SEO AUDIT: Lindt vs. The Hershey Company

SEO AUDIT

Written by: Amanda Quach

"Lindt vs. The Hershey Company. Which Brand Optimizes Better?"

Introduction

Search Engine Optimizations are important to marketers because it helps drive more traffic to their websites and social media networks. By driving more traffic to their company websites and other media platforms, consumers can find more information about Marketers’ brands. When SEO is effectively implemented into their websites, markets can see what attracted consumers and can also measure what consumers are more interested in (page clicks, key word searches, etc.).

SEO Audit	Brand A	Brand B
Screen Captures of both Brand’s home pages:
1.     URL:	http://www.lindt.ca/en/	https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/home.html
2.     Page Title	Lindt Canada	The Hershey Company | HOME
3.     Meta Description	“Discover the world of chocolates with Lindt & Sprungli; find our entire range of chocolate, recipes, news and more at the world of Lindt Canada.”	“Based in Hershey, PA, The Hershey Company produces chocolates and other snacks. Get product, CSR and financial information. Learn about jobs and read news and blog."
4.     Meta Keywords :	Not Applicable, No Keywords in Source	Not Applicable, No Keywords in Source.
5.     Quality of written content	The written content is very limited as they convey their message with images and hyperlinks.	The written content is very limited as they convey their message with images and hyperlinks.
6.     Content shareable	All pages are shareable through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest	Some of their content is shareable through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
7.     Quality of visual content	High quality images used on pages.	High quality images used on home pages. Some are also animated.
8.     site upload speed	Site has a quick and responsive upload speed.	Site uploaded quickly but a few images crashed when loading the home page. Needed refreshing. Java errors occurred while refreshing the page.
9.     Call-to-action:	“Discover it” “Discover More” “Sign up for our newsletter” “Visit our Lindt Chocolate Shops” “Discover ___ Products” “See their masterpieces” “View more products” “Find a store” “Buy Lindt Chocolate”	“Get the recipe” “Celebrate with Hershey’s” “Learn about our commitment to simple ingredients” “See opportunities” “Learn More”
10.  Anchored Text (hyperlinks):	A lot of call to action links. (Discover…). Many image links. Links to sub-pages such (Products).	Many links are image links. Scroll up links. Links to sub-pages (Products). Call to action links (Learn More).
11.  Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes.	Yes.
12.  Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Facebook, Pinterest and also a “Tweet It” button for Twitter.	Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram.

 

Google Trends:

My topic is chocolate; the two brands that I am researching is Lindt and The Hershey Company.

Google Trends Insights:

The topic that I am researching is Chocolate, and by narrowing the search down to two companies: Lindt and The Hershey Company, I have discovered that the two companies do not show a lot of relevance in comparison to the topic. If you look at the interest over the past 12 months, there is a very big gap compared to the main topic (chocolate) and the two companies. Lindt & Sprungli has a little bit more of a popularity compared to The Hershey Company. During the later months in the year, there is a big temporary spike in the trend for chocolate. This is probably due to Halloween and Christmas.

When looking into the spike, it is at its very peak by Dec 24, then it quickly declines back to the constant stagnant pattern that it usually follows. When looking into the trend, you can see and compare that Lindt has a higher advantage than Hershey.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

Generate a list of LSI keywords from the LSIGraph Keyword Generator.  Search your sites and identify any LSI Keywords that you can find on either of your brands’ sites.  Target at least 3 per brand.

Lindt: Types of Chocolate, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate

The Hershey Company: Chocolate Brands, Chocolate Candy, Chocolate, Types of Chocolate, Dark Chocolate

Summary:

Lindt’s strengths are that altogether, they are a more reputable brand. Their site is more powerful compared to The Hershey Company in terms of load time, call to actions, and a lot of hyperlinks. Lindt only has about 3 relatable keywords that I could find.

The Hershey Company’s strengths are that they have a few more relatable keywords in the site. Heryshey has about 5 keywords. It also has more social media networks than Lindt does. The company website is very attractive because there are a lot of cute and attractive images, some are even animated. But that also affects the load time and can cause some glitches in the site. The site is a little more interactive because the home page has a lot of blog posts.

Conclusion:

The Hershey Company has stronger SEO because it has more relatable keywords when the word “Chocolate” is searched. It also excels in networking as it has several social media sites, so that also improves the SEO of the company. The company needs to work on some glitches on their website as it looks unprofessional.

Initially I would have thought that Lindt would have better SEO because when looking at Google Trends, Lindt had more searches. When looking at the website I thought that Lindt was superior to The Hershey Company because of the amount of call to action links and the faster loading time, but the website itself is not very interactive with visitors.

APA Citations

Lindt, 2016. Lindt Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.lindt.ca/en/

The Hersey Company, 2016. The Hershey Company | HOME. Retrieved from: https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/home.html