Dominos takes more than a slice of the online delivery market share
Over the past four years we as a junk food loving nation have turned to the Internet even more to order one of our favourite foods – the beloved Pizza. Using Google Insights data its is clear to see that we’re happy turning our backs on health nuts Jamie Oliver and Gillian McKeefe by searching even more over time for deliveries straight to our door (all Pizza related searches):
Google insights data for Pizza keyword terms
Google obviously believes that we will continue to feed our expanding waistlines by predicting searches will continue to grow over 2010. It is debatable whether or not these figures will actually happen, however we only have to take a look at profits made by Domino’s Pizza to see what an impact our searching online is having. Dominos have successfully managed to market its online service by improving sales by 38.9%. Although their spokesperson may credit the most used excuse of ‘Economic turmoil’ – there is no doubting the combination of a successful brand and good organic positions within Google have aided this growth in 2009.
Take a look at a the following chart that highlights the current positions www.dominos.co.uk has achieved in Google UK to date:
Dominos web radar chart
It is extremely clear to see the dominant position www.dominos.co.uk has achieved within Google, Yahoo! and Bing. If you’re interested in finding out how www.dominos.co.uk achieved these positions and obtaining even more competitive insight, please do not hesitate in contacting us. As you’ll see from the next chart, these positions aren’t an overnight success but have been consistently high for over a year:
Historical Pizza data in Google
This chart indicates a monopoly in Google for a wide selection of Pizza keyword terms – with Pizza delivery being a very competitive term. Of course there are many other Pizzerias and delivery services that we can choose from, including Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Pizza Go go and Perfect Pizza. All of these products range in price, service and overall taste – however, perform at very different levels online.
If we take a look at the keyword term ‘Pizza Delivery’ and assess the impact of the major Pizza suppliers in the UK – it is clear to see who are the market leaders:
Industry overview of Pizza delivery market online
All major Pizza brands appear on page one in Google UK for the keyword term ‘Pizza delivery’, however it is clear to see that only two URLs have dominated the top two positions in Google for over two years. Papa Johns, Pizza Gogo and Perfect Pizza have all entered the top ten following the major algorithm change in June 2009, which saw a number of URLs improve dramatically in positions due to the authority of their backlinks. Prior to this date all three URLs were lingering between positions 70 and 100, but now are in a good position to challenge both Pizza Hut and Dominos.
Of course with this type of keywords there are opportunities to rank for local keyword terms, including local business results for generic keyword terms also. Below are a number of tables highlighting the current position of each URL for a number of ‘city’ terms. Bear in mind that each URL is now competing against local Pizzerias who aren’t too concerned with generic keyword terms.
Date: 24/03/10
Pizza Hut
Local keyword terms - Pizza Hut
Dominos
Local keyword terms - Dominos
Pizza Express
Local keyword terms - Pizza Express
Perfect Pizza
Local keyword terms - Perfect Pizza
Pizza Gogo
Local keyword terms - Pizza Gogo
Papa Johns
Local keyword terms - Papa Johns
A bit of a mixed bag from a local search point of view, however both Dominos and Pizza Hut are performing well – with Pizza Go Go trailing behind.
If we take an entry in the SERPs for ‘Pizza delivery’, lets see if there are any basic things we can do to it to make it more appealing to click on and improve in rankings further. Lets take a look at Papa Johns:
Papa Johns SERPs snippet
The URL is currently returning in 8th position in Google for the keyword. If you’ve searched for a particular keyword term, you would kind of expect it to appear somewhere in the entry on the SERPs page. Both the title and META description do not contain the term and it would be beneficial to the company if they modified both these tags to include the term. Take a look at a snapshot from one of our unique tools:
Keyword density versus SEO tool
www.dominos.co.uk are represented by the pink bar, whilst www.papajohns.co.uk do not feature due to the omission of the term from both elements. This screenshot shows us that the title tag for www.dominos.co.uk is made up of eight words and 25% of those eight words are the keyword term ‘Pizza Delivery’. We have a wide selection of these SEO tools that can help refine your copy to be more appealing to users, which in turn will aid organic rankings. If you’re interested in finding out what our SEO tools can do for your business, then please do not hesitate in dropping us an email.
Note: This study is purely an analysis of the Pizza sector online and not a case study.