SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: A Study Into A Company That Uses SEO Techniques
STARBUCKS AND THEIR DOMINANCE ON THE COFFEE MARKET:
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
BEGINNINGS OF STARBUCKS
As I splurged my extra income to buy Starbucks coffee and a nice, warm muffin on the side while studying at the campus’s serene Starbucks headquarters and doing some light reviewing of my favorite subjects, I couldn’t help but to take an interest in how Starbucks came to be and the reason behind why it is so popular among people my age and with everyone of all ages and nationalities around the world. My love of the homely atmosphere of Starbucks, its lovely background music, and its wonderful drinks and snacks instilled in me a determination to do my SEO research paper topic on this beloved store cherished by millions just like me, hungering for a place of serenity within a large city.
Today, we will explore the intricacies of marketing and search engine optimization as we delve deeper into the history of Starbucks and what makes it so unique. Who would’ve thought that a single store could control most of the people’s appetites when it came to coffee? Starbucks has proven itself as a worthy seller of beverages and the occasional fluffy, warm croissant, however, everyone knows that Starbucks sells coffee the best. Does it seem like it was a pure miracle that made it so huge, or was it something else?
When Starbucks first arose out of the friendship by three people who met while they were in university: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Seigl and writer Gordon Bowker, who were all motivated to share their love of coffee roasting after learning clever business tactics from Alfred Peet, an entrepreneur (“History of Starbucks”). The name of the company was a bunch of ideas that ran back and forth between the founders until they settled on the name we know today (“History of Starbucks”). The locations of the stores spread vastly, with the first store arising in Seattle and growing to the thousands of successful ones we see today around the world (“History of Starbucks”).
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION & STARBUCKS
How did Starbucks grow to be so successful? It depends on what lens you are viewing the growth of the company through. Today, we are going to view Starbucks through the lens of Search Engine Optimization.
What is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is the process that ensures that a company’s site ranks high on the list within search engines for certain keywords and phrases (“What is SEO”). SEO enables businesses to become visible on the web for many people and when it is a large company like Starbucks, it allows them to reach a wide customer base (“What is SEO”). Several factors impact SEO, including but not limited to content marketing, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO (“What is SEO”). Content marketing means having high quality and relevant pieces of content on the site and the more effective the content is at gaining users’ attention, the more likely the business is to gain customers who organically look at their content (“What is SEO”). On-page SEO concerns the elements that are on the website, that the designers have control over, such as the meta description, alt tags, and internal links (“What is SEO”). Off-page SEO factors include trusted (being a legitimate company that people can trust) and being social, (being shared by influencers, etc.) (“What is SEO”). These are all the factors that Starbucks utilizes on their site: having a stable popularity base, being legitimate, having high-quality and relevant pieces of content. Using various coding and SEO techniques on their site allows new visitors to be attentive while browsing, keeps long-time customers satisfied and helps Starbucks create profit.
WEBSITE DESIGN & SEO
For Starbucks, we have an effortless, sleek design on the website that seeks to invite the hungry and curious customers in and soak themselves in the company’s vibes. The colors displayed through the site design mesh together — green, white, and black; a consistent color scheme within their products and their site is a psychological and marketing tactic to get customers to associate those colors with the delicious food and drinks they get to experience every time they buy something from the store. A message pops up when you enter the site for the first time: “Let us treat you”. This message evokes a feeling of comfort, satisfaction and the thrill of being a valued customer and it is one among many that permeate the lucid, simplistic interface. It allows the customer to learn that Starbucks has a Rewards program that gives “stars” to them for being actively being a customer. The main menu item links arranged on the top of the home page are “Menu, Rewards, Gift Cards, Find a store, Sign in and Join Now”. These menu links are representative of the values that the company holds dear to its heart as it aspires for more and more customers to come through its stores, collect their rewards and buy gift cards for their friends and family. The gift cards are an especially clever form of marketing, a gift that is sent to the main customer’s connections and brings even more recognition to Starbucks. This unique but simple design interface, clever marketing go hand in hand with search engine optimization, enabling Starbucks to consistently create relevant content that will be viewed by millions. That is how a company is made successful: through clever design tactics, marketing, SEO and making sure the customer is treated with the upmost care.
SITE CREDIBILITY & SEO
Starbucks is not so much interested in “organic SEO” since it is already a popular brand known worldwide, but they are mainly interested in the user experience aspect of SEO, one that allows the user to have a quality experience while browsing their site. Starbucks does indeed have organic SEO (having a high ranking on search engine results), as it is a popular search term on Google, appearing in the first results after searching for “Starbucks” or “Starbucks coffee” (Ledford, J. L., 2007). This is because it is, as we said, a credible site and company. “The more credible a site, the higher the chance of the site being listed among the top entries” (Lee, S.). Once again, the massive user base is due to years of nonstop marketing and SEO tactics, expressing itself through several layers of the internet.
USER EXPERIENCE, INTERACTIVITY & SEO
In terms of user experience, the customer has a reason to come back over and over again to the Starbucks site. User experience is integral to company popularity. “Bounce” is a keyword in SEO that means the “rate at which users bounce off your site” which is “an indicator of the usability of the site in terms of how relevant it is to what users are searching for” (Ledford, J. L., 2007). What happens with Starbucks is that it is entirely usable for everyone, regardless of whether or not they are familiar with navigating websites. Clear icons and labels help to steer users towards their goals. Therefore, when a user has a goal in mind when visiting the site, they are not likely to exit the website until they find what they are looking for. The Starbucks website’s interface is useful as it is aesthetically pleasing and simple to understand.
What makes Starbucks so optimal in terms of SEO is how interactive the site is, pulling users into the site whenever they get reminded of “coffee” or the other food products that the company offers. Enabling user interactivity, in turn, leads to goal conversion, which is the process of completing a form of activity that is designed to get further information about the user, such as signing up for a newsletter (Ledford, J. L., 2007). In the case of Starbucks, it entices customers to sign up for the Rewards memberships, which persuades them to become a regular customer, buying their products and gaining more Rewards in the process. The target goal conversion for Starbucks is for people to buy their products. As simple as SEO sounds, it involves varied levels, one of which we just discussed: user interactivity. The SEO in the Starbucks site involves goal conversion, not only that, but it is the kind of goal conversion that is attractive to new customers in participating in their membership program, enabling the growth of popularity and consistent profit for the company.
SOCIAL MEDIA, LINK SHARING & SEO
Another thing that Starbucks does well in terms of SEO is that it provides for a social media experience that enables SEO. Social networks “influence Google both directly and indirectly” (Zhang, S.). There are several ways to enable viral social sharing, which, in turn, leads to higher search engine optimization rankings. One of them is known as social presence, in which businesses having social media pages post updated, relevant content pertaining to their business, such as videos, hashtags and more (Zhang, S.). The more sharing between people, the more popular the business becomes, thus improving search engine rankings and site traffic. Link building is known as “the practice of building one-way hyperlinks (also known as “backlinks”) to a website with the goal of improving search engine visibility” (“Link Building For SEO”). It turns out that social sharing and link building differ, in that link building “will realize higher traffic and revenue than those using social sharing, for a sustained period of time” and “websites that use social sharing will increase traffic and revenue more immediately than those using link building” (Zhang, S.) In the case of Starbucks, its social presence is popularized through influencers and social-media sharers (especially within the platform Instagram), who share content relating to Starbucks that gains views and likes very quickly. Starbucks itself has a very popular social media following on Instagram and other social media sites, allowing customers a firsthand look at the new content and products and keeping them hooked because the products and content are always changing. For link building, there are a variety of blogs and other websites that link to Starbucks content, such as news articles and personal blogs. These SEO techniques of social media and link sharing are important in that they allow for a growing customer base, they allow for social media to be a platform in which customers themselves can market Starbuck’s products and they allow other sites to link to the company’s content.
BRAND NAME POPULARITY IMPACTS SEO
There is more to SEO than that. Throughout the years, the brand name of Starbucks has popularized. The rise in its popularity depended on the number of customers flocking to its stores, the success of its advertising campaign and consistency across different locations in providing quality service and products. Evidence shows that “marginal improvement in a retailer’s brand equity has a larger direct effect on its organic clicks than SEO efforts resulting in a marginal improvement in its position associated with a particular search term” (Baye, M.). This means that “stronger brand names enjoy more clicks, which results in better future ranks” (Baye, M.). If, for example, a similar store popped up selling the same types of food products, it wouldn’t create as much a large user base as Starbucks does today, all because its brand is not already established widely in people’s minds.
USER DEMOGRAPHICS, MARKETING & SEO
Another thing to note down is the demographic groups that Starbucks targets through SEO and marketing tactics. Due to its products being slightly higher-priced but tempting in the middle of a busy day, they target consumers with average income, as those with lower incomes would not be willing to invest so much in Starbucks products. What happens is that even the name “Starbucks” evokes a sense of comfort for a slightly higher price in the minds of those who can afford it in their day to day lives. For example, a low-income person would prefer to go to cheaper fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s (associated with being cheap but reliable) rather than Starbucks to fulfill their needs for food and nourishment, while a starving college student in the middle of a busy all-nighter might stumble into Starbucks looking to get a slightly high-priced beverage that will power them throughout their studying.
SUMMARIZATION OF SEO & STARBUCKS
Several factors are involved in the process of search engine optimization. Having an interactive and easy-to-use site with barely any learning curve is one of the things that Starbucks does well, reflecting its reputation as a brand that seeks to satisfy its customers and make it easier for customers to meet their goals when coming into the site. Link-building and social sharing create a domino effect that allows the company to gain popularity within search engines and social media organically and effortlessly. The more a brand’s content is shared across social media, the better chances they gain in having their content displayed on the front page of search engines.
The idea that three college students had, that coffee can be developed into a multitude of beverages and sold to hungry customers, that grew into what we know today as Starbucks, is not the result of a miracle, but the result of years and years of dedication and perseverance. The company has already achieved dominance in the coffee and beverage industry, competing with other name brands such as McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts. The abundant popularity is shown online, wherever you go, as a certain ad pops up or a friend shares the brand on Instagram.
There is no escaping a company when it has effectively steered itself to becoming a daily household name and a brand that seeks to soothe the hungry and thirsty customer in the middle of a hectic work day.
The sleek and simple design that Starbucks has within its website allows customers to easily find what they want, while the marketing tactics and search engine optimization enable more popularity for the brand. It is far easier to gain a higher search engine ranking if the company is already recognized by millions and has made a place for itself in the food and beverage industry. Even though some groups of low-income people might not want to spend their money on these products, there is a wider range of other types of people, from college students to busy adults that might want a taste of these products that energize and revitalize. Through carefully selected search optimization techniques over the years, from building up its social media presence to developing search engine popularity through streamlined website design, the company has grown to be the go-to store for coffee and food products. The site design ensures that visitors, however inexperienced they are, aren’t confused or get lost in trying to fulfill their goals.
After figuring out the intricate business details that the famous company of Starbucks implements daily to boost customer engagement and profit and through showcasing the company’s search engine optimization techniques, we have effectively gained a deeper understanding of how other businesses can use these strategies to their advantage.
Citations (APA)
Baye, M., De Los Santos, B., & Wildenbeest, M. (2016). Search Engine Optimization: What Drives Organic Traffic to Retail Sites? Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 25(1), 6–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12141
History of Starbucks. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://coffee.org/pages/history-of-starbucks
Kumar, S., & Gupta, P. (2016). A survey of techniques and applications for search engine optimization. Research Journal of Science and Technology, 8(2), 59–70. doi:http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.5958/2349-2988.2016.00008.5
Ledford, J. L. (2007). Seo : Search engine optimization bible. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu
Link Building For Seo: The Definitive Guide (2020). (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://backlinko.com/link-building
Lee, S., Jang, W., Lee, E., & Oh, S. G. (2016). Search engine optimization. Library Hi Tech, 34(2), 197–206. doi:http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.1108/LHT-02-2016-0014
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide — Search Console Help. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2020, from https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en
Zhang, S., & Cabage, N. (2017). Search engine optimization: Comparison of link building and social sharing. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 57(2), 148–159. doi:http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.1080/08874417.2016.1183447
What is SEO and How It Works? [Here’s the Answer]. (2019, November 11). Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/what-is-seo-and-how-it-works/
