HubSpot's Website Grader! (try saying that (really fast) 10 times in a row! WHEW!)
First of all, what is "Website Grader?"
HubSpot's free marketing tool, Website Grader, measures the marketing effectiveness of a website and provides an inbound marketing score (on a scale of zero to 100) that incorporates website traffic, SEO, the blogosphere, social media and other inbound marketing factors.
Website Grader was built in the early days of HubSpot, - in February, 2007. The tool was initially created as a way to generate buzz, organic/viral traffic, inbound links and leads for HubSpot's inbound marketing software, thus creating a useful tool for the sales process.
Today, Website Grader still proves to be a valuable tool for HubSpot, potential customers, small to midsized businesses and marketers alike. Since Website Grader's launch, several other free marketing tools have been added to what is now a whole family of HubSpot graders, including Twitter Grader and Facebook Grader.
Now, let's get down to business! :)
I chose to compare the following websites:
TARGET AND WAL-MART
3 recommendations for Target:
- they clearly need to increase their number of "Google Indexed pages"! Their current number is 379,000, compared to Wal-Mart's 2,960,000. This is the approximate number of pages on Target's website - that have been stored in the Google index. The google web crawler will visit the website periodically and look for new content for its index. So, the more pages Target has within the Google cache --- THE BETTER.
- in need of a "last google crawl date". Google periodically crawls websites looking for new and updated information. So, in general, a large company like Target - would want Google to crawl their site as often as possible, so their new content shows up in search results immediately.
- increase their "inbound links". Target currently has 320, 103, which is significantly lower than Wal-mart's. One of the most important measures for a website is how many sites link to it. The more links the better! Having links to a website helps companies rank higher in search engines since the links are an indication that a specific website (like Target) is trustworthy and contains good content.
3 recommendations for Wal-mart:
- they need to make their website "easier to read!" Their readability level is "Advanced/Doctoral". In most cases, the content should be made to be simple so that a majority of the target audience can understand it. There is no reason why Wal-mart's website is that difficult to read/view/understand. They should simplify it to a "secondary/high school" readability level - like Target!
- they need to renew their domain. Google and other search engines sometimes penalize websites with domains that are set to expire soon. (Wal-mart's expires in 3 months)
- they need to include more headings. They currently only have 2 -which is very low. Headings help search engine spiders understand the content on a page and what is most important. It is a very good idea to use headings to help signal to the search engines, what the page is all about.
As we all know - both of these websites are EXTREMELY popular and profitable. I wonder if their results would change if they considered my three recommendations!! hee hee :)
I am surprised that Wal-Mart’s website readability level is rated at the advanced/doctorate level. Wal-Mart attracts a broad range of customers, and I would think that a large number of their visitors would benefit from simplified content. Website Managers should all take advantage of Hubspot’s Website Grader so they can get ideas for improving effectiveness. Detailed feedback will provide the opportunity to consider changes for improvement.
ReplyDeleteI second Angela's surprise about the readability. The site I studied, backcountry.com, offers a lot of high-end merchandise. While it isn't always the case that more money means a higher education level, there is often a tie, and backcountry.com came in at the high school level.
ReplyDeleteI've always been extremely Target loyal, but I peeked at the Wal-Mart site because of your blog. Did you notice the huge selection of freebies? Talk about value! :)