain is the youngest among all sites, and thus it lacks a qualitative backlink profile. However, it pays particular attention to SEO strate-gies, although the site’s structure is far from perfectly optimized. Willing.
Yoox: Dean e-commerce website Yoox is particularly successful in Italy, mean-ing that it can rely on a good backlink profile (both quantitatively and quali-tatively). Although its mistakes are not abounding regarding SEO strategies, it doesn’t meet our expectations. Un-fortunately, it is still resting on the laurels of its success.
Zalando: It took 5 years for the Ger-man e-commerce site to succeed in its purposes, presenting an incredibly effective strategy that its competitors, such as Yoox, still hadn’t invested in. Zalando specifically exerted leverage on the SEO strategies to control user searches, which directly resulting in an effect on its awareness. Although there’s still room for improvement, it is the industry’s star pupil.
Zara: Basic SEO strategies, along with general IT-related issues, are something Zara manages well, as proven by the fact that the website is extremely well-configured. However, its site structure, along with the lack of a customer-friendly approach and poorly optimized images, makes it one of the worst examples in our case study. It could greatly benefit from an SEO-friendly strategic review. It has great potential.
Methodological notePro Web Consulting
Contacts
7. Attachments
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7.1 Methodological note
Brand selection: We selected the case study’s industry brands with Similar Web, whose results we implemented acording to organic research that took the keywords attached in this document into account. We also used Sistrix to com-pare the sites’ visibility within SERPs.
Keywords and ranking: In order to select the 30 most relevant keywords of the industry, we used Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner along with its monthly search volumes. We then took each keyword and verified the brands’ ranking position within SERPs in incognito mode.
Visibility analysis: We used Sistrix to analyze brand visibility performance from mid-2010 to November 2016.
Website configuration: We used code coverage’s manual testing according to the following system.
Domain Seniority: Sistrix, Domain Fragmentatiom: SeoZoom, Https: manual testing, Responsive Design: Google Mobile Friendly Test, Presence of Google An-alytics: Google Tag Assistant, Upload Speed both on Desktop and Mobile: Google Page Speed Insight, Rich Snippet: manual testing, Bread crumb: manual testing, page indexing: “site:” operator, Sitemap: domainname/sitemap.xml or if indicat-ed, at the robot address, Robots.txt: domainname/robots.txt, Redirect a www: manual testing. We calculated the weighted total by multiplying a parameter’s assigned weight by each brand’s final review, then added the results.
Site architecture: we tested the site’s structure manually according to the web-site navigation system, the most relevant keywords of the industry, the home category’s optimization compared to main category keywords, the presence of content within the pages and, last but not least, the presence of all landing pag-es related to the remaining leading keywords.
On-site optimization: we used Screaming Frog to examine each site’s SEO tags, which makes it possible to crawl websites’ URLs as well as fetch key ons-ite elements, to better analyze SEO parameters such as URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, H1, image optimization, etc.
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Off-site optimization: to further examine the sites from an off-site point of view, we used the parameters given by Ahrefs, i.e. the number of backlinks, domain numbers, origin, as well as the correlation between the referrer and the referent. We also verified the geographic origins and the referrer’s domain reliability and authority. We analyzed backlinks via Anchor Text and took into account both the correlation between follow/unfollow and the link’s typology.
7.2 Who is behind Pro Web Consulting?
Pro Web Consulting is an independent SEO agency that specializes in onpage and offpage SEO, web analytics and brand reputation on search engines.
We offer three main services, namely Search Engine Optimization, SEO Repu-tation Management and Web Analytics, with a strong focus on consulting and training.
From our headquarter in Chiasso, thanks to an international staff of almost 30 experts, our agency covers all main global markets with a highly professional approach.
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7.3 ContactsFor further information about this case study and its methodological notes, please contact:
Andrea [email protected]
For further information about Pro Web Consulting, our communication services and other publications, please contact:
Greta LomaestroHead of Communication [email protected]
For sales inquiries:
Francesca Dalla PozzaSales [email protected]
Duccio LunariSales & [email protected]
