Monday 22 February 2016

Budweiser vs Alexander Keith’s: Which beer can Canadians find easiest in their Internet fridge?

Introduction

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because it determines how easy it is for users and search engines to find and navigate through your website. The easier it is, the more likely people will find it.  In Canada, 2 of the top beers are Budweiser and Alexander Keith’s, Keith’s being from Nova Scotia and Budweiser being an American company who moved into Canada under the name Budweiser Canada.  Alexander Keith’s is a relatively quiet beer when it comes to marketing and brand exposure yet it is very popular in Canada; while Budweiser is all over the place especially when it comes to hockey.  Which page makes the most of their name? Lets’ find out:

Screen Captures of both home pages:

Budweiser Home Page

Alexander Keith's Home Page

SEO Considerations

Budweiser

Alexander Keith’s

 

URL:

Keywords used on each site:
Goal, For you, Enjoy Responsibly, Canada
Our brews, Brewery, Ipa, Hop ale
Frequency of Keywords:
Goal(4), For you(3), Enjoy Responsibly(1), Canada(3)
Our Brews(2), Brewery(3), Ipa(2), Hop Ale(2)
Locations of keywords:
Top of the page, middle inside photos(links to more information)
Top of the page, middle of the page as links for more information
Keywords in URL:

None
None
<title>

Budweiser Canada
Alexander Keith’s
<meta name="description" content=“”/>
N/A

“Welcome beer enthusiasts. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about Alexander Keith’s Fine Beers, the Brewing Process or even the great man himself”
<meta name="keywords" content=""/>
N/A
N/A
Site upload speed:



Quality of written content:
8/10
6/10
Quality of Visual Content:
10/10
8/10
Alt Text used:

Twitter, Facebook
Facebook
Captions used:

N/A
N/A
Quality of Layout:

9/10
9/10

Call-to-action:

“Bar Finder: This Bar’s for you”
“This gear’s for you”
“Find an Alexander Keith’s”
Anchor Text:

“New Privacy Policy”, “Third Party Advertising”, Terms & Conditions”
N/A
Mobile Friendly:

Yes
Yes
Content is “shareable”:

No
No
Links to Social Media:

Facebook, Twitter
Facebook
SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table:


http://budweiser.ca/goallab/en/innovation/canadas-goal-light/

is ranked 1st in Canada

http://keiths.ca/


is ranked 28th in Canada

 Summary:

Both Webpages need to be updated.  Neither allow you to share any of their content and both pages do not have keywords on their source page.  Only commonly used words on the pages themselves help them show up in search engines.  Alexander Keith’s only has a link to their Facebook page, which is probably why they don’t have many Twitter followers.  Budweiser does not have any Alt Text and Alexander Keith’s has no Anchor text. Both pages are poorly set up and could benefit from actually updating the source codes. Also Alexander Keith’s ranking in the SEO from their commonly used words is ranked 28th in Canada, which is not good.

Conclusion:

Both companies are well known and loved in Canada.  Alexander Keith’s doesn’t promote much as they let their taste decide who their fans are.  Budweiser uses hockey as its main marketing campaign.  With the goal light and air hockey table gear.  It really likes to stress that it’s the beer for you and your friends.  Overall the winner of the SEO search analysis is Budweiser Canada…The king of beers!

APA Citations:

Sunday 21 February 2016

Coors Light VS Guinness: Two Great Beers With Terrible SEO

Coors Light VS Guinness: Two Great Beers With Terrible SEO

Introduction

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because in order for Google and other search engines to be able to find your site, and rank highest when people are searching for things online, you need to have keywords that will flag Google’s attention and direct them toward your site. In the Beer industry, Coors and Guinness rarely use keyword sentences throughout their sites like Cold Certified and Beer Made of More. In the quest of the Cold refreshing beer, both www.coorslight.ca and www.guinness.com were searched. The objective is to determine which of the two sites when compared has a stronger SEO.

Screen Captures of both home pages:

Coors Light Homepage


Guinness Homepage

Coors Light Upload Speed


Guinness Upload Speed




SEO Considerations

Coors Light

Guinness

 

URL:

http://www.coorslight.ca/en/home

Keywords used on each site:
Beer, Coors Light, Coors, Light Beer.

Mystery Mansion does not appear in the “keywords” but does appear 6 times throughout the site.
Nothing comes up under “Keywords” but the word beer is in strong text. The word Guinness when searched on its own appears 103 times. Words such as “ale”, “black”, “dark”, “stout”,

and things that would make good key words appear infrequently in the text sections, but not as keywords or given any special associate.
Frequency of Keywords:
Beer: 5, Coors Light: 25, Coors: 454, Light beer: 1
Guinness: 103, Ale: 3, Black beer: 3, Creamy: 1, Stout:6
Locations of keywords:
In small phrases
In paragraphs
Keywords in URL:

Coors light
Guinness
<title>

Coors Light - Born in the Rockies
Guinness&reg; – Beer Made of More&trade; | Guinness&reg
<meta name="description" content=“”/>
Coors Light is an easy drinking lager brewed in Golden, Colorado, from refreshing Rocky Mountain water – making it the only beer in the world that's Cold Certified
It takes bold brewers to brew bold beers. Brewers prepared to go to lengths that others wouldn’t to perfect their craft. Discover Guinness
<meta name="keywords" content=""/>
Beer, Coors Light, Coors, Light Beer
Guinness


Quality of written content:
Minimal written content on the actual webpage. Mostly links to social media. Many short posts. Twitter is constantly updated.
Excellent written content. Lots of information about the beer, it history, and even recipes.
Quality of Visual Content:
Excellent. A very visually based site. Many photos and links to social media sites such as twitter and YouTube.
Excellent visuals. Old pictures of founders etc. Many in site videos. Many links to YouTube.
Alt Text used:

355mL Can, Mountain Wisdom, 350mL Can, 341mL Bottle, 355mL Bottle, 473mL King Can, NO KEY, NO SEE, Sneak Peek?, Coors Light Logo,
Search, Guinness logo
Captions used:


Made Of More
Quality of Layout:

Great
Great

Call-to-action:

Enter age to grant page access.
Social media links to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
“Find your way in” to the Mystery Mansion.
“Get your gear on” shop now.
View details.
Enter age to grant page access.
Link to Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland, where you can find social media links.(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
 Buy tickets for tours ex. Gravity bar.
Event planning etc.
Anchor Text:

NA
“Guinness and Draught” takes you to https://www.guinness.com/en-ca/our-beers/guinness-draught/

Mobile Friendly:

Yes. About as good as the desktop site.
Yes. It is huge site on either platform. But it is well done for a mobile site. Not as confusing as I had imagined.
Content is “shareable”:

Yes.
Yes but first you have to go to the link for Storehouse, which actually directs you to a separate page. Then you will find links to share on social media.
Links to Social Media:

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table:
When searching “beer”, Coors light did not show up within the first 20 pages. Light beer appears on the 6th page.
When searching “beer”, Guinness did not show up within the first 20 pages.
Dark beer does not show up within the first 10 pages. Stout appears on the 4th page.

 

Summary:

Coors Light’s strengths are its use of social media and visuals. Guinness’s strengths are its use of well written content, and that it has a huge site that gives a lot of historical information about the brand. The keyword sentences for beer are terrible. For example, when I typed the tagline “cold certified” into google, Coors Light related pages came up but the actual website didn’t appear until the second page.  Other observations are that Coors light is not overly concerned with SEO.
When searching for content using the keywords:  Dark beer, Guinness did not appear within the first 10 pages. I’m not sure when or if it would have. It did not appear in the first 20 pages when searching “beer”. When searching the word “stout”, Guinness appeared on the 4th page.,   The two sites have this in common, the both have terrible SEO but they are different in that Coors light site is very short, to the point, social media based and has a younger target market. Guinness is targeted to an older demographic and has a much larger, more in-depth site focusing on culture and heritage. They also use social media but their site is much more content based.

Conclusion:

In the beer industry, Coors Light and Guinness do not rely on using keyword sentences throughout their sites like Cold Certified or Dark Beer. They rely more on their consumers searching specifically for their brand name when they want to find their websites. In my opinion the overall winner of this SEO Search analysis is Coors Light, by a hair.

APA Citations:

See what’s beyond the peak. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2016, from http://www.coorslight.ca/en/home


Site navigation. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2016, from https://www.guinness.com/en-ca/ 

Sleeman vs Stella Artois: In-depth analysis between two historic brands: Which brand takes the SEO title?

Introduction
SEO is an important consideration for marketers because it helps brands to promote their site and with the usage of search engines optimizing their websites, it provides brands with the ability to place their brand site in the high rankings of the search engine website for consumers to visit as soon as their on the search engine page. In the beer brewing industry, Sleeman and Stella Artois are those types of brands who are not as effective in incorporating effective keywords into their website. In the quest of the Beer Brewing Industry, both Sleeman and Stella Artois breweries were searched. The objective is to determine which of the two sites when compared has a stronger SEO.
Screen Captures of both home pages:
SEO Considerations



URL:

Keywords used on each site:
Notoriously Good, Best Tasting, Refreshing Taste, High Quality, flavourful.
Best Tasting, Refreshing Taste, High Quality.
Frequency of Keywords:
Refreshing, High quality, good taste, flavorful.
Best Tasting & High Quality
Locations of keywords:
Home page
Home Page
Keywords in URL:

<title>

Sleeman Canada | Notoriously Good
N/A
<meta name="description" content=“”/>
"From notorious beginnings to a legendary resurrection, the Sleeman family upholds five generations of brewing heritage."

N/A
<meta name="keywords" content=""/>
Notoriously Good, Best Tasting, Refreshing Taste, Premium Quality, flavourful.

N/A
Site upload speed:




Quality of written content:
Quality is Very Good. Well organized that lays out sections of information on every product line and history of their brand. Includes links to social media pages.
Quality is Good. Most of the page includes consumer posts/company posts on social media as well as links to their social media pages. Website also includes banner ads at the top of different Stella Artois campaign ads.
Quality of Visual Content:
Quality is Very Good. Dark background makes the images more visually appealing to eye and keeps me engaged with the product ideas they’ve created. Visual content is traditional with the black and white text. Images are large to make it more appealing to the eye.
Quality is good. The white and gold colours keep the brand and webpage very elegant and prestigious. Images look and feel real, similar to how ‘The Keg’ lays out their images on their webpage with out of focused background but solely focused on the core product itself.
Alt Text used:

341mL bottle, 355mL bottle, 355mL can, 473mL tall can, Sleeman logo, “Notoriously Good”.
Give Beautifully, The Ritual, The Heritage, and Stella Artois logo.
Captions used:

Notoriously Good
Give Beautifully
Quality of Layout:

Excellent
Good

Call-to-action:

Social Media posts on webpage
Product Info.
Sleeman apparel and accessories shop.
Event planning and ticket post information.

Product information.
Stella Artois accessories and apparel store.
Event planning and posts for ticket info and event info.
Charity Storeà allows consumers to purchase Stella Artois goods and money goes straight into one of their charities which is helping people get access to clean water.

Anchor Text:

“Learn More” and “Watch Video Now”
Social Media Icons.
Icons to comment and share tweets and Facebook posts.
Social Media Icons.

Mobile Friendly:

Yes, works just as well as the desktop site.
Yes, works just as well as the desktop site.
Content is “shareable”:

Yes but very minimal content.
Yes, mostly just social media content posted on their webpage.
Links to Social Media:

Yes. Includes Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yes. Includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table:
When searching for “high quality beer” Sleeman’s home page comes up midway on the second page.
When searching for “high quality beer” Stella Artois’ home page didn’t come up even after going through the first 25 pages.

Summary:
Sleeman strengths are its use of visual content on their webpage and their ability to provide their audience with the right information on every product they have invented. Their able to explain to them the physical characteristics of the beer as well as explanations to taste and comparing taste of other lagers that they possess. Sleeman also does a good job of organizing there information by having alt text tabs so consumers can take a look and solely be focused on what they’re looking for. (Sleeman Canada, 2016)
Stella Artois strengths are its use of social media. Stella does a great job of having social media posts laid out into their home page so people can see the artwork that users use when making a product look great on their social media posts which causes the audience to be engaged to the product more frequently. Stella Artois also does a good job of making people feel prestigious and elegant when purchasing this product because of the colour layout of their website and product image itself, as well as the content they provide of their history and heritage of their brand and product. (Stella Artois, 2016)
When searching for content using the keyword:  “High Quality Beer, Premium Quality Beer and Best Breweries Sleeman ranked on the second page of Google. When searching for content using the keywords: “High Quality, Premium Quality and Historic Beer”, Stella Artois didn’t possess a rank. The two sites have this in common which is that there both high quality beer brands that are heavy users of social media and have very well organized webpages that successfully target there intended audience. What they also have in common is their lack of incorporating tags into their website, but they are different in that Sleeman provides a lot more information about the beer products, well Stella Artois focuses more on a higher class audience with the elegant social media posts and information on their history and how they position themselves as a traditional beer company. In conclusion, Sleeman looks to be more effective in most areas, well Stella Artois needs to provide more information on their products and improve on their SEO strategies to educate their audience with the right information about their product and help consumer find their brand website more efficiently.

Conclusion:
In the beer industry, Sleeman and Stella Artois are both good beer brands that have many areas of improvement including their SEO keywords that can help their target audience reach their brand a lot easier and quicker. Using keyword sentences throughout their sites like “High Quality Beer” will ultimately help the consumer search for those brands in the right keyword category. Both these brands are considered to have high quality products but if consumers aren’t aware of that then having these keywords will be able to have effective use in solving those problems. In my opinion the overall winner of this SEO Search analysis is Sleeman Brewery. I believe that overall they have a well-structured webpage that provides effective information of beer products that really help the purchasing decision of the consumer. Although they do lack a little on previewing social media posts, their still able to have enough information on their page for consumers to look at as well as directed social media links for consumers to view any reviews or campaign ads that they introduce.
APA Citations:

References

Sleeman Canada. (2016). Sleeman Canada | Home Page. Retrieved from Sleeman Canada: http://sleeman.ca/en

Stella Artois. (2016). Stella Artois | Home Page. Retrieved from Stella Artois: http://www.stellaartois.com/en_ca/home.html