December 2013

10 St. John Street, Chester, CH1 1DA 0845 299 7668 hello@insideonline.co.uk www.insideonline.co.uk
LIGHTING
Sector Report
Thanks for reading our sector report,
At Inside Online, we deliver results from understanding data and take great pride in the level of insights
and thought leadership we provide for our clients. To assist us we have engineered ITOM our intelligent
management platform to allow us to aggregate and interpret vast amounts of data to deliver on the pulse
insights into any online sector. With this data we produce these sector reports to communicate the top
level insights in an easy to understand manner.
Each report aims to help you understand the vast array of data used by online marketing specialists like
ourselves and how that data uncovers opportunities and risks. We hope you nd these reports easy to
digest, interesting and full of insight.
If you have any suggestions for our reports or would like some help understanding some of the data,
please contact us at inspired@insideonline.co.uk.
Kind regards,
Andy Cooper
Managing Director
1. Search Volume Overview
2. Seasonal Trends
3. Keyword Competitiveness
4. Visibility Overview
5. Visibility Year on Year
6. Short Term Potential
7. Rate of Link Acquisition
8. Authority of Linking Domains
9. Visibility vs Authority
10. Visibility vs Indexed
11. Underperforming Sites
Contents
Lighting Sector Report
Lighting Sector Report - 1
Search Volume Overview
heals.co.uk 11063
wayfair.co.uk 9852
lightinthebox.com 9525
lightbulbs-direct.com 2496
lightrabbit.co.uk 1962
qvsdirect.com 1639
universal-lighting.co.uk 1481
lighting-direct.co.uk 1320
lyco.co.uk 1210
lights4fun.co.uk 1188
thelightbulb.co.uk 1175
lights2go.co.uk 1122
ledhut.co.uk 1057
castlegatelights.co.uk 1029
lightsaver.co.uk 1010
ultraleds.co.uk 758
litecraft.co.uk 701
Brand Searches Per Month
Brand search volume desktop vs mobile search
Mobile 15%
Desktop 85%
Total search volume around lighting has declined overall in the last 5 years, however December
2013 is up 36% from December 2012 and is at the highest levels seen in the market since
November 2010.
Lighting Sector Report - 2
The graph below shows how the UK weekly search volume for Lighting compares between 2011 and 2012.
The data has been normalised, therefore the trend lines show the percentage of peak search volume (y axis).
The trend lines are designed to give some insight into what has been a turbulent year for online retail as a
whole.
Seasonal Trends
The data above is taken from Google UK
search only. The trends take into account
searches from Desktop and mobile devices.
It is important to highlight that the above
seasonal trend is just for a single keyword.
The trend shown is unlikely to represent the
overall search volume within the industry. If
the search volume for the keyword above
is down year on year, it may be that the
search volume within longer-tail queries has
increased.
Lighting Search volume trends
2012 2011 2013
Lighting Sector Report - 3
The chart below shows how monthly search volume for each specic keyword compares to the organic
competitiveness of each keyword. Such analysis helps to identify low hanging fruit within the industry:
keywords which have substantial search volume, but with limited competition in the search results. An
efective search strategy will constantly review keyword strategy, examining short, medium and
longer-term goals. How does your keyword strategy compare?
Keyword Competitiveness
Keywords:
1. led light bulbs
2. led lighting
3. garden lights
4. led lights
5. light bulbs
6. light bulb
7. outdoor lighting
8. strip lights
9. led bulbs
10. wall lights
11. led ceiling lights
12. oor lamp
13. oor lamps
14. ceiling lights
15. kitchen lighting
16. bedside lamps
17. oor lights
18. bathroom lights
19. bathroom lighting
20. oor lamps uk
21. light switches
22. kitchen lights
23. security lights
24. light ttings
25. led strip lights
Lighting Sector Report - 4
Searchmetrics track over 100 million keywords from Google UK, recording organic rankings and average
paid search positions. This data is then cross referenced with the search volume for each individual keyword,
giving popular keywords greater visibility weighting. The graph below shows how each sites search visibility
compares, splitting out organic and paid search visibility.
Visibility Overview
Organic Paid
This graph is designed to give you an overview of how sites are performing in comparison to each
other, within Google.co.uk only. It does not give an accurate insight into the monthly PPC or SEO
spend for each site.
Lighting Sector Report - 5
Organic Search Paid Search Total
Nov 13 Nov 12 Diference Nov 13 Nov 12 Diference Nov 13 Nov 12 Diference
heals.co.uk 10768 11955 -10% 295 440 -33% 11063 12395 -11%
wayfair.co.uk 9852 4827 104% 0 1225 -100% 9852 6052 63%
lightinthebox.com 5421 2318 134% 4104 10113 -59% 9525 12431 -23%
lightbulbs-direct.com 2043 1724 19% 453 486 -7% 2496 2210 13%
lightrabbit.co.uk 1924 68 2729% 38 0 0% 1962 68 2785%
qvsdirect.com 1502 2773 -46% 137 502 -73% 1639 3275 -50%
universal-lighting.co.uk 1463 657 123% 18 42 -57% 1481 699 112%
lighting-direct.co.uk 1009 191 428% 311 463 -33% 1320 654 102%
lyco.co.uk 1105 2002 -45% 105 225 -53% 1210 2227 -46%
lights4fun.co.uk 1035 2803 -63% 153 361 -58% 1188 3164 -62%
thelightbulb.co.uk 795 772 3% 380 436 -13% 1175 1208 -3%
lights2go.co.uk 1024 1382 -26% 98 578 -83% 1122 1960 -43%
ledhut.co.uk 354 2109 -83% 703 753 -7% 1057 2862 -63%
castlegatelights.co.uk 813 582 40% 216 246 -12% 1029 828 24%
lightsaver.co.uk 284 408 -30% 726 829 -12% 1010 1237 -18%
ultraleds.co.uk 754 847 -11% 4 0 0% 758 847 -11%
litecraft.co.uk 658 3263 -80% 43 174 -75% 701 3437 -80%
lightingmajestic.co.uk 628 0 0% 2 0 0% 630 0 0%
thelightingsuperstore.co.uk 516 490 5% 0 625 -100% 516 1115 -54%
sparksdirect.co.uk 421 255 65% 0 0 0% 421 255 65%
afordablelighting.co.uk 400 4 9900% 5 0 0% 405 4 10025%
pagazzi.com 191 246 -22% 168 163 3% 359 409 -12%
directlight.co.uk 285 344 -17% 0 0 0% 285 344 -17%
davey-lighting.co.uk 213 41 420% 0 0 0% 213 41 420%
lightingathome.co.uk 176 898 -80% 7 15 -53% 183 913 -80%
Visibility year on year
2012 was an incredibly turbulent year
for organic search, with the roll out of
some huge algorithmic updates. The sites
which have witnessed a signicant decline
in visibility may have been hit directly
by updates aimed at tackling link spam
(Penguin updates) or onsite content issues
(Panda updates). These two factors are the
most common explanations for drops in
visibility.
Other factors such as site changes
(expanding or reducing site size for
example) or making signicant structure
changes are other common reasons for
observing big increases or decreases in
organic visibility.
Lighting Sector Report - 6
The graph below shows the number of unique organic keywords each website has ranking on page 2 or 3 of
Google (positions 11 to 30). This is one way of measuring a sites short-term potential, as such keywords are
unlikely to be generating much trafc (if any) in these positions. With a little push, it is entirely realistic to push
many of these terms from page 2 or 3 onto page 1.
Short Term Potential
In order to make the most of the short-term potential each site has, it is essential to know which
keywords are ranking just outside of the trafc generating positions. Once this is known, some
simple onsite tweaks may be required to give these terms the push they need to begin attracting
organic trafc. Alternatively, if all possible onsite tweaks have been exhausted, the primary focus
should switch to increasing the overall authority of the domain.
Lighting Sector Report - 7
The greater the number of links a site has pointing towards it tends to correlate with the authoritativeness of
the domain, which in turn tends to correlate with organic visibility. Therefore, not only is the current state of
a domains link prole important, it is also vital to understand who is building new links the quickest (and how
they are doing it!). The graph below shows the average rate at which each domain has acquired new links
over the last 11 months. The source of this data is Majestic SEO.
Rate of Link Acquisition
As a general rule, the larger brands manage to obtain the highest number of links per month due to
their ability to naturally gather links. If smaller brands are managing to gather links at a higher rate, it
could be that aggressive link manipulation is taking place.
Lighting Sector Report - 8
In light of recent Google updates, the quality of linking domains has never been more important or under
as much scrutiny by Google. The graph below shows the number of unique linking domains each site has
pointing to it, broken down by the authority of each linking domain. Such factors carry signicant weighting
within the Google algorithm, and are likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Authority of Linking Domains
Very Authoritative Domains 70-100 Above Average Domain Authority 50-69 Average Domain Authority 30-49
Low Domain Authority 10-29 Very Low Quality Domains Under 10
The ultimate goal of any link acquisition
drive is to achieve links from domains
within the 70 100 range. 1 or 2 of these
links have the potential to rapidly increase
a sites organic visibility
Sites which have a large number of lower
quality links are advised to do a full review
to ensure none of the links are in breach of
the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Action
should be taken immediately on any
links which are found in breach of these
guidelines.
Lighting Sector Report - 9
As a general rule, there is a positive correlation between the number of inbound links and domain authority.
Likewise, there is usually a positive correlation between domain authority and organic visibility the greater
the authority, the greater the potential the site has to rank for organic keywords. The scatter graph below
shows how each sites organic visibility score (as measured by Searchmetrics) correlates with its domain
authority score (as measured by SEOMoz).
Visibility vs Authority
Sites which sit below the trend line are
likely to be able to nd quick onsite tweaks
which could rapidly increase their visibility.
With these sites, increasing the domain
authority is a longer-term strategy.
Sites which sit above the trend line are
far more likely to have reached close
to their optimal visibility through onsite
optimisation, and therefore putting focus
on increasing domain authority in the
short-term should be the immediate goal.
1. heals.co.uk
2. wayfair.co.uk
3. lightinthebox.com
4. lightbulbs-direct.com
5. lightrabbit.co.uk
6. universal-lighting.co.uk
7. qvsdirect.com
8. lyco.co.uk
9. lights2go.co.uk
10. lighting-direct.co.uk
11. lights4fun.co.uk
12a. thelightbulb.co.uk
12b. thelightbulb.co.uk
13a. ultraleds.co.uk
13b. litecraft.co.uk
14. lightsaver.co.uk
15. ledhut.co.uk
Lighting Sector Report - 10
All the work that a website does to increase its domain authority is worthless without a well built out site,
including a number of diferent pages to target each of the important relevant keywords and keyphrases
within that niche. A high number of indexed pages would generally correlate with a high level of organic
visibility as there are more pages that could rank for any given keyword query.
Visibility vs Indexed
Where a site has a high level of indexed
pages but a low organic visibility, this
may indicate an issue examples of such
issues could include duplicate pages, poor
domain authority, poor architecture and
link equity ow or a combination of all
three.
Where a site has a high organic visibility
but a low number of indexed pages,
this may indicate missed potential. The
site in question is doing well ranking for
the keywords it does target but there
are probably further pages that can be
built out to target a greater variety of
keywords and drive greater visibility and
consequently more trafc.
1. heals.co.uk
2. wayfair.co.uk
3. lightinthebox.com
4. castlegatelights.co.uk
5. ledhut.co.uk
6. lightbulbs-direct.com
7. lightrabbit.co.uk
8. qvsdirect.com
9. universal-lighting.co.uk
10. lyco.co.uk
11. lyco.co.uk
12. lights2go.co.uk
13. lighting-direct.co.uk
14. thelightbulb.co.uk
15. ultraleds.co.uk
16. litecraft.co.uk
17. lightsaver.co.uk
Lighting Sector Report - 11
Organic Visibility Paid Visibility Unique Linking
Domains
Domain Authority
lightingmajestic.co.uk 628 2 7 8
thelightingsuperstore.co.uk 516 0 565 35
sparksdirect.co.uk 421 0 372 35
afordablelighting.co.uk 400 5 144 30
pagazzi.com 191 168 145 30
directlight.co.uk 285 0 335 34
davey-lighting.co.uk 213 0 112 33
lightingathome.co.uk 176 7 158 31
Average of Underperforming Sites 354 23 230 30
Average of Visible Sites 4057 626 547 41
Sites which are underperforming organically have an obvious major common factor they have a limited
number of unique linking domains (almost a quarter of that of the performing websites). Each of the sites
listed 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 onsite optimisation and poor long-tail strategies.
Underperforming Sites
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10 St. John Street, Chester, CH1 1DA
0845 299 7668
hello@insideonline.co.uk
www.insideonline.co.uk
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