Clarks and Converse

Introduction

By: Karl Janiec

SEO is important for marketers, as it helps create brand awareness, and will effectively allow a brand to reach the top of a search on search engines, or relatively high when a desired phrase or keyword is looked up.

This is vital for companies who want to raise social media engagement, and lead consumers to their website to view company information and products (Which company doesn’t want this?).

This audit will examine the SEO activities of shoe companies Converse, and Clarks. 

1.     URL:	http://www.clarkscanada.com/ /	http://www.converse.com/
2.     Page Title	Clarks Shoes, Boots & More for Men and Women | Clarks CA	Converse - Official UK Store | Converse.com
3.     Meta Description	Discover Clarks Shoes and Boots online. We have many different styles for men, women and kids in a variety of size and width fittings with free delivery.	The Official Converse UK Online Store offers the complete Converse Sneaker and Clothing Collection. Shop All Star, Cons & Jack Purcell now
4.     Meta Keywords :	N/A	new arrivals, men's, women's, electronics
5.     Structural elements:  H1, H2, H3	H1 H2 H3	H1 H2 H3
6.     Bold/Strong tags and 7.     Italic/em tags	WOMES SHOES. GRACE. THE ELEGANCE OF SIMPLICITY	CHUCK TAYLOR: THE BEGINNING
8.     Alt Text	Clarks Store locator discover more trusted shops guarantee	Shop Now Chuck Family Learn More Chuck Family Prime Star Shop Mens Shop Womens Custom_New_Colours
9.     Page Load Time (estimate or use Moz)	50 50	50 75
10.  Call-to-action:	Discover More	Never Miss a beat: Sign up and receive 15% off next purchase
11.  Anchored Text:	NA	NA
12.  Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes	Yes
13.  Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Facebook Twitter Instagram	Twitter Facebook Instagram

Google Trends

It seems that both brands follow similar trends, and actually spike around the same time. This is probably during interest in general shoe trends. It has been quite steady, however in August, converse had a big spike. This is due to a new shoe release announcement.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keyworks

Converse:

 converse high tops

 converse black

 converse sneakers

Clarks:

 men's clarks shoes

 clarks men's sandals sale

 clarks shoes for women sandals

   Conclusion

Converse's strengths are: More awareness, stronger brand name, been around longer

Clark's strengths are : High quality shoe, loyal fanbase, strong brand and subbrands.

Areas that need improvement

Both lack social media interaction, and do not participate as much in the athletic section. Clarks is not involved at all in athletic footwear.

The company which performed better was converse. It reaches out to more followers, contains stronger keywords, more content, and has a better developed webpage. Clark’s lacks meta keywords and even alt text in some cases. It seems to me that Clark’s went for more of a minimalist and simple webpage, but it still lacks some of the SEO that converse has. 

Keyword Research For Under Armour and Timberland

By: Jason Sappal

Under Armour is a clothing company that concentrates its efforts on athletic wear. Timberland manufactures boots that are targeted towards regions that are colder and receive more snow.

Under Armour – https://www.underarmour.com/Canada

Timberland – https://www.timberland.com/homepage.html

  LSI for Under Armour

·       Sensorflex comfort system (timberland sensorflex price, timberland sensorflex

·       Men’s winter boots (timberland mens winter boots, best mens snow boots)

LSI for Timberland

·       Athlete recovery sleepwear (under armour pajamas tom brady, tb12 technology)

·       UA Threadborne (moisture-wicking synthetic fabric, under armour footwear technology)

·       2017 Valentine’s Day Boxerjock (under armour boxer shorts, under armour m series sport brief)

SEO Audit	Brand A: Timberland	Brand B: Under Armour
Screen Captures of both Brand’s home pages:
1.    URL:	https://www.timberland.com/homepage.html	www.underarmour.com/Canada
2.    Page Title	<h1>Your Entire Body Works Hard.	<h2 BEST SELLING GEAR
3.    Meta Description	"Shop Timberland boots, shoes, clothing & accessories at our official US online store today."/>	"Shop Underarmour.com for 2017 winter gear, jackets, &amp; fleece. Under Armour delivers innovative sports apparel, shoes &amp; accessories plus FREE SHIPPING available.">
4.    Meta Keywords	N/A	N/A
5.    Structural elements:  H1, H2, H3	H1	H2
6.    Bold/Strong tags and 7.    Italic/em	6. outdated 7. None	6. Please enter a valid Email Address. It's official. You're on the team. Thanks for becoming a UA insider. 7. None
8.    Alt Text	"hero header" "Bootopia. Where Boots Reign Supreme. Shop Men. Shop Women." "Extra 30 percent off Men's Sale Styles" "Our Top Picks" "Men's Footwear" "Women's Footwear" "Ruby Red" "Extra 30% Off Men's Workwear. Men's Workwear." "Celebrity Style: Timberland In the Field" "Hundreds of Minds are Better than One: Limited Release FlyRoam Collection" "Secrets of an Icon: Our Original Yellow Boot" "Love Your Boots? 4 Tips for Taking Care of Them"	"Under Armour Seasonal Sale" "2017 Valentine's Day Boxerjock"
9.    Page Load Time	Desktop: 64/100 Mobile: 52/100	Desktop: 50/100 Mobile 50/100
10. Call-to-action:	Last Day – Extra 30% Off Men’s Sale Styles Last Day – Extra 30% Off Women’s Sale Styles Free 3 Day Shipping – Free Returns – Order Now	Free Shipping on Orders $75+ CDN
11. Anchored Text href:	"/etc/designs/vfcorp/timberland/clientlibs/global/images/favicon.ico"/> ="/etc/designs/vfcorp/timberland/clientlibs/global/images/apple-touch-icon.png"/> ="/etc/designs/vfcorp/timberland/clientlibs/global/css/global-cms.css?4-1-13914-2ac74c0c30d4" ="/utility/store-locator.html"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/limited-releases"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/mens-new-arrivals"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/field-boots"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/mens-winter-boots"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/mens-sandals"> ="https://www.timberland.com/shop/mens-sale-footwear">	="https://www.underarmour.com/en-ca/"> ="/en-ca/change-region" ="/en-ca/new-arrivals/mens/g/39272" ="/en-ca/new-arrivals/womens/g/3c272" ="/en-ca/womens/reactor/g/3c2z2" ="/en-ca/new-arrivals/boys/g/3f272" ="/en-ca/boys/fleece-collection/g/3f1ze" ="/en-ca/new-arrivals/boys/g/3f272" ="/en-ca/kids-long-sleeves" ="/en-ca/new-arrivals/g/3272"
12. Moz Established Links:  # to Root Domain	N/A	N/A
13. Moz Established Links:  # Total Links	N/A	N/A
14. Top 3 inbound links.	www.footlocker.ca/ www.thebay.com/Timberland/Shoes‎ https://www.timberland.com/	www.underarmour.com/Canada‎ https://www.underarmour.com/en-ca/ https://twitter.com/search/under+armour
15. Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes	Yes
16. Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest	MyFitness Pal

Under Armour displays an increasingly more popular trend line, which see peaks around late November, every year.  I believe this is due to the reason Stephen Curry, their leading sponsored athlete, has acquired the NBA’s MVP reward for the previous two NBA seasons, along with one NBA Championship. Further evidence to back this claim include the number 1 most searched related topic, ‘Stephen Curry – Basketball player’, and the number 1 most searched related queries including terms like ‘curry 2’, and ‘curry under armour’. Most searches are largely made in Hong Kong, followed by the USA.

Timberland has a very up and down trend line. Beginning early fall, the company begins receiving a dramatically increasing amount of searches, reaching peaks during late November (highest reaching 75, in 2015). I believe this is due to the fact the company manufactures sturdy boots, which are not only great for the winter, but also stylish in appearance. The countries that appear to have the highest search factors come from the UK, and Portugal.

Search interests for the topic over the past 12 months are shown to be very stagnant, drifting in between the mid 80’s up to 90.

I believe Under Armour was the superior brand in contrast, due to their use of popular culture figures to successful bring awareness to their brand. Designing an exclusive shoe line for their most popular athlete, Stephen Curry, has allowed the brand to compete with industry leading companies such as Nike and Adidas, who have successfully used this business model, of attracting the fans of these athletes in order to increase sales, for decades now.