A new report from digital marketing agency Inside Online explores the top 25 websites in the bed and mattress market, examining aspects such as seasonal trends, keyword competitiveness and visibility versus authority. In this article, MD Andy Cooper outlines some of the top performers, and looks at where there may be room for improvement …
Our new report reveals interesting trends in the beds and mattress market, the approaches of the sector’s top performers, and the implications for the industry as a whole.
We can see that 2014 showed an increase in search volume compared to 2013. Bed and mattress retail is a growing sector, reflected by a steady year-on-year incline in search volume for bed- and mattress-related search terms from 2013/2014, and a current rise in 2015 – presumably due to the growing number of online and bricks-and-mortar retailers, as well as improvements in the housing market. Indeed, the industry as a whole is subject to volatile growth post-recession.
The increase in social media influence, content marketing campaigns and brand ambassadors, as well as fierce competition within the industry, means it is more important than ever for companies to cement their positions within the search engines.
Based on approximate search volumes taken from Google, desktop searches accounted for 52% of searches, and mobile for the remaining 48%.
“The website with the largest growth was www.bedshed.co.uk, which saw an increase of 847% in organic searches”
Retailer DFS enjoyed more brand searches per month than any other by far, outperforming its runner-up, Bensons for Beds, more than fivefold. In fact, www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk was the hardest-hit site in 2014-2015, seeing a decrease of 65% in organic searches.
The website with the largest growth was www.bedshed.co.uk, which saw an increase of 847% in organic searches from 2014-2015.
A client of ours, Dreams Beds, emerged as one of the year’s true success stories, boasting the highest number of keywords ranked above its competitors, the highest short-term ranking potential, the highest number of indexed pages and the highest number of links pointing to its site. Year-on-year visibility for Dreams increased by 67% – 61% higher than the average growth displayed by the rest of the marketplace.
Dreams also led the way in social influence – publishing the top five pieces of content over the last 12 months – and enjoyed a highly successful SEO campaign, coupled with ongoing optimisation, as reflected in its visibility and authority.
“Several sites were identified as underperforming organically, all sporting an obvious factor in common – they have a limited number of unique linking domains”
2014 saw fewer updates than in previous years from Google, yet the updates themselves were larger, incorporating more of the core algorithm. Penguin 3 in October and Panda 4.1 in September were the biggest, and are the most likely to have had an effect on a domain’s visibility. Other factors such as site changes – expanding or reducing a site’s size, for example – or making significant structure changes are other common reasons for big increases or decreases in organic visibility.
Several sites were identified as underperforming organically, all sporting an obvious factor in common – they have a limited number of unique linking domains. Each of these sites ranks reasonably well for one or two of the generic organic keywords, but rarely more than this. In a lot of these cases, organic visibility is limited by poor on-site optimisation and poor long-tail strategies.
This article was published in the August issue of Furniture News magazine. Author Andy Cooper is the MD of digital marketing agency Inside Online, which develops marketing campaigns and specialist support services for a broad range of clients, including Dreams Beds.
