Hailey Liston

Web Publishing
Jacquie Lamer
11/18/14
SEO Analysis & Recommendations for Eastern Mountain Sports GPS Watches
I.

Keyword Research 3 Recommended Keywords (Cr)

a. The 3 keywords/phrases I think will drive the most traffic:
1. Garmin GPS watch
2. Forerunner GPS watch
3. GPS sports watch
b. Explanation of my choices:
1. Garmin GPS watch: This is the keyword focus given to me by the client. My
research on this keyword phrase leads me to believe that it would be the most
successful for search engines. The highest interest over time, as shown in the
image below comparing all three phrases, is more than four times more
successful (100) than for GPS sports watch (23) and Forerunner GPS watch
(29). Over the past few years, the phrase Garmin GPS watch has been both
successful and hardly searched at all, as seen below. In November, the interest
was 66, which is higher than what it had been at some points before but still
lower than others.

Forerunner gps
watch

The average interest rate for Garmin GPS watch comes to 36. This is more
than triple the average of the two other keywords chosen. I believe that by
choosing the phrase, it could bring in traffic, seeing as a majority of Eastern
Mountain Sports watches are the Garmin brand.
2. Forerunner GPS watch: From studying the website and Google Trends, I
determined that this would be a good phrase for ems.com because a majority
of the sites GPS watches have forerunner or runner in the title. By linking
the site to those keywords, they could potentially bring in quite a bit of traffic

simply because those words are found in the title and not just the description.
While this phrase doesnt get nearly as much interest over time as Garmin
GPS watch, it still does fairly well, especially in other countries such as the
United Kingdom and Australia as shown in the Regional Interest image below.
However, currently the interest for this phrase has gone down almost as low as
it was in 2011.

3. GPS sports watch: Through studying the website, I chose this phrase because
it stands out the most amongst the products on ems.com. When choosing

keywords/phrases, I expected this one to be the most popular because it is the

simplest. However, referring to the screenshot under Garmin GPS watch, it
has the least amount of interest over time compared to my other two phrases
and it has also decreased dramatically over the past year. After seeing that
result, it was apparent to me that those who need a GPS watch are going to be
more specific in their search. For example, theyll know exactly what brand
they want and include that as a keyword when searching. Because there still
may be consumers who arent exactly sure of what they want in a GPS watch,
I still wanted this to be an option so that ems.com can target towards those
individuals, even if there may be fewer than Forerunner GPS watch.

II.

Current Traffic
EMS.com Monthly Unique Visitors: 162.6K
RoadRunnerSports.com Monthly Unique Visitors: 201.1K
Analysis: According to Quantcast.com, RRS has more unique visitors per month than
EMS. However, something interesting that I found was that EMSs current rate of
unique visitors per month is lower than RRSs lowest point in August (178,118). EMS
has been steadily declining since April. RRSs may have also been declining in

unique visitors, however, they still had more each month than EMS. They also hit a
major peak in September (as you can see on the following page) at 249,895 unique
visitors. EMS has begun to increase in monthly unique visitors since its lowest point
in September. With the help of some new keywords/phrases to drive traffic, they
could keep steadily increasing. Theyre progress on unique visitors can be seen
following RRSs.

III.
Content Analysis: Quality
a. Overall Quality (Cq, Vt, Va)
EMS.com Source: 6
RoadRunnerSports.com Source: 7
Analysis: EMS.com offers some good quality content, however, there is room for
improvement. The content isnt very up-to-date, meaning it has potential to be more
visually appealing, however the design/structure is holding it back a bit. Going
through descriptions of an array of products, the content is well written and unique.
There is value added to the content such as an immediate shipping button, an option to
check in-store availability, along with express buy, which allows registered users to
make a purchase without going through the checkout process. These features can be
seen in the screenshot below.

Express Buy
Items in
Stock

Immediat
e
Shipping

By bouncing from one page to the next, I noticed that there were not
many (if any) ads on each page which can be good because too
many will drive visitors away, especially above the fold. Comparing
their content quality to RoadRunnerSports.com, I noticed that EMS
has an upperhand in the fact that they are unique and RRS is not.
Using Plagium.com, I plugged in the description of a random mens
shirt (Men's R-Gear Reaction Half-Zip) from RRS into the search tool.
Several listings came up that revealed that RRS uses the same copy
for one product as that of another on their site. While they are not
plagiarizing from another site/source, they are being very repetitive
and not unique in their content.
Recommendation for improvements: I think that a big
recommendation for EMS is to make their content more visually
appealing as far as design/structure goes. The first thing I would

recommend to fix is to utilize the space of their website. As you can

tell by looking at the screenshot of the Kids page below, EMS shuts
out a lot of space from the sides that they could be using to fill with
content seeing as they have so much.

White
Space

White
Space

Going off of design, I noticed that each of their pages have a pretty good layout and
spread of content above the fold. However, once you begin to scroll down, the content
looks to be too clumped together and is basically a repeat of what can be found in the
navigation menu. The screen shot below of the Kids page is of what some of the
content below the fold looks like compared to what the content in the Kids drop
down menu looks like in the navigation menu.

Kids
Drop-

My recommendation as an effective use of the space underneath the fold would be

to not have the categories broken down with different pages to visit within that
category. It seems too text heavy. Instead, place those different categories (Kids Sale,
Boys Clothing, Girls Clothing, etc.) under the drop down menu. The subcategories
can then be located on that specific page. For example, if I were to click on Kids Sale
on the drop down menu and be directed to that page, I could then see Shirts, Pants,
Shorts, Footwear, Jackets, etc. located on the left hand side. This then could possibly

lead to bread-crumb navigation. Then, with that open space under the fold of the
Kids main page, it could be used for a couple of advertisements or images of the
most popular products for kids.
b. Engaging Content (Ce):
EMS.com Score: 8
RoadRunnerSports.com Score: 6
Analysis: I ranked EMS.com higher because they have been making big steps in
improving how they keep visitors engaged along with keeping them on the site. As
shown in the screen shot below, their bounce rate has gone down considerably by 19%
in the last three months, leaving it at 38.5%. While this is good because it is at least
below 50%, it would still be best if the bounce rate was lower and considering how
much it is decreasing at the moment, this is a very realistic possibility. Not only is
EMSs bounce rate doing a steady job, their daily page views per visitor has increased
over the last three months by 28% and daily time on site by 37%. They have also

improved in global rank 7,279 positions versus the last three months.

Global Rank:
Increase in 7,279
positions

Daily Pageviews per

Visitor:
Up 28%
Bounce Rate:
Down 19%

Daily time on
site:
Up 37%

RRS is ranked lower because, based off of the information gathered from Alexa.com,
their site content isnt engaging very well. However, their bounce rate is decreasing

slowly. Even though theyre the competitor, theyre slowly decreasing in daily page
views per visitor and daily time on site, as you can see in the screen shot below.

Global Rank:
Increase in 2,956
positions

Daily Pageviews per

Visitor:
Down 3.6%
Bounce Rate:
Down 7%

If I were to look at engagement alone and no other factors, I would say that

Daily time on
site: is
EMS
Down 4%

the competitor, not the other way around. While both sites are close in global rank,

page views, and time on site, RRS is decreasing where EMS is increasing. If it stays at
this rate, RRS will no longer be a competitor to EMS.
EMS provides the following options for each of their products: product rating,
writing a review, sharing on Facebook and Twitter along with via email, liking the
product on Facebook, and adding it to your favorites. Also, at the bottom of their site,
they have linked to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for visitors to follow their
accounts. EMS also provides videos to the products and the option to share them via
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and email.
RRS also links to their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ accounts at the
bottom of their site for visitors to Stay Connected. Along with those options, on
each product page, RRS provides visitors the opportunity to share that product on
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. They also have a video tab and the option

to embed it, like on Facebook, or share via email, Twitter, and Google+. However,
they do not offer the option to rate the product.
Screen shots of each site can be seen on the following page. I show images of
products other than the GPS watches to illustrate that EMS offers video.

EMS.com:

Product Videos
Write a Review
Product Rating

Share the
Product
Product
Videos
Share
this
video

RRS.com:

Share the
Product
Write a Review

Watch a
video about
the product

Share,
like, and
embed

Recommendation for improvements: Some areas to improve on for EMS are to link
more social networks within their site so that visitors have more outlets to share on.
For starters, they could add Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube along with the option
to embed the video. Pinterest and Instagram are popular social networks for clothing,

traveling, and fitness. So its important for EMS to show that they have these accounts
by linking them to their site in order to drive more traffic onto their website. By
linking their YouTube account, it allows visitors to see what theyre able to do in those
products and how they look on different people.
c. Social Signals (Sr, Ss):
EMS.com Score: 6
RoadRunnerSports.com Score: 7
Analysis: After doing some research on both EMS and RRS accounts, I noticed that
where EMS is lacking, RRS is striving and vice versa. On Instagram, EMS has 2,286
followers, are following 97 accounts, and have made 235 posts compared to RRS who
has 420 followers, isnt following any accounts, and has made no posts. On Twitter,
EMS has made 6,590 tweets, 69 favorites, have 12.2K followers, and are following
1,373 accounts. RRS has made 21.4K tweets with 5951 favorites, are following 8,252
accounts, and have 16.1K followers. On Facebook, EMS has fewer likes (49,172) than
RRS (99,523) on their page. On EMS Pinterest page, they have created 45 boards
(adding to 3,666 pins), have 123 likes, 2,132 followers, and are following 125
accounts. RRS Pinterest has 10 boards (362 pins), 96 likes, they have 397 followers,
and are following 91 accounts. On EMS YouTube account, they have 1,673
subscribers and 266 videos whereas RRS has 311 subscribers and 62 videos. Lastly,
EMS Google+ account has 1,388 followers, 1,744 people in their circle, and 301,133
views. RRS account has 1,432 followers, 547 people in their circle, and 626,099
views.
While there may be room for improvement on a few of their accounts, EMS is
present in each of their social media accounts. Comparing both sites and three of their
accounts (Google+, Facebook, and Twitter), it is evident that EMS isnt succeeding as
well as RRS in likes and followers. However, with more posts and possibly different

hashtags, they could catch up to RRS at some point. Below, you will see the screen
shot comparisons of EMS and RRS on each of the three accounts.

As you can see above, EMS has been rising slowly but surely and is nearly tied with
RRS in followers.

Since 2013, EMS likes on Facebook have remained nearly constant while RRS keep
increasing.

While theyre not at a faster pace than RRS, EMS is continuing to grow in followers.
As I said with Google+, I believe that they are close enough to RRS that they will
eventually catch up with them if they bump up their posts.
Recommendation for improvements: EMS is doing well at keeping followers
engaged and getting them to talk about their site, whether that be through personal
tweets or status, retweets, shares, mentions, or comments. However, it is clear that
RRS is getting more traffic. In order for EMS to reach out to more people, I believe
that they should start posting at least once a day on social media accounts that they
arent already doing that. They should also either come up with different hashtags in
their posts or ask followers to tag someone if the post relates to them. For example, if
EMS were to post a picture of someone hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, they could say in
the description, Share your experience with us if you and a friend have climbed
Mount Kilimanjaro or Tag a friend thats made the hike or wants to cross this off of

their bucket list. I believe that this is a good stragegy because people dont
necessarily have to share it onto their own timeline. They can tag a friend in the
comments or directly message them the link. By doing so, it could lead the friend to
become a visitor of the page and, hopefully, a follower. Another way to improve their
followers is to link their accounts onto the website. As of now, the only social media
accounts on their site are Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. They need to add in
Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. This can then lead visitors of the site to EMS
accounts.
IV. HTML: Current Keyword Location Analysis (Ht, Hd, Hh)
a. Title tags
EMS.com Product Page:
<title>TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink - Eastern Mountain Sports</title>
RoadRunnerSports.com Product Page:
<title>Garmin Forerunner 920XT GPS + HRM Run at Road Runner Sports</title>
Explanation: The categor pages for both EMS and RRS are both opposite from
eachother. On EMS, if I were to find the GPS watches through the navigation menu, I would get
24 results. However, if I searched it into the toolbar, I would get 61. Whereas for RRS if I looked
for GPS watches through the navigation menu, I would end up with 80 results and 11 for if it
were to search the product. For EMS.com, I chose a product page for a runner GPS watch, as
pictured on the following page.

For RoadRunnerSports.com, I chose a product page for a forerunner GPS watch, which is also
pictured below.

I chose these pages because of the keywords/phrases that I chose earlier. I wanted just a regular
GPS watch and also a forerunner watch. In the EMS title tag, I noticed that it has the exact title
of the product at the beginning followed by the title of the website/company. Words that stick out
are TOMTOM, GPS, and Watch because those are the first that you read. In the RRS tags, they

did the exact same thing except insead of putting a dash inbetween the title of the product and the
company name, they put at. Words that stick out are Garmin, GPS, and HRM. The titles are
important because they show the title of the product and also where you can find it. When typing
in TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink into the Google search engine, the exact product page
on EMS website that its from wasnt even above the fold on the SERP. However, it was on the
first page as the last of the organic results, as you can see below.
Googl
e SERP
above
the
fold

EMS.com
product
page

When typing in Garmin Forerunner 920XT GPS + HRM Run into the Google search engine,
the product page for RRS was the third organic result. However, even though it was the same
product, when I clicked on the page, there was no image and the item number was much longer,
causing the two links to not fully match up. You can see the comparisons below.

RRS.com
product
page

Original product page found on the site:

Item # 00372

Product page from Google SERP:

No image of
the watch seen
above

Item #

Recommendation for improvements: Considering that EMS.com didnt use to show

up at all on the first page, I believe that it is a big improvement that they have been
able to make it there. However, some people wouldnt even go as far as scrolling past
the first couple of results on the SERP. So in order to bump EMS up the page, I
believe that they could be a little more specific in their title because that is the
problem. Instead of including the dash in front of Eastern Mountain Sports, maybe
they should do what RRS did by putting at. That way, Google could detect it easier

and bring others to EMS.com. I recommend that they change it and do something like
this: <title>TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink at Eastern Mountain Sports</title>
b. Description meta tag
EMS.com Product Page:
<meta name="description" content="Buy TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink - " />
RoadRunnerSports.com Product Page:
<meta name="description"

Note: Meta
Tag would
only paste
like this. Word
wouldnt
allow me to

content="Garmin Forerunner 920XT GPS + HRM Run SHIPPING DETAILS: Wow! You picked a popular item! You
deserve your order shipped quickly, and due to the high
demand of this item, Garmin can&#39;t guarantee a ship date
yet. Your card won&#39;t be charged until the item ships, and
you can call a Fit Expert at 800-743-3206 to check on the
status of your order or cancel your pre-ordered item anytime!
So rest easy and add it to your cart. Your order will be out the
door to you as soon as we receive it from the manufacturer.
GARMIN&reg; FORERUNNER&reg; 920XT GPS &#43;
HRM Run&trade; :: Train smarter and see your performance
soar with the new Garmin&reg; Forerunner&reg; 920XT GPS
&#43; HRM Run&trade;. Use this watch and activity tracker
combo to track your steps, calories and distance throughout the
day, while also getting estimations on VO2 max and recovery
times when you&#39;re training or racing. Pair it with the with
the HRM-Run&trade; monitor and get feedback on your
running form by measuring cadence, vertical oscillation and
ground contact time. Instantly see your text and call
notifications, too, with the Smart Notifications feature, and
share your stats and location with friends and family in real
time using the Forerunner&reg; 920XT GPS &#43; HRM
Run&trade;&#39;s Connected feature. Your VIP savings apply!
Monitor prices are too low for additional discounts to be
combined. " />

Explanation: When searching the EMS description, their site did not pop up on the
SERP, as you can see most of the results below.

As for RRS, when I search their description, I was let to this page:

I think that the reason nothing for RRS showed up on the SERP is because their
description is too long. I also believe that the reason EMS didnt show up on the first
page is because of the exact opposite reason. There wasnt much to the description. If
anything, the meta tag is nearly identical to the title tag.
Recommendation for improvements: I recommend that EMS adds a bit more to the
description. Not nearly as much as RRS, however, they should add in one of the

features. For example, the TOMTOM GPS watch has QuickGPSFix technology or
Bluetooth Smart technology. A meta tag is for a description, not just limited to the
title. The meta tag is the most important for SEO so it is necessary that EMS can fix
this.
c. IMG names and ALT text

<a href="/" title="Eastern Mountain Sports" class="logo"><img

src="http://ems.imageg.net/images/gLogo.gif" width="634" height="57" id="brand"
alt="Eastern Mountain Sports" /></a>

<img border="0" name="cms_image405406884"

src="http://ems.imageg.net/cms_widgets/24/04/2404510_assets/_Sitewide_wk40_stacked_R
EV.png" height="62" width="884" align="Default" valign="Default"
usemap="#global_OCT30_2014" /><map name="global_OCT30_2014"><area shape="rect"
coords="812,0,872,40" title="Get Details" href="/category/index.jsp?
categoryId=3813687&amp;ab=cms:global:banner:main:110514:sw_getdetails#15off"/><area
shape="rect" coords="475,0,527,40" title="Shop Men's" href="/family/index.jsp?
categoryId=23133286&amp;ab=cms:global:banner:main:110514:sw_mens"/><area
shape="rect" coords="525,0,585,40" title="Shop Women's" href="/family/index.jsp?
categoryId=23133296&amp;ab=cms:global:banner:main:110514:sw_womens"/><area
shape="rect" coords="588,0,653,40" title="Shop Footwear" href="/family/index.jsp?
categoryId=24004556&amp;ab=cms:global:banner:main:110514:sw_footwear"/><area
shape="rect" coords="650,0,720,40" title="Shop Camping" href="/family/index.jsp?
categoryId=24088286&amp;ab=cms:global:banner:main:110514:sw_camp"/></map></div>
<!-- END CMS SLOT -->

<img id="mainProductImage"
src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS1-16834087venh.jpg"
alt="TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink - Eastern Mountain Sports" />

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS19806068t100.jpg" alt="TIMEX Expedition Rugged Core Analog Watch, Full Size"
/></a>

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS19771098t100.jpg" alt="SUUNTO X-Lander Altimeter, Black" /></a>

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS116834087_pattern_t25x25.gif" alt="Dark Pink" /></a></li>
<img
src="http://ems.imageg.net/images/shipping_info/prdDomesticShipButton.png"
alt="Domestic Ship Only"/>

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS118988193t100.jpg" alt="ARC&#39;TERYX Men&#39;s Beta AR Jacket - Eastern

Mountain Sports" border="0" /></a>
<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/images/prdViewGray.gif" alt="View
Product" /></a>

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS114978755t100.jpg" alt="EMS Men&#39;s Hyland Fleece Gloves - Eastern Mountain

Sports" border="0" /></a>

<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pEMS117995029t100.jpg" alt="EMS Nordic Hat - Eastern Mountain Sports" border="0"

/></a>
<img src="http://ems.imageg.net/images/prdViewGray.gif" alt="View
Product" /></a>
Explanation: For this section, I chose to keep analyzing the page that I was on
previously for the TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink. Words I would find in the
image file names and alt text were the titles of those products. I believe that this is
very good because if for any reason the image wont load on the page, the alt text will
be there to at least provide a description of what the image was supposed to be. By
optimizing these image filenames and alt text, Google Image Search is more able to

read the images/understand what they are. I didnt notice any file names being too
long so that is very good for EMS because Google is more likely to read it versus a
long image file name that could potentially be considered as spam, according to
Google Best Practices.
Recommentation for improvements: I noticed that there were a few images from
the EMS page that I was viewing that did not have an image file name show up in the
page source. That being said, EMS should look over their site and make sure that all
images are accounted for. Granite, it is a tedious process, however, the more images
that Google Image Search can understand and pick up, the more EMS.com will
appear, thus, bringing in traffic.
V. Architecture (As, Au, Am)
a. Speed (As)
EMS.com Score: 4.567s
RoadRunnerSports.com Score: 5.402s
Explanation: Below, you will see a pie chart summary that explains which file
types take the longest to load on both sites, thus, slowing down the load time of
the page.
EMS.com (TOMTOM Runner GPS Watch, Pink)

RRS.com (Garmin Forerunner 920XT GPS + HRM Run)

For both sites, it looks as if the file type (or mime type) that takes the longest to
load is an image. The main images that take the longest to load are the biggest
ones in size, which would be the product images of the individual watch on both
sites. The next file type that slows down the sites are js files. Files following those
two are ranked pretty low in requests and bytes compared to them.
Recommendation for improvements: In order to make the load time for
EMS.com faster, I would suggest making the image file smaller. That could be
something that EMS does not feel comfortable doing because it wouldnt make
for a good UX, however, they could enable a zoom-in feature so that visitors
may look at the image and certain parts of it a lot closer. Also, EMS doesnt have
that feature right now so its making for a better UX by enabling it and there is the
added bonus of having the site load faster, thus, keeping the visitor on for a longer
amount of time.
b. URLs (Au)
EMS.com Score: 2
RoadRunnerSports.com Score: 8

Explanation: I ranked EMS much lower because theyre pages dont give any
indication of where you are at. This is an indicator as to why the site doesnt show
up on the first numerous pages of SERPs. For example, Google cannot guide me
to EMS Watches & Bands page with their URL for that (along with other
pages) in a jumble. It is not readable neither to a human nor computer. The
following is the URL for EMS Watches & Bands page:
http://www.ems.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=11373492. RRS is quite the
opposite. They leave what would be called a breadcrumb trail, according to
Searchengineland.com. In other words, according to Search Engine Land, their
URLs for pages allow visitors to recognize where they are and give them more
ways to navigate to a site directly from a search result. For example, I went to
RoadRunnerSports.com and clicked on Gear followed by GPS Watches. It
then brought me to the product results page for GPS Watches. That product results
page is as follows: http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/gear/gpswatches/.
If I were to step away from my computer for a few minutes and then come back
with this page opened up onto my computer, I would not only see where I left off,
but also how I got there.
Recommendation for improvements: The main problem, as I touched on above,
is that search engines cannot detect EMS product pages. This is why they are not
one of the top 10, 20, or even 30 organic results on SERPs. In order to fix this
problem, I suggest that they create a breadcrumb URL for their pages not just for
visitors to refer to, but search engines as well. This could bump them up on
SERPs quite a bit by creating this type of navigation.
c. Mobile (Am)
EMS.com Score: 4
RoadRunnerSports.com Score: 4

Explanation: I ranked both sites fairly low because neither one is responsibe nor
mobile compatible. However, they did get a few points because their content was
readible. Because neither are responsibe or mobile compatible, Google determines
that those pages wont be included in their mobile index, accourding to Googles
SEO Starter Guide. Having a mobile site that is compatibile and responsive is
necessary in the digital world that we live in now. It is just as important for
EMS.com to step it up on their mobile site as it is for their desktop site. Most
people browse on their mobile devices and/or tablets now so EMS should have
this be one of their priorities for improving their site.
Recommendation for improvements: Going off of that, what EMS needs to do
is make their site mobile compatible and responsive. According to Googles SEO
Starter Guide, EMS has two options. They can redirect mobile users to the correct
version and to switch content based on the User-agent. By redirecting the mobile
user or crawler, Google will recognize the relationship between mobile and
desktop and then show the standard version for desktop and mobile searches. By
switching content based on User-agent, desktop and mobile users will have the
same URL, however, the desktop users will be taken to the desktop version and
the mobile users will be taken to the mobile version.
VI. Links (Ln, Lq)
a. Link Number (Ln)
EMS.com No. of Referring Domains:
RoadRunnerSports.com No. of Referring Domains:
b. Link Quality (Lq)
EMS.com No. of Referring Domains:
RoadRunnerSports.com No. of Referring Domains: