Seasonal Trends 
Visibility Vs Authority 
Link Acquisition 
Content Performance 
10 minutes
Reading time
20 pages
Length
Updated October 2019
We’ve completed a deep dive into the current environment of online plant sellers, identifying the sites which are performing well and those which need a little TLC.
We’ve analysed a range of factors and markers across an array of brands, exploring important metrics, such as visibility and page speed, as well as lesser-known metrics that are often missed, such as social scores and brand reach.
This report will provide you with all the comprehensive information you need to fertilise your site and give it that much-needed boost. You’ll be able to gauge your site against the competition, learning from the winners and avoiding the mistakes of the losers.
Download this report now to get instant insight into how you can improve your SEO strategy and outgrow your competition.
The landscape for online plant retailers is looking a little bleak. Out of the top 10 online brands, 5 of them have lost visibility from last year. Some as much as 45%!
Here is a quick rundown of the top 10 sites:
Bloom and Wild, as well as Dobbies, have had the greatest growth among the top 10 with a steady increase of 15% from 2018. Sarah Raven trails just behind with a respectable increase of 8% while J Parkers follows with a 7% increase. Nice!
Unfortunately, for other online plant sellers, the ground is looking a little dry…
Primrose saw the biggest decline in search visibility dropping by a devastating 45% – ouch. Waitrose Garden hasn’t seen much sunshine either with a big drop of 36%. It’s clear that these companies need to rethink their SEO strategy.
There have been general declines across the board with many brands, including Suttons, Crocus, and Thompson Morgan, all suffering losses between the realms of 17% – 23%.
Overall, the view is not looking good. If online plant sellers are to bloom to their full potential, they’re going to need an SEO overhaul. Use this report to fuel your strategy.
Among the many online plant sellers, the competitor to beat appears to be Ikea. They have over 400 position 1-3 rankings for the most competitive keywords in the industry, including ‘indoor plants’ and ‘large indoor plants’.
Well done to gardens4you.co.uk as they’re just one position behind Ikea for the most competitive keyword – ‘indoor plants’. Thompson-Morgan follow closely in position 4.
Gardens4you.co.uk also rank number 1 for the second most competitive keyword in the industry – ‘house plants’. Keep up the good work. This site is definitely one to watch!
Producing guides and educational-based content is essential if you want to rank for more keywords, demonstrate authority, and create a loyal customer base.
Many of the opportunity keywords in the online plant industry list out guides and ‘how tos’, providing opportunity for brands to create large guides on how to care and grow specific plants.
Many of the online plant sellers in this report have no essential guides on their sites and are missing out on an array of free, organic traffic from avid gardeners looking to improve their skillset.
High opportunity keywords such as ‘heart leaf philodendron’ present useful growing resources. The current sites should look to focus some of their efforts on creating similar content if they are to boost their online visibility.
Many sites in the analysis have resource centres but from an expert point of view, it’s clear they’re not being used to their full potential. Download the report and see how your brand can clarify your content.
Along a similar vein to creating guides and resources, many of the opportunity have featured snippet opportunities that could see a dramatic boost in online visibility.
‘Low light plants’ is the 4th best opportunity and presents a list-based snippet on the Search Engine Results Page’ (SERPs).
With the application of structured data (such as numbered lists or bulleted lists), as well as the creation of guides and useful resources, online plant sellers can not only achieve better visibility but climb to the talk of the beanstalk and land a featured snippet.
After analysing the most competitive keywords (with the largest search volume), we were surprised to find that Bakker.com is topping the charts for the snippet for the most competitive term.
After digging a little deeper, it turns out they have enhanced copy on their category pages!
We’ve seen huge success in the past with enhanced copy and it definitely appears to be working for Bakker. Online plant sellers should start looking into creating better copy on their category pages, giving Google more of a reason to rank them.
Maintaining a solid social presence in this day and age is essential if you want to remain relevant. Consistent social activity is also great for top-of-funnel awareness, keeping your brand and USPs locked into your target market’s minds.
We analysed the top online plant seller’s socials and brand searches, to see who are prospering in the sunlight and who are withering in the shade.
In terms of brand searches, Dobbies is topping the charts with an overall score of 110000 search a month. However, they didn’t make the top 5 with our social score analysis. They only have 80K followers on Facebook and have low engagement rates. Their images and videos are impressive but maybe a bit of paid promotion is required.
Bloom and Wild come second with a brand search of 90500 per month, as well as an impressive social score of 585. They have over 200K followers on Facebook and over 100K on Instagram. They post regularly every day and use vibrant pictures to capture the attention of users. They also make use of Instagram live and stories, using them to promote blogs and engage with their fan base.
In first place for social score is Waitrose Garden with a social score of 1878. However, this is from their main Waitrose and Partners page which is incredibly active. They post videos, visual animations, recipes, and much more. Despite their page not being primarily about online plants, you can definitely learn best practice from their approach.
None of the top brands in the report have a strong social score. Thompson Morgan doesn’t even have an official Facebook page – they only have a Facebook profile (which is against Facebook’s terms of service). Primrose does utilise social channels but with only 30K+ followers and poor engagement rates, they need to step up their game.
With fibre optic connections, optimised processors, and lightning-fast internet, consumers don’t have time to wait around. They want to access and use your site without any hiccups.
The last thing you want your audience to experience is a slow loading site. This could damage your user experience, cripple your bounce metrics, and diminish your SEO efforts.
Here’s what PageSpeed Insights identified as the top 5 fastest brands:
Read more about the importance of page speed.
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