Frenzy For Fast Food- an SEO Audit of two Brands.

Written by:  Adam Smithson.

“McDonalds vs. Subway -  Which Brand Optimizes For Taste, Quality and Service”

Introduction

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because, in today’s world the difference in the search order of your company online can mean the difference between a successful company, and a non-existent one.  In the Fast Food industry, McDonalds and Subway are two of the largest and most successful brands on the market. Using keyword sentences throughout their sites like “I’m lovin it”, we can analyze what company has the stronger SEO.

SEO Considerations

McDonalds: 

URL - http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en.html

Page Title - English|McDonalds.ca

Meta Description - English | McDonalds.ca

Structural elements: H1: You’re in! • BUILD YOURANGUS BURGER • BUILD YOURANGUS BURGER • Join our Email List • You’re in!

H2:Thanks for signing up! • Thanks for signing up!

Alt Text - i'm lovin' it. • food flyout image link

Page Load Time - 2.704 seconds

Observations Regarding Page layout: - Very clean, not too much data

Observations Regarding Visual Content - Very interactive      

        

Call-to-action - Very engaging

Subway: 

URL - http://www.subway.com/en-CA

Page Title - Home|Subway.com – Canada(English)

Meta Description - <META HTTP-EQUIV="Cache-Control" CONTENT="no-cache,no-Store"

Structural Elements - None found

Strong tags - Join the winning team and own your future with SUBWAY® Restaurants today!

Alt Text - Logo • SUBWAY • SUBWAY • Celebrate BBQ Season • Here's to Good Mornings • Own a Franchise • Congrats to all the grads! • Get News and Offers • Follow Us on Twitter - EN • Find Us on Facebook • Test february

Page Load Time - 1.11 seconds

Observations Regarding Page layout - Lots of Information

Observations Regarding Visual Content  - Lots of pictures, slightly overwhelming

Call-to-action - Very engaging

Google Trends:

Google Trends Insights:

It is very interesting that McDonalds and Subway both have a significantly higher amount of searches than individuals just searching for fast food. When it comes to these two brands, most individuals are aware of them because of their company size and brand power. It is very important to recognize this when speaking about marketing for McDonalds and Subway.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

Fast Food

top 10 fast food restaurant

list fast food restaurants

fast food restaurants near me

fast food restaurants

healthiest fast food restaurants

McDonalds

mcdonald's full menu and prices

mcdonald's nfl game

mcdonald's online application

mcdonalds job application

mcdonald's jobs hiring now

Subway

subway menu

subway map

subway coupons

subway subs menu

subway locations

Summary:

McDonalds strengths are its use of it’s very notable catch phrases such as I’m lovin it, and from its large number of tagged links.  Subways strengths are from the large amount of information found in the alternate text, and from its very quick load time. Both sites also rank very well because of their brand power.

Conclusion:

In the fast food industry, McDonalds and Subway are both leaders in SEO. This is mainly due to their brand power and use of tags throughout their website. However it is important to note that McDonalds has the far superior SEO due to the number of linked websites as well as the general  interactivity involved in the site.

Bibliography: 

Google. (2016). Google Trends. Retrieved from Google: https://www.google.ca/trends/explore#q=Fast%20Food%2C%20%2Fm%2F07gyp7%2C%20Subway&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4

LSI Graph. (2016). LSI Graph. Retrieved from LSI Graph: http://lsigraph.com/

McDonalds. (2015). McDonalds. Retrieved from McDonalds: http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en.html

Subway. (2016). Subway Home. Retrieved from Subway: http://www.subway.com/en-ca