“Tim Hortons Vs. Maxwell House”

Coffee Beans

Written by:  Sheldon Samlall

“Tim Hortons Vs. Maxwell House”

 

Introduction

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because it gives them insight regarding organizations and their online presence.  In the Canadian coffee industry, both Tim Hortons and Maxwell House coffee are virtually everywhere.  Using keyword sentences throughout their sites like “Coffee, Espresso & Coffee Roaster” I have found that both sites use similar SEO with regards to their coffee. Because Tim Hortons is an international café and Maxwell House is a product under the craft brand, it will be interesting to determine how these brands rank comparably when considering SEO. The objective is to determine which of the two sites when compared has a stronger SEO.

Screen Captures of both home pages:

SEO Considerations	Tim Hortons	Maxwell
1.     URL:	http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php	http://www.kraftrecipes.com/maxwell-house.aspx
2.     Page Title	Tim Hortons	Maxwell House – Kraft Recipes
3.     Meta Description	Welcome to Tim Hortons. Our Always Fresh Coffee, hot beverages, cold beverages and many quick meal options will hit the spot any time of day	n/a
4.     Meta Keywords and Monthly search volume:	Not found	n/a
5.     Structural elements:  H1, H2, H3	H2: Some of the reasons we're your favourite coffee • What are you in the mood for today? • Have some fun. (We take our coffee seriously so you don’t have to.) • You’re never too far from Tims. Find one now. • Enjoy Tims™ at Home! From single-serve to beans, find it all here. • The convenient and easy way to pay! • Nutrition & Wellness • Find a Tims™ near you • TimCard® • SIGN UP for Our Email Newsletter • Get the only card that earns you free Tims™ products fast • Your Tims Meal has • 0 Items	n/a
6.     Strong tags	Tims™ at Home! • SIGN UP	Meal Type • Holidays • Featured Videos • Collections • Featured Content • Featured Brand Sites • Product By Category • Tools & Info • Cooking Tips • Healthy Living • Your Kids • Holidays • Entertaining • food&family Magazine
7.     Alt Text	close • Our Coffee Story • Our Coffees • Coffee Partnership • RRRoll up the Rim • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Every Cup • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Coffee • Specialty Hot Beverages • Breakfast • Snacks and Baked Goods • Tea • Specialty Cold Beverages • Sandwiches and Hot Bowls • Salads & Wraps • New Tastes • Nutrition & Wellness • Catering • Tims™ at Home • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Tims™ at Home • Shop Online • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Search • Tim Hortons • Tim Hortons • Coffee • Coffee • Menu • Menu • Promos & Fun • Promos & Fun • Find Tims • Find Tims • Shop • Shop • Tim Card • Tim Card • Search • Search • Contact • Tim Hortons • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Search • You are leaving TimHortons.com • You are leaving TimHortons.com • Search • Creamy Maple Chill™ • Creamy Maple Chill™ • New Fresh Salads • New Fresh Salads • New Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap • New Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap • $1 Iced Coffee - Big Daddy • $1 Iced Coffee - Big Daddy • Tims is looking for people who want to make the everyday a little brighter. Apply now. • Tims is looking for people who want to make the everyday a little brighter. Apply now. • Delicious Prepared Daily • Tim Card • meal build close • meal build close • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • Instagram • Instagram • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube	maxwellhouse_hero1 • maxwellhouse_hero2 • maxwellhouse_hero3 • maxwellhouse_hero4
8.     Page Load Time	13 seconds	23 seconds
9.     Observations Regarding Page layout:	Lots of imagery, little text	Plain, not very visually appealing
10.  Observations Regarding Visual Content:	Lots of images, Banner/ slideshow, very visual and eye-catching	Simple, one slideshow/banner, plain white background
11.  Call-to-action:	Learn more about chilled beverages, “try one free” salad, Find a times near you, register, Tim card login, apply for Tim’s credit card, Apply Now employment opportunities	Explore pods, Find ingredients and recipes
12.  Anchored Text: (list 3)	Apply Now, Tim Card, Register	Back to top, Click here for more information on TASSIMO, Recipe Box
13.  Moz Established Links:  # to Root Domain	801 Root Domains	0
14.  Moz Established Links:  # Total Links	81,731 Total Links	0
15.  Top 3 inbound links.	1.Just For Laughs | The Biggest Names in Comedy   www.hahaha.com/ 2. Just For Laughs | The Biggest Names in Comedy   www.hahaha.com/ 3. Just For Laughs | The Biggest Names in Comedy   www.hahaha.com/	n/a
16.  Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	yes	yes
17.  Content is “shareable” (Like, Tweet, Pin, Blog, etc.)	Yes, Tweet & Facebook	Yes, Pin it, Tweet & email
18.  Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube	Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Youtube & Twitter
19.  SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table: (placing or page number)	Espresso, coffee beans, coffee Roaster	Espresso, coffee beans, coffee Roaster

 

Google Trends:

Include your topic, and your two brands.  Include the search terms with your screen capture.

Google Trends Insights:

According to the Google trends graph, it can be said that Tim Hortons clearly trumps Maxwell House with regard to interest over time. With that said, it should also be noted that although Tim Hortons holds more interest over time, it remains a minimal fraction of the interest in coffee as a whole. It seems that over the past 12 months interest in Maxwell House has not significantly changed whereas Tim Hortons seemed to have had an increase in interest nearing the end of 2015.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

Tim Hortons: “order Tim Hortons coffee online”,”tell Tim Hortons”, “Tim Horton K Cups”
Maxwell House: “Maxwell House job opportunities”, “Maxwell House coffee on sale”, “Coupons for Maxwell House”.

Summary:

By utilizing Google AdWords and LSI I found that there are many keywords surrounding both brands. When using coffee related key words such as “ Coffee beans, espresso and coffee roaster”, Tim Hortons would show up on Google at least 3 pages ahead of Maxwell House. Based on the graph produced by Google Trends I was able to determine that the interest over time regarding the two brands differ drastically – Tim Hortons clearly having the edge.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the coffee industry is gargantuan in size. There are literally hundreds of thousands of competitors within this industry and Tim Hortons and Maxwell House both have quite large customer bases. With that said, their online presences and SEO do differ drastically. Tim Horton’s is clearly doing a better job with regards to their SEO as they appear on low to mid Google search pages and cover more keywords.  Maxwell House is considerably limited with regards to SEO and does not appear as frequently on Google Search.

APA Citations:

Google. (February 2016). Google trends. [Mascara, Revlon, Lancome]. Retrieved from https://www.google.ca/ trends/explore#q=mascara%2C%20%2Fm%2F05mxqz%2C%20%2Fm%2F02fz1g&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5

LSIGraph. (February 2016). LSIGraph keyword generator [Long Lash Mascara]. Retrieved from http://lsigraph.com/

MaxwellHouse. (2016). Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.kraftrecipes.com/maxwell-house.aspx

SEOmoz Inc. (February 2016). MozBar. Retrieved from https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar

Tim Hortons. (2016). Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php