August 31, 2014
Nike is an American multinational corporation that sells shoes, clothing, accessories, sporting equipment and more. I have chosen ten keywords that I associate with the brand and its products and will then test them in a search engine to see if Nike is generated in the results.
Keywords: Nike, performance running wear, swoosh, fuel band, Nike shoes, Jordans, Re2pect, NFL jersey, Shox, KD VI
Search Enginge: Google
Results
1. Nike: Yes, Nike is the number one search result.
2. performance running wear: This did not generate results for Nike. It is interesting to note, however, that an ad for ADIDAS running wear appeared on top of the search results.
3. swoosh: Yes, Nike is the number one search result.
4. fuel band: Yes, not only is Nike the number one search result, but the Nike webstore is the second search result and an add for the Nike+ FuelBand sits on top of the results.
5. Nike shoes: Yes, Nike is the number one search result, the Nike webstore is the second search result and an ad for Nike.com appears on top of the search results.
6. Jordans: Yes, Nike appears as the second search result–Foot Locker being the first. There is also an ad sitting above the search results for Nike Jordan shoes (second ad out of two–first ad belongs to Finish Line).
7. Re2pect: Yes, the Nike website is the first search result with their Re2pect commercial on YouTube showing up as the second result.
8. NFL jersey: Yes, NFL jersey generated search results that saw Nike sitting at number two, behind the official NFL shop website. A Nike ad for NFL jerseys appears as the second out of two ads on top of the search results.
9. Shox: Yes, the Nike webstore shows up as the second result in the search results, the first being Finish Line.
10. KD VI: Yes, Nike is the first result. They are also the second ad out of two ads on top of the search results listing.
I’m 9 for 10.
Safari on Mac OS X hasn’t been the easiest browser to use to view a page’s source code, so I was able to find a website called SEMRush that helped me view Nike’s actual keywords that are part of their site’s Meta data.
Actual Keywords that Nike uses include: Nike, Nike.com, Nike Outlet, NikeID, Nike shoes, Jordan shoes, Nike fuel band, Nike ID, Jordan, Lebron 11
I was a little surprised to see that Nike didn’t appear in any search results for running wear because every time I see a race, the majority of runners are wearing Nike clothing. In stores, Nike always seems to also have a very large selection of athletic wear. It was intriguing to see that ADIDAS had an ad for their running wear even appear in the search results while Nike, a competitor, was noticeably missing.
For me, there were no additional surprises because I fully expected Nike to be in the top results for their Jordan, Re2pect and KD VI campaigns. I would have been concerned if the company wasn’t listed as a search result for the aforementioned. Since Nike is also the official uniform provider for the NFL, I suspected that if I searched for NFL jerseys, that Nike would be one of the top links.
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Tags: SEO, Nike, MMC5427, Search Engine Optimization, Search Results
I would agree that there are no real surprise that Nike dominated the Google results page when search for the keywords that you listed above. Nike dominates the industry when it comes to athletic apparel, shoes, and lifestyle. Though, it was interesting to me that the one generic keyword you search did not produce any results for Nike. This makes me wonder how Nike would stand up to its competitors when a consumer is not searching for brand-specific apparel (i.e. running shoes, compression shorts, or workout gear). Many of the keywords in your search were for products that were made specifically by Nike, so it would seem that Nike should be the top result for these products. But what if the consumer is not looking specifically for “Jordans” and is just interested in browsing “sneakers?” I wonder how Nike’s SEO would hold up then.
Hey Danielle,
I ran a general search for sneakers after your mention. Believe it or not, no specific brands show up when Googling “sneakers.” Rather, shoe stores come up like DSW, Finish Line and Foot Locker. However, Nike did have an ad on the results page. It was my assumption that when people search for shoes, they have a general idea of which type they are looking for. When I Googled a more specific term like, “running shoes,” more stores popped up rather than shoe companies themselves. Nonetheless, Nike was the only actual shoe brand to land on the first page of the results (New Balance and ADIDAS had ads). Thank you for the suggestion :o)
Like Danielle, Iām also surprised that generic key terms such as athletic running wear did not produce top results for Nike. I searched out yoga wear and golf clothing ā both of which Nike produces. As many of know yoga wear is a huge market ā I recently read an article that showed yoga pants purchases were outspending jeans. While Nike did not have this match as a general search term, the term golf clothing did appear with Nike on the first page of a Google search ā albeit not the first few lines, it was buried lower on the page. This is really shocking to me since Nike has such large market share in golf and general athletics. Dickās Sporting Goods ā which could be considered a competitor of Nike, actually came up before the larger conglomerate. Given your research, I guess this means Dickās is doing a better job at managing SEO than Nike ā shocker! After conducting this assignment this week, I find that general key terms are as important as brand specific terms ā particularly if youāre a smaller less know brand. Again, we revert back to Dr. Mahoneās lecture to remind ourselves as marketers that we have to think about how people search.
Daniela Circoncsio
Hey Daniela,
I agree–general key terms are very much just as important as brand specific terms. I guess, for me anyway, I don’t think of yoga pants being associated with Nike as I would them being associated with brands like Victoria’s Secret and lululemon. So, I guess I am not surprised that Nike wasn’t a leader in this specific search. I also find it fascinating that yoga pants purchases are outspending jeans–as I sit here in yoga pants. My first impression of that would be that yoga pants appear to be a more transitional piece of clothing since you are able to wear a long shirt over it for a casual and comfortable look, or even throw a scarf in the mix. But, the best part is you don’t have to put in too much effort to get your work out in since you are already partially dressed for it! All in all, it appears that Nike’s focus is on terms that are more associated with athletes (i.e.: the Lebron James and Kevin Durant campaigns that show up in the brand’s keywords) than some of their other products.
Megan –
Love that you chose Nike. I had to read your post because I too chose Nike but used entirely different terms. I didnāt even consider using branding terms such as āswoosh.ā Given that you chose more iconic keywords associated with the Nike brand, or various lines within Nike, Iām surprised you didnāt also search ājust do it.ā I also found running to be a very prominent term for Nike. While I do associate Nike with running, I also consider it to be so much more than a runnerās brand, as it encompasses many different athletic activities and sporting teams. I like that you included product lines or sub-brands (for lack of a better term) within Nike ā Jordans, Shox, etc. I didnāt realize how prevalent Nike is in regards to NFL apparelā¦Iām more of a college football fan myself. Thank you for telling us what program you used. I am unfamiliar with SEMRush and didnāt use a program for my project but rather looked at URLS and meta and title tags. Overall, great post ā very interesting to see how two people can choose the same brand, yet select very different keywords.
Kaitlin,
I was interested in seeing how Nike stacked up to competitors who may be trying to market a shoe to consumers like Shox–so I didn’t do the specific term, “Nike Shox,” just so I could give in to my curiosity and see what resulted. To me, it was interesting that words associated with a type of shoe wouldn’t have drawn a larger number of competitor ads.
Nike is also such a dynamic company that it can appeal to many different people for so many different reasons. That is really fascinating how we can take two totally different approaches to one brand!
Since I updated to Mavericks, viewing source code is possible for me, but it breaks the css coding and php pages down in to many different levels–so unless you know which folder to find it in, it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack! I was so thankful for SEMRush!
To view source in Safari, you need to go to Preferences->Advanced and check “Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar”
-Dr. Cain
Dr. Cain,
I do have a checkmark next to that field, but thank you for helping me try to figure it out! Here is a link to what the screen looks like for the Nike.com source. As you can see, I even did a search for the term “keywords” and the coding said there was nothing found. http://tinypic.com/r/312flfb/8