Website Review: The Best Adirondack Chair Online Store
Recently my services were contracted out — so I got the opportunity to do something I actually really like doing. That is, to pore over a company’s website in order to analyze what is working and what isn’t — all from the perspective of an online shopper, more or less. Of course, I’ve had a few years now of online marketing and SEO experience, and though this isn’t exactly rocket science, the basics are lost on most people — business owners and web users alike.
The company in question appears to be a fine business operating online, called simply, “The Best Adirondack Chair.” Of course, my opinion is that whenever you can isolate your targeted keyword phrase in both your company name as well as your website URL, then you’re off to a great start (www.bestadirondackchair.com). Kudos for that. The remaining elements in this review will focus on everything from basic SEO, user-friendliness, graphics, overall look and feel, quality of written material and layout, among other things.
Best Adirondack and Muskoka Chair Google Search Results
I’m going to start with Google rankings for what appear to be the targeted keyword phrases for this business, and therefore for the site itself. It appears that the company’s LLC does business out of Delaware, although they manufacture and ship the chairs out of Ontario, Canada. Therefore, it seems necessary for the company to attempt to rank for both the American name for the chair: “Adirondack chair,” as well as the Canadian name: “Muskoka chair.” Textually, which represents your basic search query for each of these keyword phrases, the company ranks on the second page of results for the Canadian version, at overall ranking number 13– this is out of a total of 10,100,000. Not bad — but as always, the real profits for a business come from page one ranking. On the American side, the company ranks at number 5 on page one of the Google search engine results, a lot better — though the total search results are significantly lower (467,000).
Taking a peek behind the scenes at the meta data, it seems that the company is attempting to target a whole load of keyword phrases, as evidenced in their meta keywords info: “adirondack chairs folding adirondak wood outdoor chair folding adirondak chair garden furniture sales adirondack chairs folding adirondak wood outdoor chair adirondack chairs folding adirondak wood outdoor chair garden furniture sales folding adirondak chair cottage furniture outdoor swings adirondak furniture furniture online porch furniture lawn furniture wood patio furniture outdoor patio furniture adirondack furniture.” My approach would be to narrow this down to no more than 6 total phrases, all unique, and to separate these with commas in the meta information section. For example, the phrase “folding wood adirondack chair” takes care of three different permutations of the phrase (folding adirondack chair, adirondack chair, and wood adirondack chair), so eliminate the excess and allow the search engine spiders to target the site for keywords faster and with less information to sort through.
An additional note with the focusing in of keyword phrases — we can look at this Google data in a couple different ways — first, that the search results show that the “muskoka chair” is a more competitive phrase, but second, that this might be a better place to try to pick up some organic traffic. Simply, if more people who want these chairs are searching for them by their Canadian name, then why not try to rank organically for that keyword phrase? I don’t see it anywhere in the meta keywords. My advice would probably be to attempt a simple, set dollar figure on a PPC campaign and try to buy some targeted traffic for the less competitive phrase “adirondack chair,” while ramping up efforts to gain a better placement in the search engine results for “muskoka chair.”
Another curve ball of an idea? Try a misspelling or two of “adirondack” — it’s not the easiest word to spell if you’re not a great speller, so chances are there are users typing it into Google without spelling it correctly. Cash in on some extra traffic that your competition isn’t paying any attention to….
How? Link building efforts using this keyword phrase as the anchor text, maybe some article marketing to both build links and establish the site as an authority in the niche, and maybe some on-site information rich articles on things like, “How to Build Your Own Muskoka Chair,” or “Muskoka Chair Plans,” or “History of the Muskoka Chair.” Any time the search engines can peg your site as an authority in a certain area, you are naturally going to end up with better rankings. Logically, they want to send their users to a site where the person doing the search will get targeted, valuable information that is the “end goal” of their initial search. Through Yahoo’s Site Explorer tool, I find that there are only 382 total inbound links. This should be up in the thousands, if not tens of thousands to show Google that a site is trusted as an authority in a particular space.
More Off-Page Analysis of Best Adirondack Chair Website
Further analysis of search engine results — let’s not overlook Google’s image search. Here’s often an untapped goldmine, and in the case of The Best Adirondack Chair website, again, a rich opportunity to pull in some targeted traffic. I don’t see any results for images based on the “adirondack chair” keyword phrase within the first 4 pages. For “muskoka chair,” things are not much better — not a single image result on pages 1-4. How can this be accomplished? Well, first off, the competition is much less stiff than the basic keyword search. Every picture of every chair on the site needs to have a description that reads with the keyword phrase, and every picture needs to have an alt tag with some version of the keyword phrase. I’d probably go with: “adirondack chair, muskoka chair” or something of this nature. I’d also include a description line like “Adirondack Chair Photogaph” or “Picture of Muskoka Chair.”
Other off-page meta analysis — I don’t care for the particular string of keywords in the home page title tag. I believe in a clean, 3 part structure here. A primary string of keywords, a secondary targeted string, and then the website name, which in this case would reaffirm the keywords. Something that looks like this blog, for example: “Tips to Help You Go Green | Going Green Made Easy | Easy Ways to Go Green” tells the search engine, and more importantly the user, exactly what to expect while visiting this site. Strings of keywords as they exist on the site now just look like spam. Consider unique meta data (title tag, keywords, description) for every single page. Currently, this strategy is not employed.
Domain age, at well over nine years, is a major plus. Consider registering the domain for the next 4 or 5 years, rather than just under 2 years. Believe it or not, your commitment to remaining a brand / niche leader matters to Google. There is authority in longevity.
Lastly, the meta description. As it stands now, we’re looking at a 263 characters-long (including spaces) description that is far more generous than is necessary. Keeping this statement on every page at or under the 155-character limit means that for Google searchers, they will see a succinct, complete site description underneath your result in the SERPs, and be more inclined to click through to your site. Not a revolution in terms of SEO — just being careful with the basics.
On-site and Home Page: Graphics and More on Best Adirondack Chair Site
On the site, I don’t like that the entire company header logo / graphic is an image. Seems a waste of potential SEO bonus points. As an image, it doesn’t appear to be tagged or otherwise identified with keywords. Further, we miss the opportunity to have the main keyword phrase set as an H1 tagged main page title — getting plenty of looks from the search engines. Again, a HUGE waste of an opportunity, especially given the fact that you can have it both ways — use the logo at the far left as an image and tag it properly behind the scenes, and make the text/name of the company actual text that is properly tagged to receive the most attention from the search engines. Win-win!
I think that this logo, to break it down further, should be linked back to what is the “home page.” This is ubiquitous enough online where most users know this will be an option, and given the excessively cluttered navigation on the home page and throughout, this would eliminate an unnecessary button/link at left in the navigation column over there.
Customer’s-Eye View of Best Adirondack Chair Site
So can one buy an adirondack chair effortlessly if they want to? Merchants online ALWAYS have to answer this question when designing or re-working an existing site. Though complex product lines don’t always afford the luxury of one-click shopping, there is always the opportunity to go over sales figures, isolate the top-selling product, and create a direct link from the home page to the buying page.
Upon arriving at the site, my eyes truly do NOT know where to land, which I think in this case, is a bad thing. What is most important on the site? Only a few things for visitors looking to buy this product. A nice, large image or two so that there is an immediate, visual reassurance that they have landed in exactly the right spot. A featured testimonial somewhere prominent, and maybe a link close by to take users to more testimonials — and I don’t think it would be a bad idea to address a satisfied customer’s take on shipping. These are large items, so buying online immediately leads one to think about international shipping, assembly questions, item delivery on time for the holidays, etc. Maybe highlighting an impressive statement addressing shipping issues would be a smart play. Moving on. A clear button, graphic or text link for Customer Service inquiries. Keep the “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” logo, make it more prominent or offset, and continue to have it link to a page with more details on your company’s guarantee.
Though I like the links to specific products on the home page (they will benefit from page rank on this page), I think there are too many avenues into similar interior pages. Break down the products by category, subcategory and actual product, and link to the Category level pages from the home page. Once a customer arrives at the exact product page, include the basics here — and make sure there is a button to buy on every page where a transaction might take place. Every image should be tagged appropriately (as mentioned earlier), and main lines should include keywords that are bolded, tagged properly as important headers, etc. Consider taking the Muskoka Chairs Product Catalog page and including those graphics / text links on the home page, perhaps below larger images that take customers DIRECTLY to the top two selling items. Treat the website just like a store — the customer walks in the front door (enters home page of site) and what do they see first? A large sign that clearly indicates a best-selling product, and a prominently displayed rack or featured item kiosk right there inside the front door. How does this translate to a website?
Text, Images and Content: Product Detail Pages on Best Adirondack Chair Site
I love that there is a ton of text-based content on the individual product description pages, and that a customer first sees how to buy the chair before they can read a wealth of content — that makes sense as some customers are there to purchase while others who want to read more will naturally scroll down for more details before they buy. However, I would make sure to address basic SEO details with this content — bold subheadings, H1 – H3 tags on subheads and keyword rich content without getting spammy or going overboard. Again, all images have to be tagged. Perhaps most importantly, let’s take a look at the URL of a product page — for example, the page for the “Royal Folding Adirondack Chair” fall special looks like this: “thebestadirondackchair.com/product_details.asp?id=51″. Obviously, items on the back end are given an ID #, but really — the URL would be maximized with SEO potential if instead it looked something like this:
thebestadirondackchair.com / category name / sub category name / product name
Though I do believe that many of the articles / sections linked to from the left-hand navigation are important, in the current configuration, they are weighted far too heavily. Grouping articles together under a “Company & Product Information” button / graphic / link from the home page alleviates clutter and keeps the user who is there to buy from being distracted. Including a basic intra-site search functionality might be a great idea in order to keep information accessible. If a user wants to learn more about caring for their chair, or who exactly started the company, they can navigate through the single graphic or link on the home page or to find specific information, they can use the search box on the home page to get them right to an important and specific page such as “Caring for Your Adirondack Chair.”
Locating links that are less important like “Become a Distributor” and / or “Commercial Sales” to the footer of the home page, and establishing a website design that places the same footer on every page, allows interested parties to find information they want, while the main purpose of the site — to get interested BUYERS the product they are looking for, is maintained.
Similarly, I would most likely remove the redundant “Shop by Category” dropdown, as well as the “notify a friend” functionality — Making this feature limited to product-specific pages might be a better idea, where a son, for instance, might email a product page link to their father to say — “Would something like this be a good gift for mom’s birthday?” Could go a long way in insuring customer satisfaction, long before the sale is even made.
Wrapping up Analysis of Best Adirondack Chair Website
Overall, the site design isn’t that noteworthy — as discussed earlier, pictures should be more prominent. But why not an updated site-wise design? More streamline, cleaner, more focused pages. Better standout graphics where they make sense — something that sparkles a lot more, like the graphic in the upper right hand corner announcing the “Christmas Special” could really pop without distracting from the rest of the info on the page. And as a final thought — why not target the Easy Ways to Go Green growing population of eco-conscious shoppers, by creating an eco-friendly model, perhaps using reclaimed or sustainably harvested timber? Just a thought!
The previous information represents the finding of this SEO and Web Marketing Professional. Though the review and analysis was paid for, in no way did this influence the findings mentioned above. If you are interested in a complex, thorough analysis of your website, click here for more information.
