Microsoft Partners 10 Cubed AX Digital Marketing Program Online Analysis & Workshop http://www.highsoftware.com
Introduction This report looks at a variety of aspects of the website at www.cooperparry.com: Site structure Keywords Competition Positions on search engines Site code Site content In-bound links Social media integration User journey Essentially, when optimizing a site for Search Engines, two key areas have to be considered. These are: 1. On-Page Optimization; this concerns changes made to the site itself and its pages. On page changes to the site will improve its position, especially with niche phrases. 2. Off-Page Optimization; this concerns the amount of relevant links to the site and its pages. Link building is always necessary for more competitive terms. Ideally links to a site or its pages should contain anchor text by which it is required that the site is found. Link building should be a continuous process. Various comments and recommendations are made throughout this document. The following ranking system is used for each section: Rating Level Good Fair Poor Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 2
Overall Site Grade & Urgent Issues Overall, our SiteChecker software scored the site a C for on-page SEO issues. This means there are a number of technical issues with the site which are affecting its potential for being found in search engines, which in turn affects the number of visitors the website is likely to receive through search engines. Fixing these issues will result in greater online visibility for the website which will help the website become a much more effective tool for digital marketing and lead generation. The most urgent issues our software found were:- 380 duplicate Page Titles 378 Duplicate Content 398 Pages with validation errors 284 deep pages 166 Pages with long titles 387 Duplicate descriptions All of these issues and others will be detailed further in this report. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 3
Keyword Research These are the words or phrases which you identified as those you would like your website found for in search engines, along with the estimated number of monthly searches for each term and the current position of your website in Google and Bing s results pages for each term. Search Term Monthly Search Volume (UK) Position in Google Position in Bing ERP Software 1600 - - Rental software 110 - - Fleet Management 1900 - - Large numbers of vehicles and machinery - - - Product builder / Combined products - - - Reverse logistics 480 - - Graphical rental planning - - - Contract management 880 - - spare parts management 22 - - Dynamics AX vertical software - - - Notes - means that the keywords receive little or no monthly searches in search engines. Positions in Google and Bing results are taken from the most local versions of these search engines to your website, e.g. if your company is based in the UK positions were checked in google.co.uk and bing.com/?cc=gb. >50 means that the site did not achieve a position in the top 50 positions in search results for that term. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 4
We have conducted research to find terms which may be more effective in getting your website found in search engines and bringing not just more traffic to your website, but more of the type of visitors who are likely to result in a lead, enquiry or sale. Search Term Monthly Search Volume Position in Google Position in Bing asset management 6600 - - fleet management 1900 - - asset management software 880 - - microsoft dynamics ax 720 - - fleet management software 590 - - cash flow management 260 - - vehicle fleet management 260 - - asset management solutions 210 - - fleet management companies 140 - - cashflow management 140 - - Notes The list is based on the initial keywords given to us on the previous page and the other key performance targets indicated by you. This list is not comprehensive (nor ever could be). However it does provide a basis from which to evolve further target key-phrases. The list includes what might be considered as the most important target key phrases based on a variety of criteria. These are: appropriateness to the site, popularity, competitiveness and the ability to use them in the site content. We checked the website s positions in search engine results for a number of other terms closely related to your products and services. The only term for which the website has any position in the first five pages of Google or Bing results is Cooper Parry. This means many potential new customers are searching online for the products and services you provide but are not finding you. Only people already familiar with the company name and brand are likely to find the website through search engines. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 5
Page Titles Notes - Page Titles Page Titles are considered to be the most important on-page element for Search Engine Optimization. It is recommended that each page is considered separately and if necessary re-titled for optimization. Page Titles should be as close as possible to page names and the content in the page wherever possible. Factor: Title Tags Rating Notes 62 character guideline Fair Many titles are over the recommended guideline limits Text order Fair Some page titles have keywords first though many begin with buzzwords out of context Word duplication Good There is very little duplication in page titles Title tag duplication Poor Almost all page titles are duplicated The Page Title tag also works as a heading for a result in search engine results pages (SERPs), as seen here: Page Titles over 62 characters in length are truncated in SERPs. It is absolutely vital that page titles contain keywords relevant to the page as they are a prime factor in search engine ranking. This is not always the case. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 6
Below is a sample of the page names and the titles currently used on the website. URL Page Title / Welcome to the Highsoftware website /en/dynarent.html /en/dynarent.html /en/trading.html Our DynaRent solution is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX Our DynaRent solution is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX Trading Transparency - With DycoTrade you can manage your trades, from items and delivery to prices and cash-flow. Below are suggestions for optimized Page Titles. URL Suggested Page Title / Microsoft Dynamics AX Solutions for Rental & Trade /en/dynarent.html MS Dynamics AX Solutions for Rental, Service, Purchase & Sales /en/dynarent.html /en/trading.html MS Dynamics AX Solutions for Trade, Logistics & Cash Flow Note: here there are two copies of the dynarent page, this is because they are duplicate content. Best practice is to use all lower case characters in URLs to avoid this. Here though possible solutions would be to use canonical tags or 301 redirect all duplicate pages to a single URL Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 7
H (Header) Tags H tags are used to give prominence to certain text elements such as titles, sub titles and important body text such as initial paragraphs. Keyword enriched H1 tags should all be deployed where necessary to improve search engine rankings. Factor: H Tags Rating Notes Use of H1 Good Most pages contain a single H1 tag H2 tags are of less importance but can still be used to promote secondary keywords. H3 tags and lower offer no keyword equity and can be used in any order as long as they appear after the H1 and H2 tags. Only one H1 or H2 tag should be used on an individual web page. Alt Tags Less important for SEO than body text, alt image tags still play a role, since attributes can be attached to each image to explain its context. This is important from a usability perspective as some users may use screen reading software which will read the image alt tag to describe the image. It also helps if a user has images disabled in their browser. Factor: Alt Tags Rating Notes Use of keywords Poor Most images are unsearchable, but those which are searchable make no use of keywords in alt text Below is a sample of the Alt tags found on the website. URL / Alt and Title Tags "" "" "" "" "" "" /en/dycotrade.html " highsoftware.com " "" Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 8
Meta Descriptions The Meta description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords, and should be unique for every page. Search engines vary in their preferred size for Meta tags. Never make your Meta tag more than 156 characters (with spaces included) long because this is the character limit for Google results. A longer Meta description will result in the truncation of the tag in search engine results pages (SERPs). The Meta description tag is not used to determine positions but is returned by Google and other major search engines. They should contain multiple keywords organized in a logical sentence. Factor: Meta Descriptions Rating Notes Use of Meta description Poor Most descriptions are too long and many aren't relevant to the pages they are on as well as having a very high number of duplicates 156 Character guideline Fair Many descriptions are over the recommended character limits, this is especially bad for pages such as the homepage. Meta tag duplication Poor Almost all meta descriptions are duplicate, each page should have a unique description Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 9
Below is a sample of the Meta Description tags found on the website: URL / /en/dynarent.html /en/dynarent.html /en/trading.html suggestions for more effective Meta description tags. Meta Description An effective ERP solution not only reflects your company ambitions, it also enables you to comply with the specific requirements of the market in which you are operating. And this is exactly what HiGH Software can do for you. The core of our software is the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. We have used this advanced technology as the basis for our two industry-specific solutions, called DynaRent and DycoTrade. This means that our standard solutions now have the power and precision of customized applications. Moreover, our software is so flexible that specific functionality can easily be added using the toolbox included in the solution. These tools also make it easy to upgrade to new versions. All of HiGH Software solutions are fully web-based, making them ideal for businesses with multiple (international) sites and branches. It means that such business can configure their business operations to meet their specific needs, any time and anywhere. DynaRent and DycoTrade are available through a network of authorized Microsoft AX partners. We have the optimal solution for the Rental Industry. Our DynaRent solution is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX. It has been designed tot fulfill your business requirements which is why it can be easily customized and/or tailored to meet your company's specific needs. We have the optimal solution for the Rental Industry. Our DynaRent solution is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX. It has been designed tot fulfill your business requirements which is why it can be easily customized and/or tailored to meet your company's specific needs. With the Trading module for DycoTrade you can manage your trades, from items and delivery to prices and cash-flow. Below are some URL / /en/dynarent.html /en/dynarent.html /en/trading.html Suggested Meta Description We offer expert ERP solutions in the Rental & Trade verticals with our DynoRent & DycoTrade software based on Dynamics AX. Contact us today & find out more Expert Rental ERP Solutions. Our DynoRent offers a professional solution for rental services and reverse logistics. Contact us for more information Expert Trade ERP solutions with Microsoft Dynamics AX. Our DycoTrade lets you manage trades, logistics, prices and cash flow. Find out more today. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 10
Meta Keywords The Meta keyword tags should contain keywords related to the content of the page and never exceed 10-15 words or phrases. Though Meta keywords tags are not a major factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should be included on the page. Factor: Meta Keywords Tags Rating Notes Character guideline Poor Meta keyword tag duplication Poor All keywords are duplicated Most of the keywords which are included on the website are outside the recommended character guidelines Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 11
Page Load Times and Sizes Page load time should be as low as possible to allow the user quick access to a page. A page that is too large will not load quickly and potential site users could be lost; this is now also an important ranking factor for search engines. Factor: Page Load Time and Size Rating Notes Load time Good All pages load in a decent timeframe Size Good All pages are within the recommended size limit, though none are compressed The following table shows a sample of the page load times and sizes on the website. URL Load Time / 0.01 /en/ 0.009 /en/about%20high%20software.html 0.011 /en/about+high+software.html 0.01 /en/about+high+software/careers.html 0.058 /en/about+high+software/certification.html 0.011 /en/about+high+software/contact.html 0.01 /en/about+high+software/escrow.html 0.068 Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 12
Server Responses Broken links or missing pages will causing the website to serve up error responses. This not only creates obstacles for visitors to the website but can lead to search engines removing part or all of the website from their index, so that it can no longer be found through search. Factor: Server Responses Rating Notes Server Responses Good All pages returned 2xx html Ok responses Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 13
Link Text Link text should be modified throughout the site where possible so that it includes some of the target key phrases without looking like spam or heavy on the page. Ideally link text should be tied as closely as possible to the topic and title of the page to which it is linking. Factor: Link Text Rating Notes Optimized links Poor Links do not generally contain keywords and many are scripted events rather than text links This table shows a sample of the link anchor text and target URL from links on the website home page. Page URL Target URL Link Anchor Text / /en/dynarent.html Go to DynaRent / /en/dynarent.html DynaRent / /en/trading.html Go to Dycotrade / /en/dycotrade.html DycoTrade / /en/dycotrade/trading/risk%20management.html Risk Management Below are suggestions for optimized versions of the same link anchor texts. Page URL Target URL Link Anchor Text / /en/dynarent.html Rental ERP Solutions / /en/dynarent.html DynaRent / /en/trading.html Trading ERP Solutions / /en/dycotrade.html DycoTrade / /en/dycotrade/trading/risk%20management.html Risk Management Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 14
Page Content Factor: Pages Rating Notes Number of words per page Poor Almost all content is below the recommended limits Keyword Frequency Poor Very few pages have high keyword densities for keywords For the purposes of this document it is impractical to include a report of every page of the site. However the following was noted: It is best to target no more than two to four target key phrases per page. The Home Page is the most important where SEO is concerned as it is probable that it will have more inbound links than any other. For this reason it should be used to target the most desirable of the target key phrases. It is recommended to have no more than 300 to 600 words per page, with targeted search terms strategically placed within the text. Content Duplication must be avoided. When making suggestions for rewritten content care will be taken not to spam the page with target key phrases, but target phrases will be mentioned more frequently on the page. A good frequency guideline is about 5% for a specific phrase. This is a contentious area of SEO but it is generally accepted by experts. There are approximately between 30 and 200 words per page. More keyword rich content can be included on most pages. Keywords When creating content, keyword research is essential. Know your keywords before you start writing your content. It is much easier to create effective copy from the start than to go back and try to stuff keywords into already written text. By doing so, it will often make the text sound awkward and forced, causing it to lose all readability. It is recommended to use one to four keywords per page. Search engines generally give more weight to the first 200 words within a page. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that keywords are used appropriately near the top of the page and proportionally throughout the page. Also, don't forget to use keywords in your headlines. Most search engines deem a headline to be one of the most important sections of the copy. Including text in your headline will give it additional weight. We adhere to all of these guidelines when creating content for web pages. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 15
Site Structure Home Page Analysis Top-level navigation is textbased, clear and easy to use. The logo at the top of each page of the website links back to the home page which gives users and spiders the opportunity to return there easily. There is space here for contact details which would boost your enquiry rate. You should consider rewriting these headlines to have a stronger message which contains a call to action that would encourage more users to click through to other areas of your website. Twitter feed allows people to engage with your social media profile and regularly adds new content to your homepage. There is not a great deal of text on the home page which leaves very little opportunity for search engine optimization of the page. More links could be added to the footer menu to aid both users and search engine spiders in navigating the site and finding more pages. This would also benefit from a clear and compelling call to action. Eye-catching and prominent links to your social media platforms encourage user engagement. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 16
The top bar navigation is clear and consistent on every page. It is easy to use and is text-based, making it readable to search engines. There is no search functionality at the moment. A search box, prominently displayed on every page of the site, would allow users to access relevant information more quickly than manual navigation. On most pages content is displayed above the fold, i.e. users do not have to scroll down in their browser to continue viewing content. While having content below the fold does not have a major effect on SEO it could mean that users are missing out on information that does not appear on a normal resolution monitor without the requirement to scroll down. The homepage layout uses CSS-controlled divs, or divisions, which is good for SEO. CSS styles are stored in files off-page, which ensures consistency of styling across the site and improves code to text ratio. All style commands should be stored within CSS files in order to reduce code-to-text ratio and aid effective spidering of the website. This is currently the case with the HiGH Software website. JavaScript is also stored off-page which further reduces code-to-text ratio. The home page has a code to text ratio of 14.19% which is lower than our recommendation. The higher the percentage, the better (25% is what we recommend). If you have got higher than 70% or so then you have got a lot of text and not a lot of code, which might sound like a good thing, but could represent spam too. In the case of the HiGH Software website, there is simply very little text content on the home page. Adding more text would make a significant difference to the code-to-text ratio. Using keywords within the Alt and title tags of images and links would enhance the importance of keywords on the homepage to search engines, as previously mentioned. The home page load time is excellent, loading in a hundredth of a second, and renders well in all latest versions of the most popular web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Opera). The website renders well in mobile phone and tablet screens but you may wish to consider a review of the layout and content of pages in mobile devices, in order to provide the best possible experience to mobile visitors. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 17
As can be seen in this diagram, which shows the home page in the center surrounded by all other pages of the website, the structure of the site has a very clear hierarchy. Care needs to be taken that pages aren t too deep and are so many clicks away from the home page that users and search engines will have difficulty finding them. This is great for both usability and crawlability, meaning both website visitors and search engine spiders can navigate easily around the website, reducing the risk of them getting lost, reaching a dead end or getting taken out of the website altogether. Any new pages which are added to the website should adhere to this strict hierarchy. A comprehensive HTML sitemap page would help users and spiders to more easily navigate their way around the site and give further keyword-targeted internal linking across the website. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 18
Indexed Pages 119 pages of the website are indexed in Google but only 46 pages are indexed in Bing. Regular submission of an updated XML sitemap to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools will help to ensure that new pages of the website are indexed as quickly as possible. Multilingual Support The website does not support any language other than English. W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3). To achieve a fully accessible website for both end user and search engine robots alike, your website code should comply and pass W3C standards. Once the website has been validated the site will be W3C Certificated. 14 errors were found on the home page. However, this seems to have been at least partially caused by the Google site verification code. The implications for not validating the website could include the following: Poor search engine accessibility Reducing the potential for correct and consistent categorization. Poor cross browser compatibility Reduced life cycle of technologies and coding practices The website needs to be robust to help stay consistent after search algorithm updates. Page scans Our SiteChecker software scanned 398 pages within the website, not including dynamic pages. Within these pages, we detected 380 duplicate page titles and 387 duplicate Meta descriptions. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 19
XML Sitemaps and the Robots.txt File An XML sitemap is essentially a list of the web pages on your website. Submitting this list via Google Webmaster Tools means these pages are certain to get found and indexed and any changes or updates to these pages will be found and listed by the search engines. It is best practice to submit an XML sitemap, ensuring that the website is getting indexed and crawled regularly by the search engines. The robots.txt file is an embedded file (or HTML code) that informs the search engines what pages of your website you want to be indexed. This is particularly useful if you have published pages which are still at a testing stage, or have pages that should not be publicly accessible, such as an Intranet log in page. The website has a valid robots.txt file and XML sitemap. This should be submitted to Webmaster Tools on a regular basis. Custom 404 Page A custom 404 page will enhance the stickiness of the site as a user following a broken link is more likely to stay on the site if presented with a link back to the home page rather than the standard browser 404 error page. A custom 404 page should send the standard 404 header response instead of the 200 header response associated with a functioning web page you must ensure this element of the 404 is correctly setup. Search engines will recognize the 404 response and not try to index the resulting page. Utilizing this technique will help Google crawl your site pages with ease and without flagging errors in your sitemap. Content should be provided on the 404 page which provides useful links to encourage the user to stay on the website. These links should be to the home page and all the top level categories of the website. The page should also be styled to fit with the existing site. The site does not currently have a custom 404 page and one should be built and added in as soon as possible. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 20
Inbound Links The numbers of inbound links returned by the major Search Engines for the website and some of your identified competitors are as follows: URL Inbound Links www.highsoftware.com 251 www.sap.com/uk 1040 www.wynnesystems.com 314 www.insphire.com 4422 Search Engines do not return all the links they index. Inbound links are a key factor for good Search Engine Marketing. The perceived quality of inbound links is as important as the number of links. A link from a well-written article on a relevant subject published in an industry website is far more valuable than a number of links from online directories. Corporate Blog The website has a News & Events section which is updated on a regular basis. A regularly updated blog is a great way to push the visibility of your website, as search engines love fresh content and will usually index blog posts very quickly. Using target keywords in blog posts where possible helps to get your website found for these terms. Universal Search Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Universal search offers advertisers the means of promoting their products and services using a wide range of Media Types, including Video, Podcasting and Audio Clips, Shopping results, images, maps and books. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 21
Responsive Design Now more than ever it is vitally important that a website is designed to provide the optimal viewing experience across a wide range of different devices - from large-screen monitors to mobile phones. To cope with the multitude of viewing platforms, websites need to be made easy to read and navigate with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling. Web pages should adapt to the size of the screen or browser they are being viewed on while still providing the clearest possible message and a usable and accessible site. There are no responsive elements to the HiGH Software website at present. While the layout of the website holds up well in the smaller screens of tablets and phones, text becomes difficult to read and many links are difficult to click on easily in a small touchscreen. Giving responsive elements to the website will enhance user experience across all devices and encourage users to remain on and engage with the site further. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 22
Social Media Integration Each page of the website features prominent links to the company blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page and YouTube channel, giving website visitors easy access to each of these platforms. Company branding is consistent across each of your social media profiles. Adding more photos, videos, links and other social media objects in your profiles encourages engagement and gives social network users the idea that if they follow your brand they will receive something of worth in return. This can be anything from the answer to a question to something entertaining to a tangible object, such as a competition prize. Sharing posts and having conversations with other users encourages them to share your information and links with others. All of this helps your social presence to steer more visitors to the website. More content should be added to your LinkedIn profile to help the company to get found in search and increase traffic and lead generation via the profile. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 23
The following is a brief summary of the key steps that should be taken to improve the online visibility and lead generation potential of your website. Full details are included in the relevant sections of this document. Action Review and revise the keywords targeted by the website. Focus on keywords which have good search volumes but are not highly competitive. Rewrite Page Titles, Meta descriptions and content to include targeted keywords, taking care to follow the guidelines in this document. Ensure images have alt tags and links have anchor text and title attributes. Use target keywords in these where possible. Look at improving the target keyword focus in link anchor text across the website. Review the text content of web pages and consider increasing the word count of web page content. Create a custom 404 page for the website as soon as possible. Ensure your blog, Facebook Page and LinkedIn profile are regularly updated, monitored and administrated. Give strong consideration to responsive design and ensuring your website interacts well with all types and sizes of screen and device. Consider a campaign of off-page link promotion and building high quality links to the website from authority industry sources. Digital Marketing Program for Microsoft Partners 24