SEO Audit Atlanta Motorcycles Repair Lisa Reisman IMD405, Section A Thursday, May 20, 2010
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Site Analysis... 3 Keywords... 5 Competitors... 7 Conclusion... 8
Introduction Atlanta Motorcycles Repair (AMR) is a small motorcycle & scooter repair shop located on Ponce de Leon between Monroe and Ponce Place. They also sell used motorcycles and some new scooters, but this is the secondary aspect of their site. They are only one year old and the site is less than 6 months old. Site Analysis Overall, the site looks good, navigation is clear and well organized. However, the main problem with the site is the coding. The entire site is built in tables, within tables, within tables. Within the <td> tags, there are <h1> tags and proper use of keywords, but they are buried within the tables. Some tables are four or five deep. This creates many problems in both Web Standards and SEO. Web Standards In Web Standards, tables are far below the bar. Using tables forces slower page load times, increase your hosting costs because of larger file sizes, makes any redesigns less efficient and more expensive, lowers search engine results, decreases accessibility to all viewers and user agents and as a result, reduces your competitive edge. Another requirement of Web Standards is to establish the Doctype. This declaration should be the first item on every HTML and XHTML code page. The declaration tells the browser about what version of the markup language the page is written in. Not including this in the web code will create many rendering issues. Web Standard code should validate according to the standards. This is done using online validators put together by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), creators of Web Standards, to ensure that coders & developers could easily comply using these validators to find and correct errors. The AMR home page does not meet these requirements. Recommendation: Have the site re-coded to comply with today s web standards. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) In SEO, a main factor is keywords written into the code for each page to help the search engine find these pages. None of the Atlanta Motorcycle pages have keywords included. Without these keywords, there are no hooks for the engines to grab on to and help to increase page rank.
SEO also needs code pages that tell to the engines what pages are where in your site structure. These are called Robot text files. They also use site map text files to aid the search engines. The AMR site does not have either of these files in its roots directory. Frequently, I found that ATL Scooters came up in the search results page when it should say AMR (Fig. 1). The former business also had the name ATL Motorcycles. It is understood that AMR bought all domains from ATL Scooters but, visitors to atlscooters.com will not increase rankings for atlmotorcycles.com. Also, I feel there needs to be more consistent response to I also feel that the company should purchase altantamotorcycles.com as it does appear to be available and have all owned domains properly forwarded to atlantamotorcycles. com using a server-side 301 redirect. This is the best way to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page. The 301 status code means that a page has permanently moved to a new location. Because the page is on the server-side, it will not effect the visitors visit. Recommendation: With the site needing to be re-coded, including the robot & site map text files will not be difficult to do. It will also be easier to to add the 301 Redirect pages to add build consistency with the visitor and customer. Fig. 1
Keyword Analysis As mentioned in the previous section, there are no keywords used in the code of the site pages. I used two different tools to look at popular keywords and their site density. Looking at Fig. 2, we see eleven keywords and phrases listed. These are keywords found using SEO Quake page analyzer. The numbers for the density of the keyword, or how often it appears in relation to the number of words on the page, are all within good SEO practices, or White-Hat. Fig. 2 Keyword/Phrase Found In Repeats Density service 3 3.09 showroom 2 2.06 contact 2 2.06 scooter 2 2.06 scooters 2 2.06 atlanta T 2 2.06 motorcycles repair T 2 2.06 repair T 2 2.06 amr 2 2.06 fluids 2 2.06 atlanta motorcycles T 2 4.12 Source: chrome://seoquake/content/plugins/pageinfo/pageinfo.html?id=4 The next chart (Fig. 3), shows keyword monthly searches of keywords related to atmotorcycles.com The monthly searches number is the average number of times the word is searched on Google in the country you have chosen. The competition refers to the degree o competitiveness for the keyword. The higher the number, the more businesses use it, the harder it is to claim a high ranking spot on the results page. The bid is what you would have to pay to place your site in the top 3 results. Scooters in atlanta is the highest competition. The term with the strongest relevance to the business, is Atlanta motorcycles with 100 monthly search average and only a 4 in competition.
Fig. 3 Keyword Monthly searches Competition Suggested bid Relevance Primary/ Secondary atlanta motorcycles 100 4 $1.16 3 Primary atlanta motorcycle 82 3 $0.19 3 Primary atlanta motorcycle dealers 82 5 $1.03 2 Primary atl scooters 52 2 $1.30 3 Secondary scooter oil change 52 0 $0.10 3 Primary "atlanta motorcycle repair" 42 2 $0.10 3 Primary motorcycles in atlanta 33 4 $1.21 3 Primary scooters in atlanta 25 7 $1.02 2 Secondary motorcycle in atlanta 20 1 $0.10 3 Primary motorcycles atlanta ga 20 4 $1.02 3 Primary motorcycles & scooters 15 4 $0.59 3 Primary motorcycle atlanta ga 15 1 $0.10 3 Primary servicing a motorcycle 15 1 $0.10 3 Primary motorcycles of atlanta 12 2 $0.10 3 Primary motorcycle store atlanta 12 3 $0.70 3 Primary atl motorcycles 12 2 $0.10 3 Primary ***Relevance Scoring: 1=Not Relevant, 2=Fairly Relevant, 3=Highly Relevant All keywords reference www.atlmotorcycles.com, with webpage title ATL Scooters. Some recommended keywords: motorcycle repair, scooter repair, motorcycles atlanta, classic motorcycle repair, used motorcycles atlanta, motorcycles in atlanta, scooter repair parts. Recommendation: Focus on key phrases like atlanta motorcycles or motorcycles in atlanta. Use keywords from the suggested list and be sure to use page-specific keywords. For example, if the visitor is looking for service, make sure to use the word service in the page title, in the text and in the keywords for that page.
Competitive Analysis AMR strongest competitors are British In The City, Scooter Superstore and Twist n Scoot, some only because of location others because of quality of repair. In the chart below, we see a rough outline of the online competition (Fig. 4). British in City is very similar to AMR in that it is small in location and owner-run> British in the City focuses on British-made motorcycles like BSA or Triumph, allow will also work on Japanese brands, as well. Scooter Superstore has strength against AMR because they are the leading Vespa dealer and Vespa shop, despite the fact that owner of AMR owns 3 vintage Vespas and is an expert on those bikes. Scooter Superstore is located only a few blocks away and does have a good reputation. Twist n Scoot is only competition because of its location and they are strictly scooter sales. They discontinued servicing all scooters approximately 2 years ago but because their scooter prices are so cheap, they are still a strong competitor in sales. Fig. 4 Compe&tor Name British In The City Scooter Superstore no meta tags found Keywords Used scooters, Vespa, Piaggio, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Genuine, Kymco, Adly, Tomos, scooter dealer, scooter repair, scooter apparel, florida scooters, atlanta scooters, motorcycles Page Ranking Link Popularity Traffic 0 Low 59 2 2021
Twist 'n Scoot Vespa, Atlanta, scooters, motorscooters, moped, electric, bicycles, bikes, Twist n Scoot, Georgia, Genuine, SYM, TGB, Buddy, Stella, Kymco, Aprilia, Honda, Yamaha, HJC, Fulmer, service, midtown, downtown, Virginia Highland, Decatur, Buckhead, Piedmont, helmets, repair, batteries, parts, Malaguti, Kymco, Stella, Lambretta, Italian, Japan, Japanese, Taiwan, Taiwanese, retro, modern, classic, vintage, sport, pre-owned, used, two-stroke, four-stroke, maintenance, oil, tires, Georgia Tech, Emory, Joe Rocket, Versa Haul, Motul, apparel, clothing, jackets, gloves, goggles, covers, windshields, seats, locks, cable, alarms, security, dealer, dealership, retail, showroom, premier, brands, styles, DOT, EPA, safety, street, legal, license, transportation, alternative, vehicles, fuel, gas, gasoline, powered, efficient, prices, economy, economical, mileage, mpg, speed, emissions, environmental 3 165 As you can see from the above chart, only two use keywords in their page code, traffic is slow on all and all have few link-backs. Refining a site to compete with this will not be very difficult. Recommendation: Use your competitions lack of SEO finesse to your advantage by making changes to your SEO now before it is out of hand. Conclusion In conclusion, there are several areas for AMR to fix the problems with their SEO disadvantage. Unfortunately, the main problem is the coding. However, since the site is small and low-tech, if you will, it will be easy to update. I cannot stress enough how much a SEO rebuild will benefit AMR. I firmly believe it will enhance traffic, sales and local position.