Window Blind Companies - How do they do SEO?

I wanted to test out a new SEO tool that we have created internally here at Embryo. The tool takes a snapshot of an industry in super-quick time. So where better to start than the UK blinds industry online?

I've taken a look at six blinds websites: hillarys.co.uk, blindsdirect.co.uk, blinds-2go.co.uk, makemyblinds.co.uk, swiftdirectblinds.co.uk, and 247blinds.co.uk.

Visibility in searches relating to window blinds and related products

The graph above shows the visibility of each site using data from SISTRIX. As you can see, blinds-2go.co.uk has more visibility than the other sites studied, but this seems to be on the wane in recent months. 247blinds.co.uk seems to have taken the steepest dip over the past year, with blindsdirect.co.uk also losing significant ground. makemyblinds.co.uk is the site that seems to have come from nowhere, and is making great strides. This will be an interesting site to watch over the next few months.

How many keywords does each site rank for?

Despite not being the leading site in terms of visibility, hillarys.co.uk towers above the rest in terms of the number of keywords that can find the site. Despite being a well-known brand, blindsdirect.co.uk has the lowest keyword reach, even being beaten by makemyblinds.co.uk. This indicates that there could perhaps be structural issues with the site, but we will discover more as we go through the data.

How many links point to each site?

Once again, hillarys.co.uk towers over the competition in terms of the number of links* that point to each site. So, hillarys.co.uk has by far more links, and by far more keywords, yet the visibility isn't in a commanding lead. This potentially shows structural and/or content issues across the site.

Once again, makemyblinds.co.uk fares really well considering the age (and head start) of some of the other sites. Nice job done by whoever is responsible for their online marketing. blinds-2go.co.uk also seems to be doing a very good job.

*when I refer to links, I count the unique IP addresses of websites that link to each site, which helps to cut out websites and servers where multiple sites and links exist. Serpstat is the chosen link metric for this report.

How many pages indexed?

Well, blindsdirect.co.uk certainly have many more pages indexed by Google than everyone else. But based on them being only 4th in terms of visibility, are these pages actually useful? Could they even be causing harm to the domain? Having taken a closer look at their page and site layout, it is also clear to see that makemyblinds.co.uk have leveraged some excellently-crafted and optimised pages alongside their excellent site structure.

What is the 'domain rank' for each site?

The domain rank (taken from Serpstat API data) shows that all sites are of similar rank, although it must be noted that domain rank is not linear. A 50 rating is significantly better than a 45 rating, for example.

Core Web Vitals Scores

Using the rather excellent Experte Core Web Vitals Check tool, you can see above that blinds-2go.co.uk leads the way among its peers. This is and will continue to be a metric that helps with the ranking of a site. For those who don't know, the above scores are:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - how long it takes a page to load for the human viewer.

First Input Delay (TBT on above chart) - how quickly can the user interact with the page?

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - how visually stable is the page as it is loading?

Spotlights

I will take a brief look at some of the sites in the study. These are not extensive, but surface level views of the findings. A much more in-depth study of each would unearth many more things.

Spotlight on hillarys.co.uk

hillarys.co.uk success undoubtedly comes from a good link profile which helps it to a great domain rank and the wide array of keywords that it ranks for. However, in comparison with the other sites, it has relatively few pages. This indicates a few things to me: that the existing content and platform are very palatable to Google robots and algorithm, but also that if it created more pages, targeting even more keywords than it currently does, it could very quickly take top spot on the visibility graph. Perhaps improvements in Core Web Vitals score will also prove very fruitful, too. There is a lot more juice to be extracted in hillarys.co.uk, I think.

Spotlight on blinds-2go.co.uk

blinds-2go.co.uk currently takes top spot in terms of search visibility among the sites studies - but why is this the case? Second only to hillarys.co.uk in terms of keyword reach, yet having higher visibility shows that the keywords that it does rank for place higher on average.

Link profile for blinds-2go is strong in power (some great interior design and news links), if not in number, but with a good number of pages indexed, and some good on-page SEO work, it is easy navigable, and really nice to use. And even though I would suggest it needs more content per page, it is enough to ward off the competition in a relatively low-content-per-page sector.

The site is also blazingly-fast to use and scores well in terms of Google's 'Core Web Vitals'. Coincidence?

Spotlight on makemyblinds.co.uk

To my eye, this is the most modern, enjoyable, and easy-on-the-eye site to use of the sites studied. The site is relatively fast to use, has great imagery, relatively clear in how to use it, and has some decent on-page SEO work done. It has a really good number of pages indexed, which will probably flourish should they be populated with more content as time goes on.

Link building is by-the-book, yet solid, and you can see how if they ramp up current activity, that it will take up a big part of searches relating to blinds online. If links from a digital PR campaign were sought and gained, then this site could REALLY create a space for itself in the industry.

If this site was a footballer, it would be Phil Foden of one year ago...you just know it is going to be special if it keeps up the hard work.

Spotlight on blindsdirect.co.uk

Based on the significant fall of visibility over the past year, my initial thoughts were that the site had been superseded by the good work of other sites - both in terms of architecture and in terms of core web vitals-related issues. This is pretty much the case. Very interestingly, blindsdirect.co.uk is the only site among the group to not use breadcrumb navigation which is a must for e-commerce websites in my opinion.

Unless the site ups its game in terms of core web vitals, improves structural elements, and gets much better links (looking at their link profile, they have a plethora of duplicated sites using archaic SEO tactics that don't wash today), then the site could continue to slide.

Spotlight on swiftdirectblinds.co.uk

This site has seen a real decrease in visibility over the past year, but what could be causing it? It wasn't hard to spot lots of spam in their link profile, which is either self-inflicted, or the tactic of an outsider. Either way, it should be disavowed as soon as possible, if not already done so. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the lowest domain rank score, who knows?

The site is also the slowest, and scores poorly on the Core Web Vitals report above, which will also probably be a factor in its demise. I think a fresh approach to the SEO strategy of this site is probably needed.

Spotlight on 247blinds.co.uk

I can tell that good work has been done on this site to make it as fast as possible for the human visitor. Link building is by the book, with some highlights from very relevant sites, but yet still, the site has seen large visibility losses over the past year.

The site is fast, as stated, and is quite mechanical in how it is seen by the human. You are met with walls of products, but with little description/instruction about each of them. But the structure of the site is very shallow, which can be seen by the number of pages indexed. It does not allow Google to understand that it is a top-tier site in the industry. There are no second tier pages (e.g. a page for 'white vertical blinds', or a page for 'conservatory door blinds' - just top tier 'vertical blinds' etc.) which doesn't help with Googles improvements in understanding contextuality over the past few years.

I feel that 247blinds has by far the weakest approach to content of all the sites studied, and would clearly benefit from a 'content-first mindset'. Much more of the written word, coupled with a better site architecture, and this site will regain its lost visibility and then some.

Summary

I hope that you found this article useful, whether you are in the blinds sector, in e-commerce, or just generally interested in how online markets operate. This is not an in-depth look into the sector, which would take many more hours, but is a brief overview of initial findings - but still, some very interesting things for each site operator to take a look at.