Caffeinated SEO

The Extremely Competitive Nature of “Coffee”
Tony Truong

 

Introduction

In the SEO world of coffee, there are numerous brands out there that will have tried to or already have optimized for the word coffee. Unless the company has an incredibly large budget, smaller or startup coffee companies will not have a spot. So what to do you when you want to grow as a coffee company but can’t afford to be remain competitive, SEO-wise? You have to expand your keyword search beyond coffee. As we take a look at Starbucks and Folgers, we see two different coffee companies take different approaches to optimize around the word coffee. Starbucks focuses on their own famous brand while Folgers focuses on home made brews.

Screen Captures of both home pages:

SEO Considerations	Starbucks	Folgers
1.    URL:	www.starbucks.ca	http://www.folgerscoffee.com/
2.    Page Title	Starbucks Canada | Coffee and Tea	Folgers Coffee - The Best Part of Wakin’ Up
3.    Meta Description	Since 1971, Starbucks Coffee Company has been committed to serving the best. Starbucks Canada follows the same tradition with its coffee and tea drinks.	Folgers Coffee brings your mornings to life.
4.    Meta Keywords and Monthly search volume:	Starbucks, Starbucks Coffee Company, Starbucks.com, Starbucks Corporation, Starbuck, SBUX, Seattle, Seattle’s Best, Seattle’s Best Coffee, SBC, Pike Place, Coffee, Coffee Beans, Whole Bean, Instant Coffee, Via, Coffee Drinks, Caffe, Caffe Latte, Latte, Mocha, Macchiato, Espresso, Expresso, Espreso, Iced Coffee, Drip Coffee, Brewed Coffee, Coffee at home, Home page, Home, Coffee, Starbucks Canada, Tea	Folgers, Folgers coffee, coffee, folgers coffee
5.    Structural elements:  H1, H2, H3	H1: Mini break, maximum happy • Make every sip more rewarding H2: Pay with your phone. And do so much more.	H1: Spend A Moment • Every Flavor Is A Chance To • EVERY MORNING'S • EVERY DAY HOLDS H2: With Team USA. • Remix Your Coffee. • FILLED WITH PROMISE. • NEW POSSIBILITIES.
6.    Strong tags	Coffee • Menu • Coffeehouse • Responsibility • Card • Shop • Starbucks® Espresso Roast • 1912 PIKE BLOG • Spring for a Starbucks Gift Card • Cool, fresh winter drinkware in clean, new designs.	Folgers Flavors • Folgers® Coffee • Folgers
7.    Alt Text	Starbucks Rewards • en-CA	none
8.    Page Load Time	4.017 seconds	3.6 seconds
9.    Observations Regarding Page layout:	Easy to navigate, large buttons, lots of space for promotional activities, social media tools at bottom	Large buttons, large sliding picture, social media buttons on top
10. Observations Regarding Visual Content:	High quality, lots of different visuals, visuals are digital outlines of their products	High quality, focused on products that supplement coffee, homemade feel
11. Call-to-action:	Starbucks Rewards: Join Now, Sign In	Pick a flavor and remix your favorite Folgers Coffee
12. Anchored Text: (list 3)	Coffee, Menu, Coffeehouse	Coffees, Receipes, Coffee how-to
13. Moz Established Links:  # to Root Domain	855	176
14. Moz Established Links:  # Total Links	n/a	7,628
15. Top 3 inbound links.	www.starbucks.com/site-selector http://www.thestar.com/business/2016/02/16/starbucks-opens-first-express-store-at-union-station.html http://www.starbucks.co.jp/en/	http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/butter-in-coffee-bulletproof_n_5851456.html http://www.sitepronews.com/2016/01/04/how-to-tell-your-story-to-win-customers-hearts/ https://www.pinterest.com/connecticutlife/gardening-and-gardens/
16. Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes	Yes
17. Content is “shareable”  (Like, Tweet, Pin, Blog, etc.)	Yes: Twitter	Yes: Twitter
18. Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Facebook, Instagram, Twitter	Facebook, Twitter, Wakin’ Up Club
19. SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table: (placing or page number)	Starbucks: Page 1 Coffee: Page 1	Folgers: Page 1 Coffee: Page 20+

 

Google Trends:

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

Google Trends Insights:

We can see steady growth in the coffee industry since 2005. Starbucks is doing well with a bit under 50% interest compared to SEO powerhouse: Coffee. Folgers has significantly lower interest but this shows the niche market Folgers has taken.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

There is so much content on the internet about “Coffee” that SEO engines are finding more articles such as “top 10 coffee” and “best coffee in the world” instead of actual brands or shops that sell coffee. This is why it is hard for coffee companies to compete in all fields of the coffee industry. I am positive that Starbucks will appear on a few of these lists of “top 10” while Folgers remains very niche in the coffee world.

Summary:

Starbucks and Folgers both use different strategies that reflect how they take on the coffee industry. With Starbucks being a powerhouse and focusing on many aspects of coffee, the better way to optimize is to focus on their brand rather than the multiple fields of coffee. By focusing on their brand, certain items such as premium coffee will become intertwined with their brand. Folgers tackles the niche market of home brews and will focus more on content such as recipes using their product.

Conclusion:

In the coffee industry, Starbucks and Folgers take on different areas but overall, using coffee SEO, Starbucks is the clear winner with large amounts of internet presence and interest.

APA Citations:

Google Trends - Web Search Interest - Worldwide, 2004 - present. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2016, from https://www.google.ca/trends/explore#q=coffee, /m/018c_r, /m/03wr1g

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

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

Spend A Moment. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://www.folgerscoffee.com/

Starbucks Canada | Coffee and Tea. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2016, from http://www.starbucks.ca/