Alyssa Johnson

Search Engine Optimization Assignment

SEO Analysis & Recommendations for SportsAuthority.com

I.

Keyword Research- 3 Recommended Keywords (Cr)

a. The 3 keywords/ phrases I think will drive the most traffic:
1. Tennis racquets
2. Recreational tennis racquets
3. Babolat tennis racquets
b. Current rankings of my 3 keywords

Keyword
Tennis racquets
Recreational tennis

Google
57
4

Bing
No
No

Yahoo!
No
No

racquets
Babolat tennis

25

No

No

Keyword
Tennis racquets
Recreational tennis

Google
4
14

Bing
No
No

Yahoo!
No
No

racquets
Babolat tennis

No

No

racquets

racquets

c. Explanation of my choices:
1. Tennis racquets: This is the keyword focus given to me by the client. My research on this
keyword phrase leads me to believe that it is very broad (pictured below in the Google
1

Trends graph). Due to the fact that this keyword is not very specific, it clumps every
website that uses this keyword phrase into this one category. This makes every website in
this category have to compete with one another and since there is so many websites in
this category, competition is very tough.
2. Recreational tennis racquets: From studying the web site, Google Trends, and searching
the keyword phrase myself, I determined that this keyword phrase is quite specific as
well as unique. I went through the category site for SportsAuthorithy.com and saw to the
left of the products they have ways to optimize a viewers search for particular tennis
racquets. I noticed that
recreational tennis
racquets were pretty
popular because there were
70 products that fit that
description. Which means,
the word recreational
would be used in the title
tags. I then went to Google Trends and compared it to the keyword phrase that I was
given. I then noticed that this keyword phrase had a lower average interest over time
(pictured in the Google Trends graph below). Since the keyword phrase tennis racquets
was so broad, I thought perhaps it was beneficial. So, I then went to the Google search
engine and typed in Recreational tennis racquets. To my surprise, SportsAuthority.com
ranked 3rd on the SERP (pictured right). Therefore, I then determined that this keyword
phrase would help SportsAuthority.com get recognized more due to the fact that it does
not use such broad keyword phrases.
2

3. Babolat tennis racquets: I chose to use the brand name Babolat because compared to
the other brand names shown on the category page, it has the most occurrences with
being in 11 title tags compared with the brand name Wilson which appears only 5 times
within the category page.

II.

Current Traffic
SportsAuthoriy.com Monthly Unique Visitors: 915, 213
DicksSportingGoods.com Monthly Unique Visitors: 1, 636, 185
Analysis:
SportsAuthority.com shows a huge dip in unique visitors during the month of May as

seen in the graph below. Perhaps the number of page visitors drops so juristically because school
3

officially ends for most people either in the month of May or around that time. School ending
may have a lot to do with why there are not so many page visitors because when school ends,
sports and athletics end as well. Instead of worrying about new sporting gear for their children,
parents are probably more focused on vacations. The peak of unique visitors occurs in the month
of June. This could be due to official winter coat sales going on because the change of season, or
perhaps it is because of a summer sale going on. The peak being in the month of June could just

indicate the fact that visitors are seeing what is coming for the back to school new apparel.

DicksSportingGoods.com clearly shows the average bell curve for unique visitors
throughout the span of 6 months. The graph below clearly shows a peak of unique visitors
around the month of June. Like I said in the paragraph above, this spike could be due to back to
school shopping or a winter coat and apparel sale. Another reason for the spike in unique visitors
5

during the month of June could be because it also marks the beginning of summer officially,
which means the start of summer camps for youth as well. Perhaps parents are searching sporting
sites to see which store has the best athletic gear as well as the best prices.

Interesting enough, it seems that SportsAuthority.com and DicksSportingGoods.com both

have the same trends in regards to unique visitors (pictured below). DicksSportingGoods.com
has about half a million more unique page visitors than SportsAuthority.com. Although, it may
be helpful to note that Dicks Sporting Goods has around 610 actual store locations in the United
States, whereas Sports Authority has around 450. This may be important when looking at the
differences in unique page visitors a month because of the simple fact that

DicksSportingGoods.com is most likely more known than SportsAuthority.com.

III.

Content Analysis
a. Overall Quality (Cq, Vt, Va)
SportsAuthority.com Score: 7
DicksSportingGoods.com Score: 6
Analysis:
The category page is very crucial as to what type of content appears and to what quality

because this is how Google decides whether or not to send traffic to a particular site.
7

SportsAuthority.com has all of its products pop up right away on the category page. A visitor
then has the option to get more into detail within their search for what they are actually looking
for. SportsAuthority.com provides categories to the left hand side of the products that include,
brand, price range, color, racquet type, racquet length, frame composition, swing style, string
gauge, and clearance. SportsAuthority.com does this to give visitors more out of their search,
which relates to Jakob Neilsons heuristic Flexibility and efficiency of use. Yet,
SportsAuthority.com still gives visitors the freedom they want to just browse through all of the
products they have to offer, whereas DicksSportingGoods.com put everything into categories
without showing a full list of all of the products. Perhaps the way DicksSportingGoods.com is
combining their content takes away from the initial freedom visitors have when viewing a site.
This represents Jakob Neilsons heuristic, User control and freedom.
SportsAuthority.coms category page is well-written on the fact that it provides straight to
the point titles and headlines. This page also includes ratings of the products right under the
small picture. This would be considered valuable information to know and consider when a
visitor is looking for a racquet to purchase. Other useful content that the sites category page
provides is whether the product is available in-stores, online, or both. This is useful information
as well because users like fast results and do not tend to like clicking all around to find out
information. DicksSportingGoods.com has ratings on their category pages as well. But, they do
not tell whether or not the product is available only online, in stores, or both. If a user were to
click on an item they found because they were interested in buying it, then found out it is only
sold in-stores, this could lead to a bad user experience all because of valuable content was not
utilized.

Product-level pages offer a better insight into the product. I first looked at this productlevel page: http://www.sportsauthority.com/WILSON-Four-BLX-Tennis-Racquet/product.jsp?
productId=24619986&cp=3052500.66276696.22702526&pg=1&parentPage=family . The
product featured on this page has a well-written title and description. I checked the description
on Plagium.com and found no other sites using this same description for the product. This means
this product-level page offers content that is only viewable on this particular site. I looked at this
product-level page as well: http://www.sportsauthority.com/Babolat-Pure-Drive-TeamWimbledon-Tennis-Racquet/product.jsp?
productId=50621426&cp=3052500.66276696.22702526&pg=1&parentPage=family . The title
of this product briefly describes it and is straight to the point. I checked the description of this
product to see if it has been used anywhere else and it was not identical to any other sites
description. After viewing several product-level pages on SportsAuthority.com, I came to find
out that a lot of their content is original. The product0level pages on SportsAuthority.com offer a
buying tool. This is very useful and it leads you to a page that
gets more personal with what you are actually looking for
(pictured below). This tool makes the purchasing experience
more personal for viewers. They can simply match up their preferences with the most suitable
racquet. DicksSportingGoods.com also offers this buying tool. But, DicksSportingGoods.com
does not go into as much depth as SportsAuthority.com does when it comes to this tool. Also, it
is not as visible as SportsAuthority.com as you can see (pictured below).

The content throughout the category pages and the product-level pages could be expanded more.

10

Google does like descriptions and titles to be specific, but it is more beneficial if they are specific
as well as informational. Content within SportsAuthority.com and DicksSportingGoods.com is
thin and a lot more could be added. Content above the fold is especially important because it is
the content that will be noticed first or the only content that will be noticed on the entire page.
Therefore, having ads above the fold distracts viewers from actual content on the website.
Having ads is a violation and especially if they are above the fold. SportsAuthority.com has a
cluster of ads surrounding the top of the page on both the category page and the product-level
page (pictured below). Although they are ads promoting themselves, they are still ads. On the
other hand, DicksSportingGoods.com does not feature any ads on either of the two pages.

Recommendation for improvements:

If SportsAuthority.com organized its buying tools page into visuals, it would be more
beneficial to viewers. At the moment, the buying tools page looks cluttered and unorganized,
but if the information was put into tables or even if they came up with a video to show the
different swing types instead of referring to them by numbers. Also, instead of having plain
descriptions that tell about the product, perhaps if SportsAuthority.com added interesting facts
regarding that particular racquet it would get viewers more engaged in the product. Some
interesting facts could include different televised events this racquet has been seen in, or different
professional tennis players that recommend this product.

b. Engaging Content (Ce):

SportsAuthority.com Score: 7
DicksSportingGoods.com Score: 5

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Site

My Site
Competin

Bounce

Page

Daily Time

Product-

Product-

Product-

Rate

Views/

on Site
Product

level

level

level

Visitor

share

ratings

Reviews

5.97
5.92

tools
Yes
No

Yes
Yes

Yes
Yes

26%
28%

4:30
4:27

g Site

Analysis:
The data above shows that SportsAuthority.com has a bounce rate of 26% which is not
bad because it means that 26% of viewers leave the site. DicksSportingGoods.com has a bounce
rate of 28% which means that SportsAuthority.com is engaging viewers more effectively. The
number of page views per visitor is quite similar between the two sites. Perhaps this is because
most of the content is similar. SportsAuthority.com offers its viewers an option to like the
product they are viewing on Facebook, to pin it on Pinterest, to tweet out a picture of it, or share
it on google+. They even have an option for viewers to email the product to a friend. Because
DicksSportingGoods.com does not give there viewers an option to share the particular product
they are viewing, then perhaps the reason why SportsAuthority.com has a daily time spent on a
page time of 4:30 compared to DicksSportingGoods.coms of 4:27 is because they are taking the
extra step to get viewers engaged in their products. Both sites have ratings and reviews for the
products with an exception for the products that have not been reviewed and/or rated.

Recommendation for improvements:

12

Perhaps SportsAuthority.com can add some alternative engagement tool on the productlevel pages that do not have any ratings or reviews yet. Maybe if SportsAuthority.com gives
some insight into the product that could possibly help viewers decide whether or not to purchase.
For example, on product-level pages without reviews and/or ratings, providing interesting facts
like this particular racquet has appeared in Sports Illustrated Magazine, or this tennis racquet
has been used by these professional tennis players, and provide a list.

IV.

Social Analysis
a. Social Signals: Reputation (Sr):
SportsAuthority.com Score: 6
DicksSportingGoods.com Score: 8
Analysis:

The social media presence for both sites vary. Neither of them come out particular stronger than
the other. There are somethings that sports authority offer that DicksSprotingGoods.com doesnt
and vice a versa. DicksSportingGoods.com has a bigger social media presence. They can be
found easier, offer more of a variety, and have more of a following when it comes to social
media.
Sites

Search

Social

Traffic

Bookmarks

Blogs

Total

SportsAuthority.com

0/10

9/10

10/10

0/10

0/10

38/100

DicksSportingGoods.co

0/10

10/10

10/10

0/10

0/10

40/100

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They started their page in 2009 they 1,198,051 likes, and 180,164 people visiting the page. There
recent post are promoting the season appropriate Nike fleece and Under Armour gifts. On
average they have 2,198 likes and 29 shares. Many user comment on their page to show pictures
of their kids or themselves in their
gear. A lot will be positive showing
the success of the athletes and a few
are negative. Their social media
team does a good job responding to
most of the comments like the one
in this screen shot. They personalized it with we love football or good luck on your sons
college ambitions.
There Pinterest has 6.6 thousand followers, 34 boards, 3 thousand pins, 242 likes and
they follow 151 pinners. With all the work they put into their Pinterest you would think they are
ahead of the competition but they are not. Dicks Sport Good has only 18 boards, 925 pins, and 9
likes but they beat Sports Authorities with 12.1 thousand followers and following 51 pinners

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Sports Authority has 56.5 thousand

followers, 1,572 likes, 14.1 thousand tweets, 10 list, and they follow 1,627 people. Dicks
Sporting Goods has 381 thousand followers, 4,356 likes, 8 list, 26.4 thousand tweets, and they
follow 2,610 people. They joined twitter in May 2009 and Sports Authority joined October 2009.
The Sports Authority tweets show a lot of pictures from Instagram accounts showing active
teams, swimmers, and games a long with a few news tweets of current sports. The Dicks
Sporting Goods twitter mostly tweets about upcoming promotions and sales. In comparison
Dick Sporting Goods looks more like a store account and Sports Authority looks more like a
sports account.
The Instagram page showed that Dicks did more work for their IG page then
Sports Authorities and has more followers. Dicks Sporting Goods has182 thousand followers,
1,096 post, and followers 241 people while Sports Authorities only have 11.6 thousand followers
with 412 post and they both have been active for a little over 2 years. Dicks on average get 2,754
likes and 55 comments, Sports get 228 likes and 9 comments on average. The comments for
Dicks Sporting Goods are a lot of tagging and comments like I will be stopping by Dicks
today.
15

On YouTube, Dicks Sporting Goods has an extreme stronger presence than Sports
Authority. Dicks has 376 videos, 13,412 subscribers, an average of 7, 433 views, 44 thumbs up
average and 68 thumbs down average. Sporting Authority has 107 videos, 1,998 subscribers, an
average of 921 views, 35 thumbs up and 5 thumbs down average.
Google plus seems to be a popular social tool for both sites. Sports Authority has 2,740
followers and 947,943 views. They have popular brands in their circles. Dicks Sporting Goods
has 6,813 followers and 15, 365,841 views. The comments for sports authority tend to be a little

random. As you can see in the screen shot there are a lot of pictures of kids and what seem to be
local athletes with strong and or fun headers. The comments dont always correspond to the
picture or the store. Sports Authority could do a better job on google plus to be a little more
interactive.

16

My recommendation for the Social Reputation would be to get more involved. They do a
great job on Pinterest, Google Plus, and Facebook but their YouTube and Instagram account is
lacking. They need to post more on both social media platforms and that could help them gain
followers on their other sites. Dicks has a strong Instagram and YouTube presence which
provides visuals and videos of their product which helps make it more appealing and also shows
their product in action. This is free advertisement that Sports Authority is missing out on. Their
social media team needs more campaigns on YouTube and more products on Instagram.
b. Social Signals: Sharing (Ss):
SportsAuthority.com Score: 9/10
DicksSportingGoods.com Score: 0/10

17

When it comes to sharing Sports Authority ranks 9/10 and I score Dicks 0/10. Dicks
Sporting goods dont give you an option to share their products. This seems weird because they
have the stronger social media presence but dont offer you the chance to share it. Sports
Authority gives you options to share their products directly. When you click on the image for the
tennis racquet they
give you options to
share on Pinterest,
Twitter, and
Google Plus. The
reason I gave them
a 9 out of 10 is
mostly because of
the Facebook sharing option or the lack of. The only downside is that you cannot share on
Facebook, while they provide the Facebook icon but only with a like option. I feel this is a
downside because many people share items on Facebook that they like and this could be great
promotion for items especially shared amongst friends. Shared post could connect with Facebook
groups that are for sports teams, parent groups, athletes, schools etc.. and the only option they
provide is to like.
One thing that separates Sports Authority is that it has option to share on Pinterest.
Pinterest is great because it takes you personally to the Pinterest page and tries to guess what
board you would want to pin it to. This is very user friendly, especially for Pinterest to be one of
the big social media sites for images. This happens after you directly click on the Pin It button
which is commonly known amongst Pinterest users because that is the option to add images to
18

you selected board. This is great because as the image circulates people can click (or tap for
mobile users) and it will direct them back to the site where you can purchase the Tennis Racket.
I also love the options for twitter and for google plus. Even though I dont personally use
google plus, it is a big
market for sharing ideas
and definitely belongs on
the sharing tools. They both
give the option, upon click,
to sharing on that social
media platform. They even
go the extra mile to give
you the link inside of the
text box so you dont have
to do much outside of personalizing it. Another cool thing is that when you tweet the link it

19

Shows the picture

of the object, the
name of the
Racquet, and a
link back to the
website. This
helps follower
retweet, like and be able to return to it later if they want to purchase the item or see what else
they offer. This can also raise awareness of the twitter account and gain followers. This is user
friendly to twitter users.

20

My recommendation would be to provide a sharing option for Facebook. Facebook is one

of the top social media sharing sites. People are constantly sharing photos, videos, articles etc
Outside of that the sharing options for SportsAuthority.com are actually better than Dicks
Sporting Goods. DicksSportingGoods.com doesnt have a sharing options for their product,

which would appear on the product-level page.

V.

HTML: Current Keyword Location Analysis (Ht, Hd, Hh)

a. Title tags
SportsAuthority.com Product Category Page: <title>Tennis Racquets | Sports
Authority</title>
SportsAuthority.com Product-level Page: <title>BABOLAT Pure Drive
Wimbledon - Unstrung - SportsAuthority.com </title>

21

DicksSportingGoods.com Product Category Page: <title>Tennis Racquets |

DICK&#39;S Sporting Goods</title>

DicksSportingGoods.com Product-level Page: <title>Babolat Drive Max 110

Tennis Racquet | DICK&#39;S Sporting Goods</title>
Analysis:
Title tags are very important because they are what is shown on SERP, social sharing
tools, browsers, and bookmarks. Therefore, if two completely different websites that sell the
same things have very similar title tags, not only will it make it more competitive for the website,
it also makes the site get overlooked by Google because the title tag is not unique. So, the fact
that SportsAuthority.com and DicksSportingGoods.com have similar title tags for both their
category pages as well as their product-level pages, means they are clearly grouped together
when it comes to competition. Also, it is beneficial to know that Google reads script, which
means Google reads words only. Seeing that DicksSportingGoods.com uses symbols and
numbers in their tags, moves SportsAuthority.com a step forward due to the fact that their title
tag uses words only.

Recommendation for improvements:

According to Googles SEO Best Practices, the title tag is the main thing that tells users
as well as search engines what the main focus of a page is. Making more unique title tags for
products can improve SportsAuthority.coms ranking on Googles SERP. For example, if
SportsAuthority.com used <title>Recreational Tennis Racquets | Sports Authority</title> as a
title tag, the title would be more specific, yet unique. I searched Recreational tennis racquets
22

on Google and SportsAuthority.com

is listed on the first SERP, above
DicksSportingGoods.com as well
(Pictured right).

b. Description meta tag

SportsAuthority.com
Product-level Page: <meta name="description" content="Buy BABOLAT Pure
Drive Wimbledon - Unstrung - Well suited for competitive players in search of
the perfect balance between power and control. This legendary racquet no
longer needs any introduction." />

SportsAuthority.com Product Category Page: <meta name="description"

content="Buy Racquets at Sports Authority - the nation&#39;s preeminent
full- Nike,

line sporting goods chain. Shop online or in-store for your favorite brands
Under Armour, The North Face, Bowflex, Schwinn, Lifetime and

more." />

DicksSportingGoods.com Product-level Page: <meta name="description"

content="Shop Wilson Burn 100S Tennis Racquet at DICK'S Sporting
Goods.

Find more information and get customer ratings and reviews

today." />

23

DicksSportingGoods.com Product Category Page: <meta name="description"

content="Get in the game with a new tennis racquet from DICK&#39;S Sporting
Goods. Shop a variety of tennis racquets for juniors &#38; adults from top-rated
brands. " />

Explanation:
SportsAuthority.com and DicksSportingGoods.com both select an actual category to talk
about in their descriptions on the product category page. SportsAuthority.com focuses on
providing the different brands they have available, whereas DicksSportingGoods.com focuses on
the racquets they have available for different ages. With the product-level pages,
SportsAuthority.coms description is a lot more detailed and speaks highly of the particular
product, whereas DicksSportingGoods.coms is less inviting and does not really emphasize the
product itself. The description Meta tags are very important because they appear on Googles
SERP, in social sharing tools, and on the product page itself. Description Meta tags are what read
by visitors, potential future web visitors, and potential customers.

Recommendation for improvements:

24

Description Meta tags give a brief description or summary of the page. According to
Googles SEO Best Practices, description Meta tags are sometimes shown on Googles SERP.
Perhaps it would be more beneficial for SportsAuthority.com if they included the multiple
categories of different tennis racquets that a visitor could choose from. For example, instead of
just writing all of the different brands they offer in the description for the category page, they
wrote all of the different categories they have. An example of this description Meta tag may look
like this: <meta name= description content= Buy tennis racquets at Sports Authority and be
able to choose from a number of different categories which include, brands, color, racquet type,
racquet length, swing style, and much more./>
c. IMG names and ALT text
Babolat Pure Drive Wimbledon- Unstrung
<img class="lazy smallImage" data-

original="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA17922092nm.jpg" alt="BABOLAT Pure Drive Wimbledon - Unstrung SportsAuthority.com " title="BABOLAT Pure Drive Wimbledon - Unstrung SportsAuthority.com " width="176" height="176"
src="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA17922092nm.jpg" style="display: inline;">
25

Babolat Adult Drive Max 110 Pre-Strung Tennis Racquet

<img class="prod-image" name="prodShot"
src="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA19822321enh-z6.jpg" title="Babolat Adult Drive Max 110 Pre-Strung Tennis
Racquet - SportsAuthority.com " alt="Babolat Adult Drive Max 110 Pre-Strung
Tennis Racquet - SportsAuthority.com ">
Head Adult Graphene XT Extreme MPA Tennis Racquet

26

<img class="lazy smallImage" data-

original="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA21889308nm.jpg" alt="Head Adult Graphene XT Extreme MPA Tennis Racquet Unstrung - SportsAuthority.com " title="Head Adult Graphene XT Extreme MPA
Tennis Racquet - Unstrung - SportsAuthority.com " width="176" height="176"
src="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA21889308nm.jpg" style="display: inline;">
Wilson Four BLX Tennis Racquet
<img class="lazy smallImage" data-

original="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA16956793nm.jpg" width="176" height="176" alt="WILSON Four BLX Tennis

Racquet - SportsAuthority.com " title="WILSON Four BLX Tennis Racquet SportsAuthority.com "
src="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA16956793nm.jpg" style="display: inline;">
27

Babolat Pure Drive Team Wimbledon Tennis Racquets

<img class="lazy smallImage" dataoriginal="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA19822232nm.jpg" alt="Babolat Pure Drive Team Wimbledon Tennis Racquet SportsAuthority.com " title="Babolat Pure Drive Team Wimbledon Tennis
Racquet - SportsAuthority.com " width="176" height="176"

src="http://www.sportsauthority.com/graphics/product_images/pTSA19822232nm.jpg" style="display: inline;">

Explanation:
I chose 5 images which are pictured above to show that SportsAuthorty.com is not
properly naming there photos. As you can see in the first highlighted line of each pictures image
name, it shows a lot of random letters and numbers as the name of the image pictured. This
qualifies as a violation in Googles Best Practices. Googles SEO Best Practices suggest having
easy-to-read text. I chose these specific images because they are all rated 5 stars and they are
offered in stores as well as online, so I figured that they must be pretty popular racquets which
are probably viewed more often. If that is the case and these particular images are the most
viewed, then it is crucial to have actual names for the image files. It is crucial because Google
will avoid sending traffic to these pages because of the image names they decided to choose,
which means although these images may be the most popular, Google is not recognizing them
28

and that is the most important. Each ALT text for all 5 images I chose provides the name of each
racquet shown. The name of each racquet is also the title tag for each particular racquet. I chose
these images also in reference to the fact that having the ALT text be the same as the title tag for
the same product, becomes repetitive and not very unique.
Recommendation for improvements:
SportsAuthority.com should provide actual names for their image files instead of random
letters and numbers, which is a huge priority because it is at the top of the page of Googles Best
Practices. This will be acknowledged by Google and it will make it easier for Google to know
what theyre looking at. Not only would it help Google, but it could possibly benefit
SportsAuthority.com in ways that may not be so clean cut. For example, if the image files had
names, SportsAuthority.coms databases would be more organized as well. Another suggestion
that would be beneficial to SportsAuthority.com is if they came up with a new, unique, and
separate ALT text that is not the exact same words from the title tags. An example of an
appropriate IMG name and ALT text would be, <img src=
http://SportsAuthority.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/Wilson Four BLX Tennis
Racquet.jpg class= productImage alt= Wilson Double-Grip Tennis Racquet />.

VI.

Architecture (As, Au, Am)

a. Speed (As)
SportsAuthority.com Score: 5.840 s
DicksSportingGoods.com Score: 5.222 s
Explanation:

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Sports Authority takes 5.840 seconds to load and is visually complete by 4.800 seconds.
Dicks Sporting Goods takes 5.222 seconds to load and is visually complete by 5.185 seconds. In
comparison there is Dicks is running faster and this will play a part in traffic.

Recommendation for improvements:

Perhaps if Sports Authority grouped their pictures similar to how Dicks Sporting Goods does it,
then there site load time would not take as long because you would be loading each page as you
click the particular category. Their load time is quicker because they load categories instead of
pictures and then a side bar of categories. The continuous scroll may feel like it would help
because you only load whats needed but it still takes up more loading time for the ads to appear,
the header, and then the continent to load. On Dicks there are not as many ads and clickable
boxes for age appropriate tennis rackets.
30

b. URL
SportsAuthority.com Score: 5/10
DicksSPortingGoods.com Score: 5/10
SportsAuthority Urls:
http://www.sportsauthority.com/home/index.jsp
http://www.sportsauthority.com/Golf-Racquet-Sports/category.jsp?
categoryId=3052500&clickid=topnav_Golf+%26+Racquet+Sports
http://www.sportsauthority.com/Team-Sports/Tennis/Racquets/family.jsp?
categoryId=22702526&cp=3052500.66276696

DicksSportingGoods URL:
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/home/index.jsp?ab=Header_DicksLogo
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/category/index.jsp?
ab=TopNav_TeamSports_TennisRacquet&categoryId=4418829&cp=4413887
Both of these sites use a lot of excess wordings on their URLS. The URL- naming
structure is semi good because they do say things like home Team and Sports but Google
may feel tricked because it seems that Sports Authority put in a lot of words to come up on
difference search engine options.
My recommendation for Sports Authority, which would help put them above Dicks in this
category, would be to evaluate their URLs and try to condense them. If they were more to the
point they could possibly be the top two when searched for athletic material. Their homepage
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URL seems closest to what all of their page need to be. They should look at what the numbers in
the URLS mean and look for words that could take its place or make them more readable.

VII.

Links (Ln, Lq)

A .Link Number
SportsAuthority.com No. of Referring Domains: 9,863
DicksSportingGoods.Com No. of Referring Domains: 20,633
B. Link Quality (Lq)
SportsAuthority.com No. of Referring Domains: 3
DicksSportingGoods.com No. of Referring Domains: 9
Explanation:

Sports Authority has 32 educational links and 8 government links while Dicks has 32
educational and 8 government links. These domains are more exclusive and not available to
everyone. These are the most trusted site. There are other links to blogs, sports sites, and other
stores (malls, warehouse, etc) but these arent as good as the .edu/.gov/. mil.

VIII. Conclusions & Priority Recommendations

SportsAuthority.com should begin work on their overall quality of content first. On the
Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, content quality is a +3 which means it is one of the most
important factors in having a successful website.
HTML is important as well because it has a ranking of a +3 on the periodic table as well.
SportsAuthority.com should make actual names for their image names because it is a bunch of
random letters and numbers at this point and that is a violation of Googles Best Practices.
SportsAuthority.com should go more into depth with descriptions of their products on productlevel pages. It is crucial for content quality to be specific as well as unique. Sports Authority
Social media presence is satisfactory. They are not even competing with Dicks at this point.
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Their Pinterest is a good example that content isnt everything. Sports Authority has more boards
and pins but less followers then Dicks. Shares and Reputations are +1 and +2 together and right
now Sports Authority is lacking. They need to reach out more with their social media by video
campaigns, active retweets and follows on twitter, and way more Instagram post. Finally their
speed is not that bad of an issue. They should focus on different layouts and less ads for their
home page and tennis racquet page. It takes too long to load so they should switch to drop down
menus wit selective pictures instead of having too many images

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